John McCrea (born June 25, 1964) is an American singer and musician. He is a founding member of the band

Cake Cake is a flour confection made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients, and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate, ...

. He is the vocalist and primary lyricist for the band, in addition to playing acoustic guitar,

vibraslap The vibraslap is a percussion instrument consisting of a piece of stiff wire (bent into a U-shape) connecting a wooden ball to a hollow box of wood with metal “teeth” inside. The percussionist holds the metal wire in one hand and strikes th ...

, and piano. He also programs drums and does mixing work while he and the rest of the band have produced all of their albums.

Biography

McCrea spent most of the 1980s playing in various bands or performing solo. His mid-1980s band John McCrea and the Roughousers recorded the songs "Love You Madly" and "Shadow Stabbing," which were later re-recorded by Cake (both featured on 2001's '' Comfort Eagle''). This band included

Michael Urbano Michael Urbano (born March 19, 1966 in Sacramento, California, USA) is a musician, programmer, and record producer. Career One of Urbano's first gigs was as a member of Bourgeois Tagg, a 1980s band that was fronted by Brent Bourgeois and Larry ...

(drums), Pete Costello (bass), and Robert Kuhlmann (guitar). In the late 1980s, McCrea moved to Los Angeles and began playing acoustically in local coffee shops. His first solo release was a double-sided single on vinyl only called ''Rancho Seco''. One side was electric and the other acoustic. The single was a protest song against the now-decommissioned nuclear power plant

Rancho Seco The Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station is a decommissioned nuclear power plant built by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) in Herald, California. History In 1966, SMUD purchased in southeast Sacramento County for a nuclear po ...

built southeast of Sacramento. McCrea moved back to Sacramento in 1991, forming Cake later that year.

Vocal style

McCrea's voice has a distinctive "rough-around-the-edges" quality, which is especially evident when he sings in the lower part of his vocal range. He is also known for half-singing, half-speaking lyrics in many of his songs, sometimes in a kind of energetic monotone, such as the hits " The Distance" and "

Never There "Never There" is the first single released from American alternative rock band Cake's third studio album, ''Prolonging the Magic'' (1998). The song was commercially successful, topping the US ''Billboard'' Modern Rock Tracks chart and appearing on ...

." McCrea also commonly sings with off-beat rhythms and emphasizes the consonants in words instead of the vowels. The single " Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps," is a good example of this.

Personal life

McCrea is a vocal activist for various causes, notably

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, reforestation and world poverty. He frequently uses the band's website and concerts as a platform to increase awareness about these and other issues. He was a member of the board of directors of HeadCount, a non-profit organization that uses music to promote voter registration and participation. He is also a founder of the Content Creators Coalition, a group of musicians and creatives that advocates for the rights of artists.

Collaborations

He has collaborated with

Ben Folds Benjamin Scott Folds (born September 12, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and composer, who is the first artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., since May 2017. Folds was th ...

, singing on the track "Fred Jones, Part 2" from 2001's ''

Rockin' the Suburbs ''Rockin' the Suburbs'' is the debut studio album by American alternative rock singer-songwriter Ben Folds. His first solo album after leaving his band Ben Folds Five, ''Rockin' the Suburbs'' was recorded in Adelaide, Australia, where Folds was ...

'' and performing the song live with Folds and on Folds' 2002 album ''

Ben Folds Live ''Ben Folds Live'' is a live album by Ben Folds, released on October 8, 2002. This album marked the first official release of the Ben Folds' improvisation, "Rock This Bitch". The song, which changes with every performance, is now a staple of his ...

''. John McCrea contributed vocals to "The Headphonist," a track from Mexican rock band Kinky's 2003 ''

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'' album.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCrea, John 1964 births Living people American alternative rock musicians American male singer-songwriters American rock singers American rock songwriters American rock guitarists American male guitarists Singer-songwriters from California Cake (band) members Guitarists from California 20th-century American guitarists