The Lifesavers (and Undercover) formed out of members that came from two earlier bands, J.C. Rose and Boaz. Both bands started in 1978. They were described by John J. Thompson as “edgier than Larry Norman and Love Song.” Chris Wimber was in Boaz before forming The Lifesavors, but J.C. Rose and Boaz had line-ups that were changing and intermixing. By 1979, J.C. Rose was Jim Nicolson, Joe Taylor, and Dave Hackbarth while Boaz was Chris Wimber, Danny Pavlis, Ray Hersom and Ric Alba (among a few others). Members of J.C. Rose and Boaz have mentioned that both bands had demo tapes, but these have not surfaced digitally yet.

Gary Wilson tells what he remembers of J.C. Rose in the book God's Not Dead (And Neither Are We). As of 1979, Jim Nicolson and Joe Taylor were both in the band, and they had a tape that Wilson liked. They were eventually able to convinced Wilson to join on drums. About 4-6 weeks after he joined, the band split up.

Jim Nicolson, Joe Taylor, Danny Pavlis (drums), and Ric Alba (bass) started Undercover. Undercover started rehearsing in a greenhouse owned by Danny's parents. Chris Wimber and Ray Hersom connected with Mark Krischak and Kevin Lee to form The Lifesavors.

Ric Alba had this to say about the two bands:

“I played keys in Boaz starting in 1978. I met them when my drummer-since-childhood Frank Pipitone auditioned and joined J.C. Rose. Frank and I had 'got saved' at a hippie bible study group at the home of Ross Mann, and we had a hippy folk trio with Ross that broke up when Frank joined J.C. Rose. Ojo had a friend, Chris Wimber, with a band that needed a singer and keyboard player, so Ross and I joined up and there was Boaz.

“Chris' dad being John Wimber (founder of the Vineyard movement), we found ourselves opening for Lonnie Frisbee a number of times. Then we got some local notoriety for going, (gasp) “New Wave” when I wrote the song, “Francine” in 1979. This was the only Boaz song to outlive the big switcheroo of personnel when J.C. Rose and Boaz became Undercover and The Lifesavors.

“I had secretly idolized Taylor and Nicholson for their prog-rock abilities, as I was becoming a huge fan of Yes and Chris Squire at the time. I would have muscled my way into a band with them sooner but J.C. Rose's bassist, Jerry Davis, had become a good friend of mine and I respected that. Jerry became John's bassist for the Vineyard worship team, which lasted many years after that.”

The Lifesavors are known as an early Christian pogo punk/new wave band that formed in 1980. Mark Krischak had originally been a part of The Popsicles, a power pop / teen “glam” pop rock band based in Huntington Beach, California, that formed in 1978. After recording an independent 45 record on the OSP label in 1978, The Popsicles frequently played the Los Angeles Strip club scene. Rodney Bingenheimer of LA’s KROQ FM brought The Popsicles to the attention of famed record producer Kim Fowley in 1979. Fowley signed The Popsicles to a five-year record deal. The Popsicles two songs that were released on Kim Fowley’s Hollywood Confidential compilation LP. They were also featured in Super Teen magazine.

In 1980, Krischak disappeared for two weeks and then reappeared saying he was a born-again Christian and had to quit the band. The Popsicles carried on, but one by one they also all became Christians. Their last concert was as a Christian band at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. Krischak ended up at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa because, according to him, “Chuck Smith’s church seemed to have a lot of music and bands going on at the time.” However, the pressures of life led to The Popsicles breaking up after that last concert. Krischak went around looking for people that liked the same kind of music and that wanted to have a ministry-type of band.

About a year after becoming a Christian, Krischak went around looking for people that liked the same kind of music and that wanted to have a ministry-type of band. According to Krischak, “I was at a concert, and I met Chris Wimber, and he said that he knew a drummer named Kevin Lee (brother of Mike Stand of the Altar Boys). We needed a rhythm guitar player, and Ray Hersom used to let us practice at his house, and he had an amp and guitar and I asked him to play with us.” Kevin Lee had a landscape business together with his brother Mike Stand. Stand recalled that one day out of the blue Lee mentioned to him that he was now playing with The Lifesavors.

As far as the name of the band, Krischak was the one that came up with The Lifesavors. According to him, “I thought that since Jesus saves, that it would be a good name for the band, because we would be telling people about Jesus.”

Their first concert as The Lifesavors was at a roller skating rink in Yorba Linda, California, sometime in late 1980. Undercover and a band called The Chosen Ones also played at the concert. Stand went to see them the first time that The Lifesavors played at Calvary Chapel, where he was inspired to go that direction musically.

The original version of the band recorded their first demo, which also became known as 3-14-81 Live. This demo was recorded at a church in Downey, California. Krischak served as the early leader of the band performing as lead vocalist, primary songwriter, and lead guitarist.

The Lifesavors seemed to be more at home in Hollywood clubs and dance halls than churches. Some of the more famous clubs that they played in were The Starwood, The Whisky-a-Go-Go, The China Club, Cathay de Grande, Club Lingerie, Florentine Gardens, and Cuckoo's Nest. They often played with several punk icons, including the Darby Crash Band (Crash was co-founder of The Germs) in late 1980. They still played at churches from time to time, but Krischak later said “playing at Calvary Costa Mesa was kind of weird because they didn’t really care for dancing there and we were kind of used to everyone dancing and having fun.”

Krischak later recalled that the band preferred to play their own shows at dance halls: “mostly we rented out halls and did our own shows, which was a good idea, because we wouldn't charge that much to get in (compared to the clubs). We would charge like $1.00, and we used to fill up the halls this way.”

Stand also recalled how The Lifesavors had a Bible study at Ray Hersom’s house. Altar Boys bassist Ric Alba also worked with The Lifesavors at one point. According to Alba:

“I did some keys for The Lifesavors, but was never a member. They were forming while Undercover was at the same time. Lifesavors rehearsed in Ray Hersom's living room when Chris and I were renting spare rooms in Ray's house. At that time though, Ray was in Undercover. At the same time we held open jam sessions at the house, often attended by Kevin's (Lifesavor's drummer) little brother Mike, who became Mike Stand.”

In early 1981, The Lifesavors and Undercover were both asked to release albums through The Ministry Resource Center (MRC) label. By the time The Lifesavors released their debut full length album Us Kids, Hersom was not in the band and Michael Knott had joined on rhythm guitars. According to Krischak: “I wanted to get a stronger rhythm guitar player, since Ray had just started playing guitar, and I heard that (Knott) was doing a show with his band that was called The One.  After his show, I asked him if he wanted to join the Lifesavers, and he said yes.”

Knott has later stated that he was about 16 or 17 years old at this time (but he was more likely 18 or 19). Knott’s involvement with The Lifesavors on Us Kids was minimal at the most. According to Lee, “Mike stepped in the middle of the recording. I think he only collaborated on one song.” Krischak agreed with this assessment, stating “He learned the songs, did a few back-ups on the record, and played some of the rhythm guitars.” Stand also stated that the Lifesavors Bible study at Hersom’s house was started five or six months before Knott came on the scene.

Before The Lifesavors, Knott already had an extensive background in the Orange County music scene. Various bands of his like The One, The Hightops, and Mike Knotts Rubber Band would play clubs such as The Cuckoos Nest and the KooKoo Lounge as well as at colleges, house parties, and pool parties. His bands were so popular that they would draw huge crowds wherever they played. Knott became a an evangelical Christian in high school (although he had been raised a Catholic Christian). A Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa band led by Brian Doidge called The Chosen Ones put out an ad for a lead singer and Knott auditioned. Knott’s girlfriend at the time went to see The Lifesavors in concert at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. She met the band and introduced Knott to Krischak. Krischak saw Knott play with The One and then took Knott to some band practices while asking Knott to join the band. He decided to go with The Lifesavors instead of The Chosen Ones.

Knott described the band’s early sound as “pseudo punk rock songs.” Many outlets refer to Us Kids as the first Christian punk album (although a few releases like No Sham! by the Bill Mason Band preceded it by two years). The album’s producer Thom Roy refers to the sound as power pop.

Two weeks after joining the band, Knott started dancing around on stage during a Lifesavors concert at Calvary Chapel Downey and encouraging the crowd there to do the same. This led to the band getting in trouble and being banned from playing churches for 8 months. This forced the band to focus almost exclusively on clubs. The Lifesavors became a popular band on the club circuit, often opening for larger bands. The Lifesavors would get anywhere from 800 to 3,000 people at any given gig.

A live bootleg from 1982 features Krischak, Lee, and Knott - as well as mentioning John, Brandon, and former member Ray. It is unknown who John and Brandon are. They also talk about recording their second album on their own label. Eight songs from the bootleg were never released, so those were probably meant for the new album that never materialized. Michael Knott mentions writing one of the unreleased songs called “For You.” Another song (“Jesus Hold Me Closer”) was covered by Dead Artist Syndrome on their 2015 album Kissing Strangers and credited to Knott. The song “Front Sliders” was later recorded by The Lifters on their 1985 album What Love’s All About and credited to Chris Brigandi. When asked about the song, Brigandi later said that Knott actually wrote the song but gave it to The Lifters to record as along as he didn’t get publishing credit for it. The only way to do that was to credit the song to Brigandi.

At some point in early 1982, Krischak left the band and Knott took over to record the two song You and Me single. John and Brandon are not listed on this release. The line-up for the single is just the trio of Knott, Wimber, and Lee. The full story of what happened is unknown at this time, but Lee had this to say at one time about internal disagreements within the band: “Mark got jealous of Mike and quit after [he had] invited Mike in the band in the first place…. We begged Mark not to leave. [Chris] Wimber always had to be the boss, and that caused tension. But Chris was a very creative guy [with a] strong personality and a trendsetter. I love the guy and miss him.” Krischak was also known to later refer to Knott on discussion boards as a “spawn of Satan” that he would never work with again. However, Krischak later had this to say: “there were two front men (me and Mike) and two songwriters (me and Mike) so I figured that the band would be better if it was just going in one direction / singer / songwriter instead of two.” Mike Stand did sound for the band after Krischak left for about 6 months until The Altar Boys took off.

Side B of the You and Me single is “The One,” which contains a line about the kids hanging out at the church at Canyon High. Canyon High School is in Anaheim Hills, California and was the first home for the Vineyard church pastored by John Wimber. This was the church where Knott led a popular Bible study in which a traveling group of prophets often associated with the Vineyard movement took people away into a false gospel. This story is chronicled on L.S. Underground’s The Grape Prophet.

At some point after they recorded the 1982 single, Brian Goins was brought into the band. One live photo with Knott, Wimber, Lee, and Goins does exist, but according to Lee there was only one concert with this line up. The band began recording the first version of Dream Life with Knott on lead vocals and guitars.

At some point during the recording, Knott says that John Wimber told them that he wanted the band to travel around the United States planting churches. Knott didn't feel led to do that, so he left the band and formed Idle Lovell. At some point in this time period, Mark Allen was brought into the band to handle lead vocals for a few months. He played several shows, but ultimately did no work out. Kirk Heiner also joined the band after Knott left. According to Heiner, at this point they decided to re-record the vocals on Dream Life, with Goins singing lead vocals on about five songs and Heiner handling lead vocals on about six. Knott's background vocals were left in the mix, as well as some of his guitar work. Most songs on the Dream Life album are credited in part to Knott. At the time of the album's release, Lee and Wimber are still listed as members, with Kirk Heiner now listed as guitarist and Brian Goins listed as the new vocalist.

Goins was not able to tour for Dream Life, so Krischak was brought back in for the tour.

One oddity exists from 1984 - a demo usually referred to as the Lost Nashville Demo. Sources have confirmed that Krischak was the band leader at this time. Kirk Heiner had this to say about the song writing process for the album:

“The song 'Voices / Lost in the Darkness' was completely written by me. The other songs were pretty much written by Mark Krischak but came together as a collaboration of Mark, Chris, Kevin and me. We recorded late that evening. Chris, Mark & Kevin had all flown in earlier, but I flew in a day later than the rest because at the time I ran a business. We got to the recording studio around midnight. The building was amazing: a two story brick building with a two story waterfall in the entry. The recording room was large enough for a full orchestra. It had a new technology system of recording using glass sheets hanging in the air. Wires connected to the glass would vibrate, sending back a perfect recording of the sounds in the studio. We had a studio musician show up for the keyboard tracks. He worked for Refuge Records. I had been working on the song 'Voices' that was about all of the voices that try to influence us. Some good, some bad, some just our own thoughts. I asked the keyboard player if he had any kinda scary, haunted house type sounds in his synthesizer, so he pulled one up. When he did, it was playing through these huge speakers in the recording booth. It sounded like the devil himself came out of that keyboard - scared the crud out of all of us. I said, ‘Put that thing back’.”

After recording, The Lifesavors embarked on a major tour. Heiner recalls:

“Right after that recording we began a national tour with Rick Cua (formerly of the Outlaws) and a heavy rock band called Jerusalem. It was an amazing experience. 21 guys in a bus for a month touring over 20 states and even into Canada. Every stop a different band seemed to be the “Big Deal” of the night. One stop it would be Rick Cua, and other venue it would be Jerusalem. In Canada, we were the big hit. They were all wearing Hawaiian shirts in honor of the California phenom band and a couple hundred kids danced in the front of the concert singing every word of all our songs.“

Heiner also went on to record a solo album, which contained the song 'Voices.' According to Heiner, “My solo album was never released. We were shopping to secular record labels trying to reach a larger audience.”

Dream Life was also the last official album by The Lifesavors before Knott took over for good and changed the name to simply Lifesavers.

Sometime before 1986, The Lifesavors broke up because one of the new members showed up to a concert noticeably drunk. Word spread quickly of the event, and the band could no longer play Christian concerts. Different people started calling Knott to do Lifesavors shows at churches again. So he reformed the Lifesavors as Lifesavers with Doidge and Lee and started playing shows. The name change was simply to avoid legal hassles.

In 1986, Lifesavers signed to Frontline Records and released A Kiss of Life. The name was not the only thing to change – Knott also steered the band in a more alternative direction, drawing comparisons to The Psychedelic Furs. Some sources also claim that Knott no longer likes this album, even though some songs do occasionally make it in to his solo live shows from time to time.

Knott started dating Windy Lyre during the recording of A Kiss of Life. Lyre’s mother was Ruth Mayer, a well-known painter with her own art gallery on the Coast Highway in Laguna Beach, California. The horse that Knott is riding on the cover of the album was owned by Lyre at the time. That horse is also the mother of the horse on the cover of Adam Again’s Perfecta album.

On December 1, 1986, Knott announced at a concert that the band was changing names and directions. Knott felt that too much in the Church was fake and surface-y. The Lifesavers decided to address this by writing darker, more serious music. However, they were afraid that Frontline Records and the churches would hate it, so they changed their name. The new name was Lifesavers Underground (also known as L.S.U. or L.S. Underground). Several albums were released under this name and it appeared that the Lifesavers were no more.

In reality, the Lifesavers were just dormant and in 1991 Knott would begin releasing albums under both names. 1991’s Poplife saw the Lifesavers head in a more surf rock direction. It also saw an entirely new band behind Knott, with Michael Sauerbrey on bass guitar and Steve Hindalong (The Choir) handling drums.

The Lifesavers went quiet for a few more years until 1995 when they released Huntington Beach. This album saw the return of Doidge on bass guitar and the addition of Chuck Cummings on drums. Huntington Beach was also the heaviest Lifesavers album to date – a return to their punk rock roots. Songwriting was split between Doidge and Knott on this album, with less spiritual lyrics that focused on many humorous aspects of life on the title beach.

The late 1990s saw several Lifesavers album re-issued by various labels – A Kiss of Life in 1995 on Alarma Records and both Us Kids and Poplife on M8 records in 1999. After that, the Lifesavers went dormant again for almost a decade.

Chris Wimber went on to be a record producer as well as manager of the Vineyard Music Group. Sadly, Chris Wimber died on February 6, 1998 at his Southern California home after a long-term battle with melanoma cancer. He was 40. Almost two months prior to Wimber’s death his father, John, founder of the Vineyard stream of churches, died from a brain hemorrhage at age 63.

Through the years after the 1990s, there were various rumors about different versions of Lifesavers making a come back. Most of these were not based on substantial claims from members of the band. Krischak even made mention of trying to get the band back together (without Knott) on different Christian band message boards.

In June 2008, the new bass player for the Lifesavers, Joshua Lory, announced that a new album was being recorded. Joining Lory and Knott on the album would be Nick White on drums and Cliffy Huntington on guitar. No definite plans or release dates were initially announced, but the band mentioned that songs were being worked on in a Beach Boys / Ramones vibe.

As of December 2008, 16 music demos had been completed and were ready for the lyric and harmony writing process. According to the Lifesavers MySpace page, “Our goal is to make the ultimate soundtrack for Summer, rockin' songs with lush vocal melodies from start to finish!”

At the beginning of 2011, the band started a kickstarter campaign to fund the rest of the album. Originally titled Dog Days Of An Indian Summer, the name was changed to Heaven High.

The album was recorded and released in 2013. Two mixes were completed of the album. The first one by Masaki Liu was released in cardboard sleeve as the “Kickstarter Edition.” In 2014, the second mix by J. Powell was re-issued as a digipack by Retroactive Records as the “Retroactive Edition,” with modified and expanded artwork.

The untimely death of Michael Knott on March 12, 2024 put an early end to Lifesavers, but efforts to preserve the band’s legacy continue. In August of 2024, Lory ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to finish and add four incomplete songs intended for Heaven High and release the complete version on vinyl. In February of 2026, Retroactive Records re-issued Poplife on CD and vinyl with a bonus track from the recording sessions called “Nachos” added (this is also the song that has the words “pop life” in it). Rumors of more re-issues also continue to swirl.

1981 Independent
1990 Key Records (KEY 8)

Mark Krischak - Lead vocals, guitars
Ray Hersom - Rhtymn guitars, backing vocals
Chris Wimber - Bass guitar, backing vocals
Kevin Lee - Drums, backing vocals

1. Christianity
2. On the Street
3. You Don’t Know
4. I’ve Got to
5. Record
6. Take Us Home

1981 Swing Records
1990 Key Records
1999 M8 Records

Mark Krischak – Lead vocals, lead guitar, BGVs
Michael Knott – Rhythm guitar, BGVs
Chris Wimber – Bass, acoustic guitars, rhythm guitars, BGVs
Kevin Lee – Drums, percussion, BGVs

Produced by Thom Roy

1. Where You Going
2. Jetstream
3. Life
4. Oh Yeah
5. New
6. Young
7. Blue
8. Operation
9. I Am
10. Us Kids
11. Take Me Over
12. Genocide
13. Isaiah 36
14. Christianity

1. In My Room
2. I Have a Car
3. Lotsa Girls
4. A Lot Like You
5. My Life
6. Down Again
7. Go Around
8. Little Maids
9. Fighter

1982 Swing Records

Michael Knott - Guitar, lead vocals
Chris Wimber - Bass, rhythm guitar, vocals
Kevin Lee - Drums, percussion, vocals

Mike Stand - Lead guitar

Produced and engineered by Thom Roy

1. You and Me (2:22)
2. The One (1:50)

1982 Independent

Mark Krischak – Lead guitar, lead vocals, BGVs
Michael Knott – Rhythm guitar, BGVs
Kevin Lee – Drums, percussion, BGVs
John – unknown
Brandon – unknown

1. For You
2. Oh, Yeah
3. I Am
4. Front Slider
5. Go Go to Jesus
6. Trends (aka “Passin’ Trends”)
7. Try Anything
8. Take Me Over
9. New
10. Where You Going
11. Jetstream
12. Operation
13. Life
14. Us Kids
15. Open the Door
16. Blue
17. Jesus Hold Me Closer
18. Time to Praise the Lord
19. Christianity

1983 Refuge Records

Brian Goins – Vocals
Kirk Heiner – Guitar, keyboards, vocals
Chris Wimber – Bass, rhythm & acoustic guitars, backing vocals
Kevin Lee – Drums, percussion, vocals

Michael Knott – additional guitars and vocals

Produced by Thom Roy

1. Break in My Head
2. Christian Twisters
3. Glamour Girls
4. Christian Army
5. Physical
6. Waiting for You
7. Sooner or Later
8. False Identity
9. I Won’t Give In
10. The One
11. Hurt, Out of My Heart
12. Fourteen
13. I’m Not
14. Watch Nowhere

1983 Independent

1. Under One Sun
2. 3 Months
3. Central Park
4. 3 Months (reprise)
5. After All
6. It’s So Cool
7. I Remember
8. You Can Do It
9. So What
10. Another Day
11. Pet Monkey
12. It’s All I Can Stand
13. Central Park (reprise)

1984 Independent

Mark Krischak – vocals, guitar
Kirk Heiner – guitar
Chris Wimber – bass guitar
Kevin Lee – drums

1. New Boy (3:47)
2. Reach Out Your Hand (2:48)
3. Lost in the Darkness (4:04)
4. When I’m… (2:56)
5. Inside Looking Out (3:16)
6. Time (3:04)

1986 Frontline Records

Michael Knott – Vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards, percussion
Brian Doidge – Bass guitar
Kevin Lee – Drums, percussion

Produced by: Doug Doyle

1. She’s on Fire
2. I Pray You Pray
3. I Can’t Wait
4. Choose to Be True
5. Highway to Zion
6. Dreamin’
7. Love Boy Love Girl
8. Turn! Turn! Turn!
9. We Live for the Son
10. Free Her
11. See Me Fall

1991 Blonde Vinyl Records

Michael Knott – Vocals, guitars; bass on “Surf With God”, cover art
Michael Sauerbrey – Bass
Steve Hindalong – Drums

Christopher Colbert – Guitar on “Surf With God”

Produced by Michael Knott

1. I Don’t Know (Sister, Sister)
2. Queen of the Captive
3. Jet Plane
4. Skate
5. It’s a Crazy Thing
6. Surf with God
7. Comin’ Up Roses
8. Lookin’ for a Suit
9. Surf With God

1. Money
2. I Want Your World
3. Touch Me in the Wind

1. Nachos

1995 Brainstorm Artists International

Michael Knott – Vocals, guitar, bass
Brian Doidge – Vocals, guitar, bass
Chuck Cummings – Drums

Produced by The Lifesavers

1. When She’s Gone
2. Disappointed
3. Huntington Beach Police
4. Mrs. King
5. Rent a Cop
6. Out
7. Big Kimono
8. Sick
9. Daddy’s Womp
10. The Day Elvis Died
11. Should Have Known
12. Joey Ramone
13. The Hightops - Who is She (bonus track from 1978)
14. The Hightops - Get Outta My Life (bonus track from 1978)
15. The Hightops - Susie’s Got Eyes For You (bonus track from 1978)

2013 Independent
2014 Retroactive Records

Michael Knott – Vocals, additional Guitar on track 10
Joshua Lory – Bass, additional guitar on track 6
Masaki Liu – Guitar, Synth, Keys, Programming
Nick White – Drums
Chris Dugan – Drums on track 7
Rick McDonough – Lap Steel on track 10

Produced by Masaki Liu and Joshua Lory

1. Heaven High (2:09)
2. All Fall Down (3:25)
3. Bark/Bite (1:54)
4. Offed My Head (2:27)
5. I Love It When (2:30)
6. Dog Days of an Indian Summer (2:28)
7. Oh Baby (2:52)
8. Stereo Radio (4:46)
9. Ocean View Lane (2:19)
10. Last Spring (3:10)

• The Lifesavors
• The Lifesavers
• Lifesavors