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	It Shakes Me Up Profile of a " Christian" Rock Band By James McCoy Los Angeles Mission 1999 http://www.losangelesmission.com/ed/articles/1999/0999jm.htm "We get to watch the girls shake it," said Albert Schildknecht, the leader of Living Proof, a soft rock band, which includes his 19-year-old daughter, Kellee. "I'm in a state of conflict," he said, working the crowd of more than 60 adults, teenagers and children at the Sawdust Festival in Laguna Beach that July Friday night: "she's my daughter." Not only are Kellee and Albert related, but two members of the band, Jerry and Rosaleen Klein, are married; the remaining member, Michelle Grubert, has a husband who works for Catholic Charities at Mission San Juan Capistrano. In fact, Michelle's wedding three years ago was the beginning of Living Proof: "I was taken by the sound of five voices harmonizing," said Albert, who has been in a dozen bands. "But unlike many of the rock bands I have either formed, led or been part of since 1966, it is the most relaxed, loving and caring group I have experienced." Living Proof is "a pop group composed of five Catholic musicians in varying degrees and different points of faith," Albert disclosed in a recent e-mail. "It is like a family, and whether we get on so well is a tribute to our faith directly or indirectly -- is up to you to tell." He asks the question: "Can five talented musicians get some recognition and financial reward for doing what they dearly love to do and be a shining example of good Christian principles?" The financial reward seems Catholic enough: it amounts to a stipend. For their four-hour performance, each band member will get $80. "For which part do they pay us?" Albert had asked earlier, lugging a 50-pound speaker to the stage on a hand-truck, during the 45 minutes it took the band to set up. This is their third year at Sawdust, an arts festival frequented by all age groups, making it a favorite gig because "the thing about this group is it cuts across all kinds of age generations," Albert said. Does the band pray before the performance? "When we played Las Vegas, and we knew we were very much on line," he said, "we had a group prayer." Said Michelle: "I think I'm more conscious [of praying] while I'm singing. Music for me... first of all, it's the way God moves and molds me and shakes me up." It's a form of prayer, she implied, when she in turn moves and molds and shakes up others. Michelle, 28, is Living Proof's first soprano; Kelley also sings soprano; Rosie, 39, sings alto, Albert, tenor, and Jerry, bass. All five get to be the lead singer on different songs. "When we first started out we were looking for things to show off the harmony," said Albert, who's been in a lot of bands with plenty of "chops", i.e., technical prowess, but little harmony. "A lot of people can play but few can sing," he said. Said Rosie, "We've got about 40 to 60 songs ... We can play four hours of music." It takes them weeks and weeks to learn a song, she said. First, a band member proposes a song, which must be unanimously accepted. They pop in the CD, and listen to the song. "And then we start breaking it apart," Rosie said. "Typically, everything is done by ear... It's faster that way."Another reason why the band skips reading the sheet music is it distills "a sweeter sound," she said. "Instead of concentrating on the music, we listen to each other. We listen more, so there's a better blend." Rosie, who hails from Ireland, met Jerry, her husband, through her sister, who knew Jerry through a church group. Said Jerry: "They matched us." That was back in 1984. Today, the Kleins have two children, ages nine and five; at the evening's performance, Jerry is mindful that he is being "patiently awaited" at home: his nine-year-old has booked him to read the next chapter in Treasure Island. Being married and being members of the same rock band does produce "its own strains because you have that extra activity that takes you away from the kids," Jerry allowed. On the other hand, it's a way for him and his bride to "be close and connect in a non-verbal way. Music is another form of expression..." Besides, the band's schedule (posted on the web at www.livingproofmusic.com) shows that mom and dad are out on average only one night a week. Living Proof is still only a sideline. "But we all do it because we love it," Rosie said. "Jerry is a guitar teacher," added Rosie, who herself markets a health food drink and runs a catering business (which has employed other struggling musicians, such as Living Proof band members, betimes). Albert works for a cable company, Kelley goes to college and Michelle works as a music teacher at St. Catherine Catholic School in Laguna. Rock bands blanket southern California like a beach thick with bellowing seals. But, with 20 years experience playing in bands, Rosie is sure that Living Proof can rise above the herd: "If you can take what somebody has written and make it your own, that's what comes across and grabs people's attention." A Top-40 song by Jars of Clay called "Flood" grabbed the most attention that evening, as it seemed to get the most cheers and applause. "We're going to play a great Christian group," Michelle had said, introducing it, "Jars of Clay. They can be heard on 95-KLOS and on a Christian music radio station. I've never heard of a group that can do that. "After that, Living Proof segued into "Roam" by the B-52s, a band similarly composed of men and women who display vocal pyrotechnics. But the lyrics seem suggestive less of a roam than a romp -- Roam if you want to / Roam around the world... Take it hip to hip, rocket through the wilderness/around the world: the trip begins with a kiss. I asked Michelle about "Roam" later, and her reaction reminded me of St. Therese of the Child Jesus' observation that to the clean of heart all things are clean: Michelle had never thought of the words that way before. Well then, I said, when rock lyrics are not clearly sexual, should we give them the benefit of the doubt? I wouldn't say that all," Michelle said. "If that [sex] was what it really was about, I wouldn't mind singing it ["Roam"]." That doesn't mean, however, anything goes for Living Proof. "I think our taste in music would eliminate quite a bit," she said. Is it more than taste? Some critics have charged that rock music is essentially horny, both musically and lyrically. Scripture says that "if you hide a fire in your bosom, you will be burned by it." Isn't rock music dangerous for Catholics? "It has to be dangerous in a sense," Michelle replied, "it's subjective. The ironic thing though, is because art has so much room to be creative, that's why it's such a powerful formation tool... In the beginning I was really scared about what fit where. I ultimately have to see things through a lot of lenses. One of them is my Church lens." It was the through that glass darkly that Michelle first began to discern her vocation to be a songstress. "I went to USD [University of San Diego] and started singing with the liturgical choir. It wasn't threatening; it was about prayer, it was about worship.... I went to public high school and I didn't think I was good enough. But I was good enough to sing for God." Another lens must examine man, even to his darkest depths. Michelle liked the words by Pope John Paul II (in his recent "Letter to Artists") to that effect: "Even when they explore the darkest depths of the soul or the most unsettling aspects of evil, artists give voice in a way to the universal desire for redemption." That, she said, "allows for the bigness of God and God's world; it's not just about perfect moral character. It just doesn't dismiss it unless it's palatable or clean or something.... "Actually," Michelle went on, "beauty isn't just pretty or sterile; like creation, it's beautiful for all its aspects: the dirty, the broken, the hurting, the painful, the sexual. I used sexual with a whole bunch of negative adjectives but I don't mean to say it's negative." But isn't a lot of what's sexual -- in a fallen world -- negative? "I don't agree," Michelle replied. "Because that would mean creation is negative.... And even in the ecstasy, the ecstatic element, I believe it's holy and good." Michelle probed sexual tension in a song she wrote for Living Proof, called "Oz". "I started the lyrics and Albert wrote the tune," she said. The song creates an "image of this woman who is sort of toying with being unfaithful." The song's refrain, however, is "you can't get there from here." The woman wants to be faithful, she knows she's supposed to be "here." But, as Michelle pointed out, "our thoughts and our urges and what we need get in our way sometimes." Even if the lyrics have a redeeming social value, doesn't the rock song's beat itself stir up sexual or even violent urges? "I don't agree that the beat is in and of itself dangerously sensual," Michelle replied. She noted that all kinds of ethnic music have a similar beat. I pointed out that once upon a time the three/four beat of the waltz was considered salacious; in fact, the word "waltz" was slang for sexual intercourse. "If rock music, which is basically four-four is sexual, and three/four is sexual...." Michelle asks rhetorically, "What isn't sexual?" When I was growing up in the '70s, I heard teenagers express their credo as: "sex and drugs and rock and roll." What about drugs then? "The most earthy place we've played is a restaurant-bar," Michelle laughed, "because of our music we wouldn't be asked to play at a place where people would be doing a lot of drugs." "You can take almost any career," she added, "and be able to speak of it highly in some ways and critically in other ways."
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