Jake Shears
| Jake Shears | |
|---|---|
Shears performing in March 2011
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Jason F. Sellards |
| Born |
October 3, 1978 Mesa, Arizona, U.S. |
| Genres | Glam rock, alternative, pop |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals, keyboards, guitar, flute |
| Years active | 1999–present |
| Associated acts | Scissor Sisters |
Jason F. Sellards (born October 3, 1978), better known as Jake Shears, is an American singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lead male singer for the pop band Scissor Sisters.
Shears was born in Mesa, Arizona, the son of an entrepreneur father and a Baptist mother. He grew up on San Juan Island, Washington, where he attended school at Friday Harbor High School and was bullied. At the age of 18, he moved into a dorm at The Northwest School in Seattle, Washington to finish high school. Shears later attended Occidental College in Los Angeles, California. At the age of 19, he traveled to Lexington, Kentucky to visit a classmate, who introduced him to Scott Hoffman. Shears and Hoffman hit it off immediately and moved to New York a year later.
Shears' early performances included a 1993 production of the play Narnia. 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. He also wrote pieces for the gay magazine HX. Shears was a fixture on the New York gay and electroclash scene. In 2000, he worked as a music reviewer for Paper magazine.
Shears and Hoffman formed Scissor Sisters in 2001 as a performance art stunt, 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"), Scissor Sisters finally found success in the United Kingdom 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 male strip clubs.)
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