Jake Shears was born Jason Sellards in Arizona in 1978 and grew up in Washington before moving to New York, where he studied fiction writing at the New School. He’s best known as the co-lead singer of Scissor Sisters, with whom he released four albums between 2004 and 2012. His second solo album, Last Man Dancing, came out last year. Since September, Shears has been performing as the Emcee in Cabaret at the Playhouse in London (until 9 March). His debut podcast Queer the Music, in which he explores gamechanging queer anthems with guests including Rufus Wainwright and Self Esteem, launches on 30 January.
1. Album
Mega Bog: The End of Everything
I’ve been listening to this album on repeat for the past six months. Mega Bog is an American musician, real name Erin Birgy, and this is the first of her seven albums I’ve properly listened to. It’s really weird and proggy and kind of witchy. Her voice reminds me of Laurie Anderson. It’s short, just eight tracks, which I really like – my favourite is Complete Book of Roses. It’s one of those albums I’ll have on in my dressing room before the show and people will be like, what’s this? There’s a magic in this record.
2. Video game
I’m pretty big into video games and this is one of the best gaming experiences I’ve ever had. The whole thing is filmed – you’re watching real actors play out the story – and the game is about films being made. There’s a big puzzle that you have to piece together by watching an actress in three different movies – you see behind-the-scenes footage as well as actual scenes. It’s unsettling, suspenseful, mysterious and sexy – and really frightening. There were moments in it that genuinely scared me. I’ve never played anything quite like it.
3. Film
Nosferatu (Dir Robert Eggers, 2024)
I’m excited about the Robert Eggers remake of Nosferatu that’s coming out later this year. Eggers is one of the best directors, and I’ve always been a massive fan of Werner Herzog’s version, which I’m sure is going to play into this a little bit. I can’t wait to see what Eggers does with it. His last movie The Northman just blew my mind. It was brutal and funny and it had Björk and Nicole Kidman vamping around. I love a slow, creeping, dreadful thing.
4. Podcast
This is a great podcast series by Karina Longworth about cinema history. Two recent seasons covered sex in Hollywood movies in the 1980s and 90s. It goes into the nitty gritty about what sex meant, what was allowed and what wasn’t, how the actors felt about it, and who was pushing for what, all in great detail. While listening, I watched or rewatched just about everything she discusses – including Flashdance, which I’d never seen before (it was beautiful). The podcast felt like taking a whole film studies class.
5. Book
The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt
This is one of my favourite books from the past year, by one of my favourite writers. All of deWitt’s books are completely different – he’s most famous for his goldrush western The Sisters Brothers. I really get sucked into the worlds that he makes. This book is about a librarian who lives a pretty unremarkable life. It moves back in time to explore a love triangle between him and his wife and a friend. It’s funny and sad and gorgeous, and I couldn’t put it down.
6. Website
All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office
The US government put up this website containing declassified reports and videos of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) a few months ago. I’m stunned by how nonplussed everyday people are about it, because there’s some really weird shit going down. There are eight videos on the site where you can see orbs flying around in formation and doing strange things in mid-air that nothing should be able to do. It’s bizarre. In some cases [the government] are like, we have no idea what this thing is. I just find it fascinating and I’d love to get more information about it.
