Jake Shears
| Jake Shears | |
|---|---|
 Jake Shears performing in 2007 |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Jason Sellards |
| Born | October 3, 1978 Mesa, Arizona |
| Genres | Glam rock, alternative, pop |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals, keyboards |
| Years active | 1999–present |
| Associated acts | Scissor Sisters |
Jake Shears (born Jason F. Sellards, October 3, 1978, Mesa, Arizona) is the lead male vocalist for the American music group Scissor Sisters.
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[edit] Early life and education
Born in Arizona as the son of an entrepreneur father and a Baptist mother, Shears grew up on San Juan Island, north of Seattle[1] While living on San Juan Island, he attended school at Friday Harbor High School, where he was bullied.[2] At 18, he moved into a dorm at The Northwest School in Seattle and finished high school there.
Shears attended Occidental College in Los Angeles. At 19, he traveled to Lexington, Kentucky to visit a classmate, who introduced him to Scott Hoffman (Babydaddy). Shears and Hoffman hit it off immediately and, a year later, both moved to New York.
[edit] Coming out
Shears came out to his parents at the urging of Dan Savage, who later called his advice "the worst I've ever given".[3]
In 2010, he participated in Savage's It Gets Better Project.[4]
[edit] Career
Shears' early performances include a play of Narnia in 1993, directed by Fred Yockers.[citation needed]
In New York, Shears attended The New School's Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts, where he studied fiction writing and was classmates with Travis Jeppesen, and wrote pieces for the gay magazine HX. For a while, Shears, who is openly gay,[5] was a fixture on the New York gay and electroclash scene.
In 2000, Shears also worked as a music reviewer for Paper magazine.[6]
[edit] Scissor Sisters
Shears and Hoffman formed the Scissor Sisters in 2001 as a kind of performance art lark, playing outrageous shows in clubs like Luxx, the heart of the electroclash scene in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where Shears lived. After a couple years struggling in New York (working with record label A Touch of Class, who produced "Comfortably Numb" and "Filthy/Gorgeous"), the Sisters finally found success in the UK and Ireland—ending 2004 with the biggest-selling album of the year in the UK.
In concert, Shears is known for provocative dancing, flamboyant outfits, and near-nudity. (During his early years while he was struggling to make it in New York, he would often earn extra money as a Go-go dancer and male erotic dancer at gay-oriented strip clubs.[7]) His musical influences include ABBA, Blondie, David Bowie, Duran Duran, Roxy Music, The New York Dolls, Queen, Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Pet Shop Boys, The Beatles, and Dolly Parton. He, along with his band, has become especially popular in the queer community.[8] The Scissor Sisters video for Filthy/Gorgeous was directed by John Cameron Mitchell after Shears met him at a gathering of the Radical Faeries.[9]
Shears attended Sir Elton John's "stag" party before John's civil partnership ceremony with David Furnish in 2005. John and Shears discussed each other in The Observer in 2006.[10]
[edit] Other credits
Shears performs with Erasure's Andy Bell on "Thought It Was You", on Bell's 2005 album Electric Blue.
He has also collaborated with Tiga with Hot in Herre, You Gonna Want Me and What You Need from the new Tiga album Ciao!, as well as on Finnish House musician Luomo's "If I Can't". He and Babydaddy also co-wrote with Kylie Minogue on the hit single "I Believe in You" for Minogue's greatest hits compulation, Ultimate Kylie. Shears and Minogue also co-wrote "Too Much" with Calvin Harris for her number one selling album Aphrodite.
In 2011 Shears collaborated with John Garden to write the music for a musical version of the book Tales of the City.[11] The show is directed by Jason Moore.
[edit] Notes
- ^ 'Scissor Sisters are desperate to prove they can still cut it'
- ^ www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjFxosDnzOo
- ^ "The Worst Advice Dan Savage has Ever Given". http://bigthink.com/ideas/24735. "I think the worst and perhaps most damaging advice I ever gave was to Jake Shears who I met when he was 15 years old and he asked if he should come out to his parents and he described what was going on and who they were and what you know what he thought they might know. And after he told me everything I was like: "Oh, they know. They're just waiting for you to tell them. You should tell them. Just come out to them. They're waiting. They're ready." And he came out to them, and they didn't know, and it was a big disaster, and they threatened to pull him out of school, and they were really angry and so he called me. I had a radio show, and he called me, and I got him off the air and got his mother's phone number and called my mother and gave my mother Jake's mother's phone number and had my mom call his mom and yell at her. And it helped, but yeah, I gave him so really shitty advice."
- ^ "Jake Shears Reveals Teenage Harassment". The Advocate. 2003-10-08. http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/10/08/Jake_Shears_Reveals_Teenage_Harassment/. Retrieved 2011-05-30.
- ^ Breen, Matthew (2005-04-26). "Travelin' like a rock star" (– Scholar search). The Advocate. Archived from the original on February 11, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20060211033651/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1589/is_2005_April_26/ai_n14735900. Retrieved 2007-09-08[dead link]
- ^ http://www.papermag.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi?blog_id=1&tag=Jake%20Shears&limit=20
- ^ Michael A. Knipp (2006-10-13). "Scissor Sister's return". Southern Voice Atlanta. http://www.sovo.com/2006/10-13/arts/feature/scissor.cfm. Retrieved 2008-05-17.[dead link]
- ^ Darren Murph (2008-04-19). "Logo to simulcast Scissor Sisters: Live at the O2 Arena on MHD". EndGadgetHD. http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/19/logo-to-simulcast-scissor-sisters-live-at-the-o2-arena-on-mhd/. Retrieved 2008-05-17. "With several openly gay band members and a loyal and enthusiastic LGBT following..."
- ^ Romano, Tricia (19 October 2004). "Sex Slaves". Village Voice. http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-10-19/nyc-life/sex-slaves/. Retrieved 26 March 2010
- ^ When Elton met Jake The Observer, Sunday 12 November 2006
- ^ Hetrick, Adam. "Musicalizing Tales of the City". Playbill.com. http://www.playbill.com/features/article/150917-Musicalizing-Tales-of-the-City. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
[edit] External links
- Official Scissor Sisters website
- Jake Shears at the Internet Movie Database
- Shear Madness – Out Magazine interview with Shears
- Jake Shears appearing semi-nude on the cover of French gay magazine Tetu
- Interview with Jake Shears from PhillyGayCalendar.com
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