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Exclusive Interview: Dia Frampton on "The Voice" and what's next for her music career and Meg & Dia

(Photo: Daniel Silbert)

If you’re a Warped Tour regular, than you probably know DIA FRAMPTON better as the lead singer of sister-act indie-rockers Meg & Dia. However, if you were just introduced to her on the inaugural season of NBC’s The Voice, you know her as that chick who totally rocked the Kanye West cover en route to becoming the show’s runner-up. Either way, AP checked in with Frampton from Los Angeles—where she’s gearing up for a tour with other competition finalists later this summer—to find out how she picked her songs, what her second-place finish means for her band, and why she’d never do a show like The Voice again.
INTERVIEW: Rachel Lux

What made you decide to audition for The Voice?
There are a lot of different factors that went into that. The first reason was that Meg & Dia just finished doing an album called Cocoon [which was released this past March], and you probably haven’t heard of it, and that’s kind of the reason why I did this show. Meg & Dia were on Warner Bros./Sire for a while, and we got dropped about three years ago, so it’s just been a long, spiraling-downward time. We wanted to keep playing music, but we were booking-agent-less [and] label-less; we didn’t really know what to do next. But regardless, we were writing, and we really wanted to do this album, and we ended up recording it as low budget as possible straight out of our pockets with money we saved up from tours. We recorded most of it in my mom’s house—which she wasn’t very happy about. But we saved a lot of money, and we just hired a friend to engineer the record for really, really cheap. We put it up on iTunes and Bandcamp, and it’s still up there, and basically it was just kind of sitting there. It did what our record did when we did have a label [2009’s Here, Here And Here]. It came and went without anyone really noticing.

Our manager Mike [Kaminsky] actually called me about the show. He was really funny, because he said, “To be honest, I don’t think you’ll get that far, it’s one of those huge vocal competitions.” [Laughs.] And I was really hesitant. I think I sing okay, but I’m more of a singer/songwriter; I don’t belt out Celine Dion songs, and I don’t think I could do it very well if I tried. And that’s usually what I think of when I think about shows like this. So I was really hesitant, and I thought it sounded stupid and I didn’t even know what it is. I was like, “I am not doing American Idol, that’s weird.” And he’s just like, “It’s not American Idol; it’s The Voice. You should check it out.”  

They’re casting for season two now, and if Mike wanted me to try out now and I knew what it was, I wouldn’t do it. But in a backward way, I’m really, really happy that I didn’t know what it was. [The show] was and still is such a great opportunity, and it really helped my band and me in so many different ways. I’m really glad I didn’t know what it was so my pride and stubbornness [didn’t] tell me, “Absolutely not.”

Everyone gets a free pass when it’s the first season of a new reality show, because no one knows what it will turn into. But that’s interesting looking back, you don’t think you’d do it again.
I definitely wouldn’t. It’s so scary and it’s so real. I mean, when I was literally auditioning in the little studio in Burbank, California, they didn’t know who any of the coaches were except Adam Levine, and I was like, “Okay, whatever.” There were thousands of people who tried out, and when it was just 80 of us in the hotel, and they were still looking up our criminal records and stuff, Mike e-mailed me and was like, “Look who they picked for the second coach!” And I was like, “Christina Aguilera? Are you serious? [Laughs.] That’s when I got really, really nervous and freaked out. Then they got Cee-Lo [Green] and then they got Blake [Shelton], and I was just thinking, “Wow, this is going to be a lot bigger than it looked on the [original version] Voice Of Holland.” I mean, Holland is a small, small place. They made the show so much bigger.

So, I started to get really, really freaked out, and honestly, when I was in the hotel and they were still doing casting for the show, I was like, “I cannot do this. I cannot do this.” I went and talked to somebody, and they were like, “Yeah, you can leave, but you’re going to have to reimburse us for the flight out here, and for the hotel room”—which was, like, over $200 a night—and I was like, “Oh, never mind.” [Laughs.]

What did Meg and the rest of the band say when you decided to try out?
They were really, really, really hesitant about it. Mostly because we had a really small tour lined up. It was just a headliner going down to South By [Southwest]. We love playing there, and we hadn’t played there in years, and it was like, “We don’t want to give up South By…” So [our management] was just like, “Just hope she gets past the blind judging and maybe get on a couple episodes. People will Google her name, and people will see her band, and you’ll have Cocoon all over the website, and that will bring a few more thousand people to check out the album. This is a really backward way of promoting Cocoon.” And they were like, “Well….” They were just really hesitant, but said, “Okay, cool.” And as the show went on, they watched the blind auditions on TV, and the band didn’t know what it was, either. I think they thought it was a lot smaller than I even thought it was. So when they saw it, they were just like, “What the heck is going on?”

As it kept going and progressing and progressing, it just kind of completely changed because now people know me more as Dia Frampton instead of Meg & Dia. [The band and I] have been talking a lot, and as far as the band goes, we just want to keep it as much the same as we can. We’re still going to play Meg & Dia, and I love it. And that’s always dear to me, and I still want to promote Cocoon as much as we can, because it’s very special. That was our first independent record we’ve done. But right now, we’re just kind of rolling with the punches and seeing how it goes and seeing what’s next, and trying to stay together. We’re still going to hopefully do tours as Meg & Dia, and if we do a tour as Dia Frampton, they’re still going to be my back-up band. [Laughs.] So we’re just going to see how it goes.

Meg & Dia (Photo: Luca Venter)

On American Idol, even if they don’t win, most of the finalists still end up getting offered record deals, so if that opportunity presents itself, would you embark on a solo career or hold out for a full-band opportunity?
It hasn’t been offered to me yet, but if it is offered to me, I think I would record a solo album and just kind of go with it. Because right now, I did put in a lot of time and it did turn out to be kind of a Dia Frampton thing. That was not the original plan at all. When I was a little kid, I really wanted to sing and I really wanted to travel the world and write songs and be able to make a career out of it and support myself financially with it, and just be a musician. And I always thought that I’d do that with Meg & Dia. But I still want to get my dream, but I think that things never work out the way you see them on paper. There are always twists and turns, and you can still end up getting what you really dream about and what you really want, but it’s never the same, and you can’t be so stubborn to get it perfect.

And that’s just kind of how I feel right now. This isn’t how I saw things at all. [Laughs.] But I think it’s kind of stupid on my part to just let it die down. I don’t know what could happen right now, but I’m trying to stick with the momentum. The band members all see this as a good opportunity. Even if my solo project does better than Meg & Dia, that’s still a way for people to look me up and see, “Oh, she’s in this band with her sister, let’s check out their albums.” Or also, it’s a way that if we go on tour, they might make more money—at least enough money to move out of their parents’ houses, and that’s what’s most important to us right now.

[For more of AP's interview with Dia Frampton, head to page two!]

That’s cool that you’d have the ability to take the band out with you, too, if you started a solo career.
Yeah, that makes me happy. I’m hoping that I can do as much with them as possible. They’re even going to fly out to L.A. to write some songs for the solo album with me. I think that’s what might be the most weird to Meg & Dia fans. It’s kind of funny, because a lot of Meg & Dia fans were mad at me for trying out or thinking it’s unfair. It’s like, “You’re not an undiscovered artist; you’re already successful…” And it’s just crazy. I feel like nobody really knows how artists or musicians are doing. [Laughs.] Unless you’re on the radio and on the top iTunes charts, you’re not, you know… It’s just been kind of a hard thing. And this is our big opportunity, in a way.

As far as the actual environment on the show, it appeared like it was really friendly and the competitors got along. How was the pressure of competition week in and week out?
It was really bad sometimes. But it wasn’t bad to the point where I really wanted to kick this person’s butt. To me, and I think for a lot of people, it was just like, “I really want to stay on another week. This promotion, this me time, is so great.” Every week you’re getting more people on Facebook or blah blah blah, and this is really working to my advantage as far as this goes. Especially when it was the last two on Blake’s team—it was me and Xenia, and she’s like this 16-year-old sweetheart—I’m definitely not going out for blood with her, you know? [Laughs.] I think we were all fighting for more time to be promoted as artists, and that’s what we really wanted.

[To a certain extent] I wanted to win because that’s in my personality. I’m really competitive. But I think it kind of worked out to my advantage, because I don’t know if I always want to be pinned as “the Voice” artist. And now I have a little more freedom to do things contractually. I’m excited the way it turned out. I could bomb from here, or I could go on. It’s all kind of up in the air, so I’m scared, but I’m also excited. It’s weird talking to major labels again, because I’m really hesitant…

It’s got to be very frustrating to work really hard on an album that comes out on a major label, only to watch the promotion fall flat and then be dropped.
Yeah. [Laughs.] Here, Here And Here sucked. And when Cocoon came out, that sucked ever more, because that record was so important to us personally, and we were just like, “Nobody’s listening to this!” [Laughs.] We’re all getting older, and that’s the scary part. We’re getting to the point where we’re like, “Okay, can I support myself this way or not?” And I think that’s the hard part about it. I have people Twitter to me, “Your band played on TV after The Hills” and “You don’t need to be on this show, we hear your music on MTV.com after Pimp Your Ride” and it’s just… Ughhhh. Sometimes I just want to smack them over the head. But instead, I’m just, “Whatever, it’s fine.” [Laughs.]

It’s just frustrating when people would say I didn’t deserve to be on the show. To me, it’s kind of like—and now I am getting defensive—but in this situation, even looking at it from an unbiased standpoint if I can, if there’s two people, and one is a waitress dreaming of being an artist and never really doing anything, and she tries out for the show and has an amazing voice, that’s awesome. Or the person who’s been touring for over seven years and playing music for a decade and going across the country and dong this and that and really actually trying… You know what I mean? And that’s the thing that I really liked on the show. [Finalist] Vicci [Martinez], she’s put out six records already on her own. And [winner] Javier Colon’s toured with Joss Stone—he’s done all these crazy things but nothing’s happened for him yet. And [finalist] Beverly McClellan’s put out five records. And it’s just so cool to be around those people instead of somebody who’s just like, “Yeah, I just got out of high school and I think this sounds fun.”

Dia Frampton covering “Heartless”:

As far as what you performed week to week, what went into those decisions? You did some surprising covers, and people really seemed to respond to them.
When you’re covering a song, you want to cover a song that you can do as well as the person, or give it a different spin. I don’t really think it’s a good idea to ever cover something where you can do it exactly like [the original artist]. I was actually thinking about doing Sheryl Crow before I did any of my covers. They wanted us to do music similar to what we’d want to do, so people can get an idea of how we’d want to be seen as artists. I really like Sheryl Crow’s stuff; it’s kind of folksy, but a little more mainstream, which I’ve gotta be on a show like this. So I was thinking about doing her, so I called my friend and he was like, “Oh, my gosh, You’re going to put everyone to sleep.” I was like, “Okay, whatever,” and he goes, “Why don’t you do a rap song? Why don’t you do Snoop Dogg or Lil Wayne and slow it down? Do something kind of funny? Even if it’s kind of funny, people will still remember you.” I thought that was weird and stupid, and I didn’t want to do a joke song.

But what he said did resonate. And then I always jog to [Kanye West’s] “Heartless”—it’s kind of my workout song, so I know all the words. And that’s a song that if you slow it down, it’s not funny. It’s got some heartfelt lyrics and it’s a little bit sad. I took it to Blake and I thought he would be like, “What are you thinking?” But he was like, “Yeah, that’s really cool.” After “Heartless,” I realized people were fine with me being kind of weird and doing different things, so R.E.M. [“Losing My Religion”] came. And that was a really fun song to work on; I really love that band, so it kind of worked out.

The other big thing that the judges mentioned every week was you dealing with your stage fright issues or stage presence. You’ve had plenty of performing experience with Meg & Dia—maybe they played that up a little up for the show?
I think they definitely did play it up a little bit. And it’s kind of weird, because when they did start playing it up a bit, I felt like I was getting more shy. But at the same time, it was probably one of the most intimidating places or stages I’ve ever played before in my entire life. I went from playing venues, opening for bands with my best friends behind me [and] my sister next to me, to playing literally a couple feet away from Christina Aguilera and she’s staring at you the whole time, and everyone’s judging every little thing you do. And it’s so nerve-wracking! When I play a show with Meg & Dia, I’m not thinking in my head, “This has to be perfectly on key. If I mess up a lyric, it’s terrible.” If I messed up the words, that could be me going home. If I mess up the words with Meg & Dia, I’ll look up at Meg, and she’ll make a funny face and sing what I’m supposed to sing, and then I’ll get back on track. [Laughs.]

Do you feel like you progressed a little bit in that area?
I feel like after this show, I can sing in front of the Queen of England and be fine. As long as she’s not in a big red chair judging me, I’m totally fine.

What was the best advice you got from Blake?
It’s not really advice so much, but he always just said things about me—positive things that I didn’t see in myself. He’d say something like, “You’re such a special person. You’re such a special girl and you’ve got this incredible voice that’s so unique to yourself. It’s not an all-over-the-map voice, but it’s so your own. And that’s so special and I don’t think you realize what you have.” And him saying that, sometimes it made me want to cry. And that’s how I felt the whole show—I felt like he saw something in me that I didn’t see. And finally toward the end I started to see it. It’s one of those corny stories where you’re just like, “I am special.” [Laughs.] I can’t sing crazy songs and I’m not Javier who can do all those crazy trills really easily, but I do have something that’s really special to me, and some people hate it and some people like it, but I need to learn to embrace it.

Catch Dia Frampton on tour with The Voice finalists July 27 – Aug. 6.