John McCrea (musician)

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Prior to Cake, McCrea spent most of the 1980s playing in various bands or performing solo. His first release was a double-sided single on vinyl only called "Rancho Seco". One side was electric and the other acoustic. The LP was a protest song against the now-defunct nuclear power plant Rancho Seco built southeast of Sacramento.

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. This band included Mike Urbano(drums) Pete Costello(bass) and Robert Kuhlmann(Guitar) McCrea then got a management deal in the UK, and spent some time in London. In the later 1980s he moved to Los Angeles.

McCrea continues to write lyrics and sing for the band. Additionally, he is a very vocal activist for environmental causes, most notably global warming and world poverty. He frequently uses the band's website and concerts as a platform to increase awareness about these and other causes.

McCrea's voice has a very distinctive "rough-around-the-edges" quality, which is especially evident when he sings in the lower part of his vocal range. Also, he is 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." McCrea is also very fond of singing the lyrics with off-beat, jazzy rhythms and emphasizing the consonants in words, instead of the vowels. The single "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps," is a good example of this.

He has collaborated with Ben Folds, singing on the song "Fred Jones, Part 2" and performing that song live with Folds and on Folds' album "Ben Folds Live".

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