Meg & Dia find inspiration in the pages of their own life experiences

Written by Hazel Lodevico

It’s a scorching afternoon in San Antonio, Tex., another stop on the 2009 Vans Warped Tour and the members of Meg & Dia are keeping cool under the dusty tarps of their makeshift tent. Their tour bus has broken down, but the members are used to the mishaps. It’s happened each year for the past three years since the band joined the tour. "It happens," says Meg Frampton, the elder sibling of the sister-fronted quintet. "We’ve learned to kind of expect the unexpected."

In the three years since Meg & Dia Frampton debuted as quirky alt-rock ingénues, the 24-year-old singer/songwriter and her 21-year-old sister have now emerged as more seasoned musicians. The musical and lyrical growth can be heard on their latest album, Here, Here and Here, where stories of personal heartache, lost love and political awareness have replaced songs about literary musings.

And thanks to Garageband, the computer software that allows just about anyone become a music producer, Meg Frampton began experimenting with more strings, synths and percussions to produce a more varied, rounded sound from their usual pop-rock, acoustic repertoire. Some of the album’s final cuts don’t veer too far from some of Frampton’s Garageband demos.

Lyrically, whereas their last album, Something Real, was a collection of Meg’s introspective takes on literary classics such as East of Eden and Rebecca, their new album is taken from the pages of their own life experiences. In Bored of Your Love, Dia (along with Plain White T’s Tom Higgenson) sings about the demise of a relationship, while What If is about finding strength in moving on. They’re personal songs, inspired by both singers’ experiences with former boyfriends. "I think music has really helped us clarify what we’re thinking at the moment," Frampton says. "A lot of times there are things floating around in our subconscious, and it just comes out more naturally in our lyrics."

The song that best defines the young women’s lyrical growth is Here, Here and Here, a take from Mozart’s advice to aspiring composers—music is written with three most important human tools, pointing to his eyes, ears and heart. "Every lyric is about us," Frampton says. "It’s about our life, everything we’ve experienced and have gotten exposed to." As a sign of the sisters’ growing independence and maturity, the sisters have taken on more taboo subjects such as religion. Black Wedding is a critical stab at religious hypocrisy.

It’s a daring stance, especially since the women hail from the most religious state in the U.S. Growing up in a non-religious household in rural Draper, Utah, the sisters say they often felt like outsiders in a predominantly Mormon community. "The taboo stuff like religion is something that people feel very strongly about," says Frampton. "It’s important to have an opinion on the topic, even if someone might not agree with it. But I think it’s really important to really know what you’re going to say before you open you’re mouth because you’ll need to be able to back yourself up."

For both sisters, experimenting with new subject matter and musical arrangements is all part of carving out their identity as a band. It seems the pair has come a long way since they sang country ditties together at retirement homes and county fairs. Influenced by their father, a former radio DJ in South Korea where he met their Korean mother, the sisters grew up singing along to his extensive record collection.

As an acoustic duo, the sister act self-released their debut album, Our Home Is Gone, in 2005. Adding on three more members to their lineup, the band released their second album Something Real in 2006. Shortly after, the band won a spot on the Vans Warped Tour thanks to heavy promotion by Myspace.

Now, with the release of Here, Here and Here, Meg & Dia are evolving in their role as not only musicians, but as a sister partnership. "We have a deep understanding, almost to the point where we don’t even need to talk to communicate,” says Frampton. "We have grown together, but we each have had our own experiences and we’ve been exposed to different things. Through it all, we’re there for each other—as working partners, but first, and always, as sisters."