NinthLife, the latest incarnation of the band formerly known as Living Proof, has been a musical fixture at the Laguna Beach Art festivals/music scene for the past 10 years. Kellee King was only 17 when she and founding member Albert Eles (her dad), first played the Laguna Beach Sawdust Art festival in 1997. Originally comprised of Kellee (vocals and percussion) and Albert, (keyboards, sequencing, bass and guitars), Rosie (vocals) and Jerry Klein (vocals, guitar& bass) and Michelle Grubert (vocals & keyboards), Living Proof played several summer seasons with an eclectic mix of pop, rock and gorgeous vocal harmony culminating with a CD of original works titled "Living Room".
Michelle exited the group after the 2000 summer season to raise a family and Living Proof carried on for another season until the Kleins departed the end of 2001 to run their respective businesses. Albert and Kellee then teamed up with a college friend of hers, Daniel Vu and Cheryl Aranda, a friend of Albert's to form LP3. With Daniel on keys and vocals and Cheryl handling lead vocals and acoustic guitar, Albert switched to primarily electric guitar with sequenced bass and drums.
One successful summer later, 2 more of Kellee's college friends showed keen interest in joining. Enter Eric Samson on drums and percussion, with Nick Schaadt on bass and suddenly it became evident that all traces of the original band and concept of Living Proof had all but dissipated. The time to re-christen the band had come. Ninthlife, the 4th incarnation of the band formerly known as Living Proof had come into it's own on July 5th 2003.
Over the next three years, a variety of players came and went. Eric went to study at the prestigious Henry Mancini Institute while his friend, Josh Higgins, took over drum kit duties. Eric returned, moved over to percussion and vocals and Holy Cow! - the band jelled like never before and became a 7 piece unit. Eventually, the group lost founding member Kellee so she could traveled to Europe to study opera at the prestigious American Institute of Musical Studies in Vienna, Austria. Dan, Eric, Nick and Josh all became involved in a variety of other endeavors (cruise ship gig, parenthood, etc). Albert and Cheryl carried on and performed as a trio with percussionist Mike Medeiros. The rebuilding phase began when the group brought on bassist Carlos Moya. Michelle Grubert (from the original Living Proof group) sat in adding background vocals.
Now in 2007, Carlos was not able to continue with the band but he introduced Albert and Cheryl to his cousin Steven and his friend Jess who both enthusiastically joined the band. Auditions brought in bassist Marc Croft. As with the proverbial feline, these "cats" are on their 8th life with 1 to go and loving it more than ever.
