Singer Adi Elcida Hernandez and guitarist Ernesto Paez have known each other since he went to
Piper High School in Sunrise and Adi went to Cypress Bay in Weston. After getting married four years ago, they decided to form the band Modern Mimes.
"I've been in metal bands since I was 13," Paez says. "She's always been a singer-songwriter. Two years ago, we said let's do something. Let's form a duo and be weird."
Modern Mimes has played music all over South Florida, including at the Riptide Festival last month.
Playing music in South Florida has been great, simply because it's a challenge. With so many up and coming bands and artists, it's a bit difficult to stand out. However, there have been many venues in the Broward and Palm Beach County area that have given us a chance to showcase our craft." Paez said.
To stand out the the Fort Lauderdale-based band is releasing a debut album, Wake Up. With musical touchstones zig-zagging from Incubus to A Perfect Circle to Radiohead, Modern Mimes aimed to create something conceptual withWake Up.
"It encapsulates waking up to yourself and your higher potential," Hernandez says. "There's a spiritual journey going on where you have to battle your demons. It touches on media corruption, but is more about the personal journey within yourself."
Hernandez is in charge of all the lyrical content. Paez comes up with music on his double neck guitar bass, though Hernandez added, "Sometimes, I come with a melody for a song on guitar and I ask Ernesto to make it cooler."
Hernandez does much of the songwriting while in the car. That's even where she thought up the name of their band. "I had a memory of when I was seven and for Halloween every girl was dressed up as a Pink Power Ranger and I was dressed a mime," she says.
Modern Mimes is planning an appropriately high concept party for their album release on January 7 at House of Art in Fort Lauderdale. Each of the nine songs on the new record will have a companion piece of art created by a local artist.
"I stumbled across an artist, Kimbra, who did something similar," Hernandez says. "I like the idea of being part of a community. So I chose some artists that were friends, others I found on Instagram. I chose them on if I felt they captured how I saw the song."
At the free show, Modern Mimes will play each song and then highlight each piece of art that was inspired by the song and invite the respective artist to say a few words. It's an interesting way to showcase the music, just as forming a band is an interesting way to strengthen a marriage.
"Both marriage and being in a band are a commitment," Paez says. "Our relationship got easier once we started making music. Being in a band keeps us in a stable place. We argue about music more than anything else."
Modern Mimes 7 p.m. Saturday, January 7, at House of Art, 815 NE 13th St. #4, Fort Lauderdale; houseofart.co. 646-320-4171. Admission is free.