Meg & Dia

Dear listeners and friends,
I’ve always been a slow learner.  The funny thing is, I think so sanguinely that I catch on to things quickly, until reality sets in and I realize, once again, that I have a long way to go.  Nothing ever goes to plan, and unfortunately for me, I plan almost everything.  I mean, my plans for tomorrow are to go to the grocery store, go to a job interview at some coffee shop, and go to the gym.  (Of course I have the times specified as well).   It’s frightening every time reality sinks in, and it does so often lately, that I take a hit for the worse, not because I have not felt the weight of it before, but that I still think too optimistically, which usually clouds my rationality.   I guess I’m trying to say that I have been continually letting myself down. I say that in a very prosaic way nonetheless, so don’t pop out your violins or hankies for me.  Please, don’t. What’s happened to us in the last 6 to 8 months?  You may think, well, nothing, because we haven’t toured, and have barely updated our pages, but behind the scenes we have been losing sleep (or at least I have) and turning over ideas and writing, writing, writing music! Yes, it’s no rumor.  We did get dropped from Warner Bro. Records.  We are no longer a part of that team.  No, I am not going to spout sonnets on how awful they are and how ill we were treated and ask you to pull out your hankies for us.  There were (and still are) a handful of people that were amazing, believed in us, pushed us, fought for us, etc.  I owe a lot to those people.  They gave us great opportunities and they became friends,  not just business people in suits that you never see in person but only speak to on the phone.  I truly am grateful to them for giving us all they could and trying as hard as they did for us, but it was like a ship full of people with only half of them rowing the boat.  So, yes, it was only a handful and labels have A LOT of different people working behind the scenes and A LOT of different bands, so naturally, it’s a tough push and shove kind of business in which it’s hard to always get the attention you need, usually because you’re not the band bringing in any money.  (I can’t blame them.  Everyone’s gotta eat.)  Anyway, we’re not there anymore. Naturally, after all that happened we got scared, insecure, lost sleep, felt quite useless, etc.  Or at least I did.  My future seemed (and still is) so uncertain to me and I wondered what I would be doing in a year, 2 years from now.  Most of my friends have graduated from college or are about to by the end of this year and suddenly I felt so behind.  Most of them have “grown up” jobs that bring in “grown up” income, and are happy and are focused and are settled.  I feel like I am just beginning all over again. I’ve been trying to get a job, but New York places, especially restaurants, only take people with “2 years NY experience” whatever that means.  It’s been tough, real tough, but I suppose a lot of people are feeling it.  I get more nervous at job interviews than I do singing on stage.  It’s ten minutes of someone judging you and looking at your resume and seeing that you only went to high school and that your list of skills is mostly things they don’t care for at all.  (I told one restaurant that I could sing the entire menu to the guests.  They didn’t find it funny).  But as this is all going on, the band, us 5 amigos, are still playing and writing music.  No, we have not broken up, or called a hiatus, or started a hip hop jam band.  We are still here, the same 5 people who love playing music, except now I feel my love for music has almost turned into a fierce battle of love and hate.  The other day I went to a Bar on 6th street and asked, “Do you have open mic?”  They said yes.  I asked, “Could I just come sing for a half hour?  I have learned some covers.”  “No,” he replied.  “Maybe a song or two,” he added.  “Could I not have longer?” I asked.  He frowned and asked, “What’s the big deal lady?”  I replied, “It’s necessity.” And it was truth.  Singing to me has all of a sudden become some kind of possessive monster that I have to do lest my balance of life be thrown off completely into a dark hole.  I don’t care for whom I sing - a bunch of drunk old men or a crowd of 5 to 1000- I just want to sing to sing.  And I want to do it for myself because it is necessary to everything in all of my being.   (P.S. I think I am going to get some gigs…and I’ll twitter about them if anyone would want to come out and here some Adele, Tom Petty, Missy Higgins, Rolling Stones, Oasis….) Now, of course, more details on what you all are most interested in, hopefully.  How recording was and yes it is true.  We recorded at a cabin in Tillamook, Oregon in the middle of the woods.  We paid for it ourselves through our savings and did everything ourselves this time.  We hired a young friend, our age, to help co-produce and engineer, and set up the studio in the tiny cabin.  (Poor Nick had to sleep on an air mattress on the floor by Jonathan and Carlo).  There was no room in the living room and there were chords and wires everywhere.  We all huddled around the drums and amps every night to watch the NBA play offs.  (The TV was set on an amp as well).   We recorded a lot of the songs live instrumentally.  We had it set up so that we could all just jam, and everyone had a mic.  So when we decided to record a take, we would all play together and just record it as a whole.  I believe now a days, there is so much pushing and prodding and re-setting in music that when you get the finished product, it sounds like it was made by a computer rather than 5 people in a room.  Eeeee!  :(  I used to thrive on that.  Now I’ve grown.  I told you, I’m a slow learner.   We wrote all the songs, some together, some separately.  Meg liked to write by the beach ( it was beautiful) and I liked to write quietly in my room.  This time there is no auto-tuned vocals, no doubling chunky guitars, no adding on of tons of horns and layer after layer after layer of nonsense. It’s just us, as raw as we can make it.   And I hope you’ll enjoy it. 
We’ll be releasing songs soon, one by one, and we would love to know what you think.  
(P.S.  People, stop putting lame commercial comments up, etc.  Because it makes it extremely hard to weed out the honest and lovely ones).  Also, follow us on twitter…all 5 of us use our own band one, however, I think Jonathan and Carlo have separate ones as well!  
Love you,
Dia Frampton
P.P.S.  To our dear faithful fans, thank you for sticking by us.  Especially the ones who knew us from “Our home is gone” era.  Don’t think we have forgotten you or pushed your comments aside.  Just for you, we recorded some special acoustic songs. …. we’ll show you soon. xo