18 April 25 - MAy 1, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Month XX–Month XX, 2020 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS O n a warm April evening in Old East Dallas, the Bemis family home is swirling with small children in a blur of multicol- ored pastel mop-top haircuts. The kids gleefully scuttle from room to room bouncing on mattresses, twirling the poofy skirts of their princess-costume dresses, tinkering with toys and musical in- struments, pausing only to grab pizza slices from the counter before they’re off again in the other direction. Each time one of them zooms past, a string of party balloons hung over the main hallway sways gently. It’s al- most always somebody’s birthday in a family of seven. Mom’s in the kitchen filling sippy cups when a 2-year-old with sky-blue hair, freshly awake from a nap, rushes into her arms. Dad zips around along with everyone else, pop- ping in and out of rooms for one reason or another, trying to find his phone, looking for Mittens (the family kitten) and following each small voice that beckons him. Two dogs have been banished to the detached back- yard garden house for getting too loud, but one serene fox-red Labrador named Heidi lounges in the living room, unmoved by the bustling flurry around her. The cheerful energy in the house is infec- tious. They’re one big happy family. “Cer- tainly big,” Dad says. “Very, very big.” The mother of this brood is Sherri Du- pree-Bemis. She’s the singer, songwriter and guitarist of Texas’ beloved dreamy indie-pop sibling band Eisley. The group rose to fame when she was just 16, after Eisley was en- listed as the supporting act on Coldplay’s “A Rush of Blood to the Head” tour in 2003. Dad is Max Bemis. He’s the madcap vo- calist and guitarist behind gonzo pop-punk project Say Anything. The sardonic song- writer is promoting both the 20th anniver- sary tour for his band’s seminal LP, [Say Anything] ... Is A Real Boy and a new album titled [Say Anything] ... Is Committed. Both Eisley and Say Anything were nota- ble acts during the highly influential early- 2000s major label boom of emo music, the vulnerably sensitive and misunderstood multi-genre scene that’s been experiencing a retro-revivalism among Gen-Z. Max and Sherri met in their early 20s in the industry orbit of one another’s bands. After five months of emailing love letters back and forth they finally agreed to meet in LA be- fore a Say Anything show, and they’ve been nearly inseparable ever since. Clearly, a typical day in the mix with this clan is going to be far from the cookie-cutter stock image that comes to mind when pic- turing a nuclear family in Texas. The Be- mises are a new breed of domestic bliss, living and forging an unconventional punk version of that standard white-picket-fence archetype — two now-sober rock stars using progressive theories of childhood develop- ment to cultivate a strong sense of agency and radical free expression in their children (thus the colored hair). “We homeschool, but it’s essentially un- schooling,” says Sherri, describing how the education method pioneered by French phi- losopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau works for her family. “The day’s basically [structured by] whatever they want to learn. So that can look like, ‘Today, I want to work on some math’ or ‘Today I want to learn creative writing.’ Or [figuring out] how to bake a cake. … Sometimes it’s going to the zoo or going to take a sewing class.” Max and Sherri, both 40 and married 15 years, were a sweetheart love story for the Growing Up, But Not Old Max and Sherri Bemis are living the elder-emo American dream in East Dallas. BY VANESSA QUILANTAN Kathy Tran Sherri and Max Bemis and their five children: Ellis, 4; Coraline, 9; Charlie, 6; Rory, 2; and Lucy, 11 ▼ Music
