Secondhand Serenade is an American acoustic rock solo project fronted by vocalist and guitarist John Vesely. The solo project began in California, USA, in 2004. Vesely has released two studio albums to date under the name Secondhand Serenade, Awake in 2007 and A Twist in My Story in 2008. The debut album used multitrack recording to create the sound of a band using technology, while the second album took a different path, using a proper band and an orchestra to establish a more accomplished sound.
In 2005, Vesely released his debut 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 CD's 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. In early 2007, Awake was reissued by Glassnote Records with an additional two songs. It was released on February 6 and gave Vesely his first chartings, debuting at #16 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart. The album was leaked, and was made available for download one month before its official release. On January 28, 2008 the music video for the first single from the album "Fall for You" premiered on the popular MTV show TRL and was certified Platinum by the RIAA. In support of the release, Secondhand Serenade spent most of March and April touring with American bands Making April, Automatic Loveletter, and The White Tie Affair.
Albums:
A Twist in the Story
1.Like a Knife
2.Fall for You
3.Maybe
4.Stranger
5.Your Call
6.Suppose
7.A Twist in My Story
8.Why?
9.Stay Close, Don't Go
10.Pretend
11.Goodbye
Awake
1. Half Alive
2. Broken
3. Vulnerable
4. Your Call
5. Maybe
6. It's Not Over
7. I Hate This Song
8. Awake
9. Take Me With You
10. Let It Roll
11. The Last Song Ever
12. End
