“It was love at first e-mail,” says Sherri DuPree-Bemis, vocalist and rhythm guitarist for the band Eisley, of meeting her husband, Max Bemis, frontman for the band Say Anything. “I know that sounds cheesy, but we just knew.”
“I e-mailed Sherri because I’m a huge fan and I wanted her to sing on one of my tracks for my side project Two Tongues,” Bemis remembers. “It just kind of bloomed from there.” It would be five months before the couple met in-pony, and this past April, they celebrated their third wedding anniversary.
Both traveling musicians, the couple call Tyler, TX—where they live together with their two boxers, Truly and Mary Jane—home. “Being on the road takes a dedication that comes naturally because we genuinely love talking to each other,” says Bemis, who estimates the couple is together roughly 75 percent of the year.
“When we’re home from tours, we spend a lot of downtime around the house,” DuPree-Bemis says. “Drinking coffee, I like to draw, Max reads comic books nonstop, we sleep late, go out to dinner almost every night, and stay up late.”
It helps that their bands are on the same label, Equal Vision Records. Eisley’s latest effort, The Valley, was released March 2011, and the band has already started work on its fourth full-length, due out next year. Say Anything’s fifth studio album, Anarchy, My Dear, was produced by Tim O’Heir (Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr., Morphine) and dropped in March. The DuPree-Bemis pair have also formed a side project, Perma (short for permanent), and are currently writing their debut album, with plans to release it next year.
Of course, like any good married couple, they’ve learned that those who ink together stay together. DuPree-Bemis is currently working toward a sleeve on her left arm. So far, she has a self-illustrated outline of Texas done by Alice Kendall at Infinity Cutie Mark, a Batman face, “Maxim” (for her husband), the Say Anything logo, and a Blythe doll holding a Rickenbacker guitar. Bemis’s ink includes a portrait of Johnny Cash, “SPSH” on his knuckles (short for “Spesh,” or special, his pet name for DuPree-Bemis), “Per Diem” on his wrist, a portrait of his wife, and several others.
“The idea of getting to walk around with art on me is amazing,” DuPree-Bemis says. “A lot of my tattoos have special places in my heart. When you’re on the road, it gets really hard to be away from home.”
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