Rob Lake - Lead Vocals

Rob started early, inheriting his parents’ Pink Floyd, Jim Croce, Meatloaf and George Jones tapes. He fell in love with the voices coming out of the little cheesy cassette speaker. Soon after that he found himself with a drum set that led to nowhere. He then tried his hand at the clarinet and hated it. The only thing that he loved was singing along to his favorite albums.

As Rob’s teenage years hit, hair metal came into favor and he found himself digging Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister, Motley Crue and Van Halen. For a long time he would try to emulate David Lee Roth. In eighth grade, he discovered Metallica for the first time and the awesome raweness of the 'Garage Days’ sound. He was an instant fan and changed direction to metal including Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Slayer and Anthrax. That lead to his first band with Deeks (Tom). Ancore released one tape of Pantera style thrash and played a few shows. It didn’t go far but it got Rob’s foot in the musical door, which started a love affair with writing and performing original music. Tom and Rob continued on together into the next metal band, Friends Of The Family. FOTF was a hodgepodge of musicians who practiced a lot but could never really put it together to record an album.

After Friends Of The Family fizzled, Rob saw a video on MTV’s ‘120 minutes’ that changed the way he thought about music. 311’s ‘Homebrew’ from their ‘Grassroots’ album is what did it. Rob discovered the importance of groove and melody. You don't have to scream at the top of your lungs all the time. If you could get the music to bob people’s heads, then it worked! Armed with this new school of thought, Rob and Tom moved forward to form Beat Green. The mix of ‘Chilipeppers’ funk and metal was a combination that worked and won them a recording session. This resulted in their one and only cd.

One can’t begin to understand Rob’s style until you look at his most influential hero, Mike Patton. Most notable as the singer for the now defunct Faith No More, Mike Patton taught Rob that a vocalist should be just that, a vocalist. Rob grew to love the fact that someone could be so aggressive, absurd, beautiful and moving in one voice. He was not someone who just crooned in key with whatever was being played, rather someone who could shift and change styles while being fluid in a song. Mike Patton was not afraid to try anything vocally and his influence shaped the singer that Rob is today.