Early history, first release (2004–2006) John Vesely (born February 5, 1982) started performing as Secondhand Serenade in his home town of
Menlo Park in
California in 2004. Vesely was raised in the
San Francisco Bay Area as the son of a jazz musician. He started getting into music at the age of 12. He spent 8 years playing
bass in local bands, featuring in a number of acts ranging in style from
ska and hardcore to rock and pop. One of the bands he played in, Sounds Like Life, included
Ronnie Day. After years of playing bass, he opted for
acoustic guitar. Vesely follows in the tradition of John Ondrasik's
Five for Fighting. Vesely was also the son of a Czech immigrant. Vesely found success as Secondhand Serenade. Vesely once said "in some ways a band is more powerful, but in other ways there are things you can do with one voice and one acoustic guitar that you couldn't do with an army of musicians behind you." In late 2005, Vesely released his debut studio album titled
Awake. It was recorded as a demo, after booking a few days at a San Francisco studio earlier in 2005, "using just an acoustic guitar and his multi-tracked vocals." The album was promoted through the Secondhand Serenade
MySpace page and by playing local shows. The
CDs were originally sold through mail order with a
PayPal account by Vesely, eventually he signed up with distributor
TuneCore, making Secondhand Serenade's songs available on music portals including
iTunes. The album experienced tremendous online support, and by the end of 2006 Secondhand Serenade had received millions of plays on
MySpace and had been the social-networking site's No. 1 Independent Artist for months. Financially, he was said to be bringing in up to $20,000 a month from downloads and merchandise sales out of his home. and on the strength of these sales and the support, the labels became interested in him. Secondhand Serenade was signed by longtime label executive
Daniel Glass, on his new label
Glassnote Records, which is distributed through
Warner's Independent Label Group. As of December 5, 2008 "Fall for You" was still No. 13 on the American Top 40 songs in the country. The deluxe edition of
A Twist in My Story was released on February 3, 2009. It contains 5 bonus tracks including radio version of "Your Call", acoustic version of "Fall for You", acoustic version of "Like a Knife", his single "Last Time", and the Coldplay cover "Fix You".
Hear Me Now and Weightless EP (2010–2011) Secondhand Serenade's third studio album
Hear Me Now, was released on August 3, 2010. In an interview, Vesely stated that the album would be more upbeat than his last album, which focused on relationships. On June 1, "Something More" was released onto
iTunes as a deluxe single with a bonus track "You Are a Drug", a video showing the making of "Something More", and a
digital booklet to the new single. The vocals of
Juliet Simms from American rock band
Automatic Loveletter were featured on the song "Hear Me Now" and the cover of "
Fix You", originally performed by British rock band
Coldplay. On May 3, 2011, Vesely released an EP titled
Weightless.
Departure from Glassnote and Undefeated (2012–2015) In January 2012 Vesely started a
PledgeMusic campaign to fund his next album. During the summer of 2012, Vesely recorded an acoustic remake of
A Twist in My Story. In July 2012, the release date and the title of the remake were announced by Vesely and it should be released on iTunes and Amazon as download. One week before the official release some sample of "Suppose", "Stranger", "Like a Knife", and his new recorded song "Belong To" were released on SoundCloud site. On September 11, 2012, Vesely released the acoustic remake of his older album
A Twist in My Story called
A Naked Twist in My Story. After this release Vesely goes back to the studio to record his new album with producer/engineer
Brandon Metcalf in Nashville, TN. On February 26, 2013, the single "Shake It Off" was released to start promoting the new album. Vesely explained the concept of "Shake It Off" in a 2013 interview with
Musichel, ""Shake It Off" is a song about putting everyday problems behind you and staying positive. I really thought it was time for me to write a feel good song and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out." On a videochat on
Spreecast, Vesely announced the official title of the new album:
Undefeated.
The Rebel Roads (2015) On April 24, 2015, Vesely proposed to Veronica Ballestrini on stage at his show in Las Vegas, Nevada. The two met at Destiny Records in Nashville to do three acoustic duets for his album
Undefeated, "Heart Stops (By the Way)", "La La Love" and "Nothing Left To Say" back in February 2013. Ballestrini later went on tour with him starting on March 8 in Lexington, Kentucky and ended on April 10 in West Hollywood, California. They developed a relationship on March 22, 2013. Vesely married his second wife Veronica on April 1, 2017, in Vero Beach, Florida. The duo started a collaboration act as the Rebel Roads and released their single "First to Know" on iTunes on December 2, 2016. In 2015, Secondhand Serenade appeared on
Blues Traveler's album
Blow Up the Moon, co writing the song "Hearts Are Still Awake" and singing the song "The Darkness We All Need".
Awake: Remixed & Remastered, 10 Years & 10,000 Tears Later (2017) On February 10, 2017, Secondhand Serenade released
Awake: Remixed & Remastered, 10 Years & 10,000 Tears Later. Produced and distributed by
Glassnote Records, a compilation including two new songs: "Don't Look Down" and "Lost". ==Discography==