Dia Frampton, singer for the Utah duo Meg & Dia, said playing with the Vans Warped Tour last year was not exactly glamorous.
"There were times when we didn't have a stage to perform on," Frampton said by phone from Los Angeles. "We played in a tent. But when we made the stop in Salt Lake City, we were able to have a little stage."
Still, the stage that the band played on was only the size of U-Haul trailer platform, with collapsible sides for easy mobility. "We crammed ourselves and our band on that thing and played to whoever would listen to us."
Frampton and her sister Meg just signed a deal with Warner Bros. Records and released their new album, "Something Real."
Not bad for siblings born and raised in Utah.
"Meg and I were both born in Logan," said Frampton. "We lived in St. George for a while and now we live in Draper. We only live there because our drummer (Nick Price) is also from Salt Lake. So it's easy for all of us to get together. The others (bassist Jonathan Snyder and guitarist Carlo Gimenez) live in Los Angeles and New York.
"And Meg and my family live in Florida now, but the two of us still live in Utah."
The Frampton sisters became interested in music at an early age. "My father was a disc jockey and had a whole collection of albums. I would listen to them whenever I could. I remember hearing country yodeling for the first time and thinking, 'This is not of this world.' And I wanted to do that.
"Meg played piano for years and then turned to the guitar. She started playing guitar all the time and got into some groups but would never let me join her. She's two years older than me. While she was getting bands together, I was training my voice doing karaoke.
"She started letting me do things with her after my mom grounded her one day because I wanted so bad to be in a group with her and she wouldn't let me."
Mom's intuition was what the duo needed when they moved to St. George, because the girls began getting deeper and deeper into playing their own music. "Meg started writing songs on her own one day. I guess she was having a bad day and wrote some lyrics and screamed them while playing guitar. Since then, she's become a great songwriter, and I've been able to sing better than her."
Shortly afterward, the Framptons began hanging out with musicians 10 years their senior. "We were lucky that we were able to meet and hang out with these people," said Frampton. "They weren't like kids our age who wanted to go get stoned and stuff like that. They were seasoned musicians who cared about music. They introduced us to Wilco's music and our lives changed forever.
"We learned a lot from them, and we still keep in touch with them."
This summer, Meg & Dia are heading out on Warped Tour again, which is scheduled to be in Salt Lake City on July 7. But this time, they have a stage. "We'll be playing a larger area, and it will be more demanding, but it beats doing the tent thing."
If you go
What: Anberlin, Bayside, Meg & Dia
Where: The Great Saltair, 1 Salt Air Drive, Magna
When: Tuesday, 6:30 p.m.
How much: $13
Phone: 467-8499 or 800-888-8499
Web: www.smithstix.com
E-mail: scott@desnews.com