Jake Shears
Jake Shears performing with the Scissor Sisters in 2011.
Background information
Birth name	Jason Sellards
Born	(1978-10-03) October 3, 1978 (age 33) Mesa, Arizona
Genres	Glam rock, alternative, pop
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, keyboards, guitar, flute
Years active	1999–present
Associated acts	Scissor Sisters

Jake Shears (born Jason F. Sellards, October 3, 1978) is the lead male vocalist for the American music group Scissor Sisters.

Early life and education[link]

Born in Mesa, Arizona^{[citation needed]} 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 the age of 18, he moved into a dorm at The Northwest School in Seattle to finish high school.

Shears later 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.

Coming out[link]

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]

Career[link]

Shears' early performances included 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. Shears also 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]

Scissor Sisters[link]

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. ^[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]

Other credits[link]

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.

Shears was featured on the track "Metemya" of Amadou and Mariam's 2012 album, Folila.^[12]

References[link]

• Tsioulcas, Anastasia (1 April 2012). "First Listen: Amadou And Mariam, 'Folila'". NPR. http://www.npr.org/2012/04/01/148919868/first-listen-amadou-and-mariam-folila. Retrieved 12 April 2012. 

External links[link]

• 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