Born in Hartford CT, Jake picked up the guitar at an early age, inspired by Jimi Hendrix and Richie Havens among others.

While attending Berklee College of Music in Boston he played guitar locally with several different bands and studied classical guitar privately with Russian teacher Dima Goryachev before graduating Berklee with a BMus in Composition for Film/TV.

In 2003, Jake created Kovach Music Productions, Inc., focusing on composition for visual media. His music has been heard in television commercials, tradeshow promos, and short films. He played lead guitar, bass, and keyboards for Fiction Plane (Geffen) opening for Sting in his 2005 arena tour. More recently, he played lead guitar with backup vocals for singer-songwriter Danielle Evin (Lateral View/Sony), where he worked with the legendary Phil Ramone, Jack Douglas, and David Rosenthal.