Jake Gelon Lau grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area as the third of four children. Jake's mother loved to sing and all the kids learned to play musical instruments at an early age. Eight year old Jake wanted to play the violin, but the school orchestra already had plenty of violinists. His music teacher convinced him to be a cellist. Since Jake walked to and from school carrying his instrument and the cello was about as big as he was, he quickly traded it in for a fiddle. Jake's talent for music and for the violin were soon evident. He became an accomplished classically trained violinist, Concertmaster of many ensembles including the prestigious Oakland Symphony's All-City Youth Chamber Orchestra.
It was a natural progression for Jake to play electric guitar with various garage bands starting in middle school. In high school he discovered he could play Eric Clapton's guitar licks with his violin! Soon thereafter, playing electric violin and keyboards (self-taught) with fellow musicians and rock bands became his passion. One day, when he noticed the girls swooning over the lead singers, he decided he should start singing too. Jake later came to realize that singing while playing keyboards gave him the most pleasure and satisfaction.
Jake was a member of numerous bands in
