Kristin Kelly

Kristin was born an army brat, living in over ten places by the time she was ten, including Philly, NYC, Korea, northern California, and Kansas. Disco and musicals were her passion, then 80's pop and new wave, then the early 90's folk singers.

She auditioned for her first musical at 6. She got up on stage, opened her mouth, nothing came out. Too shy to sing in public, she began her recording career in the privacy of her bedroom, singing into a handheld tape recorder. Her first release was streamed live - by holding up the recorder and playing it out her window.

But what Kristin really liked was to watch TV. She watched a lot of TV. And she sang along to every commercial, to the extreme annoyance of her brother and sister. She even dreamed of one day singing on a commercial (recently she lived the dream by singing on a Pringles commercial. She bought a new dress with the residuals).

Eventually, as time went on, she got older. She sang in the school choir, played flute and piano, dropped music for sports, dropped sports for a degree in psychology from the University of Colorado. She lead trainings and did corporate consulting.

But all the while she kept singing, taking voice lessons, singing backup on friends' CDs, singing at weddings and parties and in musicals. In the late 90's, Kristin found herself in Little Rock. She and some friends started a cover band and she sang. All those years spent glued to the radio finally paid off. She rocked.

As Kristin got more serious about music, she met Paul Durham of Black Lab who helped her start thinking of herself as a singer and, as it turns out, a writer too. Kristin and Paul became lead singers in the band Cake or Death with Olya Mokina on drums and Joshua Leavitt on bass. In 2006 they recorded the album Cake or Death, for which Kristin and Paul co-wrote the lyrics. The band played some local bars and summer festivals.


kkface Kristin also sang background vocals for Paul and Black Lab, performing showcases in Los Angeles, Bozeman, Montana, Freiburg, Germany. She appeared on a live cut from Paul's solo album Ten Million Years. Soon after, Cake or Death placed a song on the TV show Six Degrees.

Friends Deej Hofer and Paul Bohak of the band Superfluid came on board in 2006, both contributing to Cake or Death's live shows. Deej, an accomplished singer/songwriter and producer, also worked with Paul. When the idea came for Kristin to do a solo project, Deej and Paul Bohak jumped in as producer and co-producer/co-songwriter, respectively.

As usual, Paul Durham supported in all kinds of unseen ways, giving input and recording and singing backing vocals.

Meanwhile, Kristin is currently writing for her next album.

http://kristinseesred.com/