Secondhand Serenade

Secondhand Serenade
Secondhand Serenade performing at Bamboozle in 2007
Background information
Origin	Menlo Park, California, U.S.
Genres	Pop rock,emo
Years active	2004 (2004)–present
Labels	Glassnote
Associated acts	Juliet Simms, Veronica Ballestrini, The Rebel Roads
Website	Official website
Members	John Vesely

Secondhand Serenade is an American rock band, led by vocalist, pianist and guitarist John Vesely. Vesely has released four studio albums to date under the name Secondhand Serenade: Awake in 2007, A Twist in My Story in 2008, Hear Me Now in 2010, and Undefeated in 2014. 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 synthesizers to establish a more accomplished sound.

John Vesely formed Secondhand Serenade in his home town of Menlo Park in California, USA, in 2004. Vesely was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area in a humorous family and 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 fellow Bay Area artist Ronnie Day. After years of playing bass, he opted for an acoustic guitar. Vesely follows in the tradition of John Ondrasik's Five for Fighting. Vesely was also the son of a Czech immigrant.

Vesely began writing his own songs when he met his wife Candice Vesely. She had wanted him to play a song and "serenading her with a bass guitar was out of the question." He has admitted he found his "true calling" when he picked up the guitar. The pseudonym Secondhand Serenade is a reference to the way in which his songs were "serenades" sung to his wife Candice, with whom he has two young sons Jake and Ethan. People around the world are merely getting to hear the songs "second-hand". While Vesely continues to market the affectionate biography, the couple broke up in 2008. Vesely was heart broken as can be seen in many of his songs. He released A Twist in My Story as a reference to the divorce. Candice co-star in Secondhand Serenade music video "Vulnerable."