This is the 64th post in our Musician of the Day series.
Secondhand Serenade is an acoustic solo rock project which is fronted by John Vesley. This solo project began in 2004 in Menelo Park, California.
John was always interested in music and this was because he was born into a very musical family. John started out playing bass but began playing guitar and writing his own songs after his wife asked him to play for here. There is no way to serenade with a bass and so John picked up the guitar and fell in love with it. This is where the name came from as all of the songs he writes are serenades for his wife and everyone else who hears them gets to hear them "second-hand". (insert females swooning here)
In 2005, John released the debut album for Secondhand Serenade called Awake. The album was made just with John's guitar and his multi-tracked vocals. John is every voice on the album and they are just different vocal tracks put together to sound like many people are singing together.
Though John never expected the album to go very far it was soon generating millions of hits on MySpace. He sold $15,000 copies of the album on his own and was said to be making $20,000 a month from album and merchandise sales. So with this much success it is no surprise that the labels came running.
He ended up signing with Glassnote Records and re-released Awake in 2007. It debuted at #16 on the Top Heatseekers chart and make it to #164 on the Billboard charts.
On February of 2008, Secondhand Serenade released A Twist in My Story. This album featured some of the songs from Awake and some new songs but these were all backed by a full band. The first single "Fall for You" was released January 21, 2008. To support the album Secondhand Serenade went on the road with a touring band. The name for the album comes from his recent divorce from his wife, with whom he has two young songs.
In November of 2008, "Fall for You" was declared platinum.
Currently the band is working on a new album.
To learn more about Secondhand Serenade visit their MySpace Page or this fansite.
