We are packing up and doing our laundry before we hit this next 11-day tour.

We just got off Warped (almost dead from the heat) and went into the Yahoo! studio to record back up vocals for the band The Rocket Summer for their Yahoo! Who's Next debut. It was really neat. I have never before done back-up vocals for someone so it was really cool... Meg and I were both thrilled when they asked us. We all became pretty good friends with them all. It seemed like our drummer Nick found his life partner -- Tommy, the drummer of The Rocket Summer. Just kidding! But they really did click fast. They seemed like brothers.... two little boys ogling over drums and drum paint and hanging out over some South Park. Silly, silly. Jonathan still sleeps with his stuffed bunny Godzilla, and Carlo still...is Carlo

Even though recording our new record seems really far away, it's a lot closer than I think. We've already started writing a lot of new songs and recording them on Garage Band, our little computer recording system. Meg's turned into "producer" and has started adding little piano parts, vocal harmonies, and guitar effects. It's not the little acoustic demo anymore... Meg has turned into her own recording teacher. I feel like this time around, we'll actually know what direction we want to go exactly, what stories we want to write about, and how we want to do it. Recording schedules aren't 'til around April and May, but we are still preparing emotionally and mentally.

Most artists will record an album, live and grow for a year, and then record another one, so that their next record represents a year of growth. However, our record, Something Real is really old to us. Even though it's only been out one year, it is six years old to us. I have been singing songs such as "Masterpiece" and "19 Stars" for six years now. Meg wrote so many of the songs when she was only 16 years old! Imagine that. And now she is barely 22. I think she has grown so much in six years. So in a way, our new record will be a six-year leap for us, rather than a one or two-year leap. It'll be great to get back in there...I feel like we've learned a lot from being on the road and traveling, and playing shows together, and meeting so many amazing people and listeners.

Here I am, hanging on for the future!

-- Dia