Secondhand Serenade

Using the moniker of Secondhand Serenade, singer-songwriter John Vesely pens bittersweet ballads and catchy emo-pop anthems, and is best known for his 2008 hit single 'Fall for You'.

Growing up in the Bay Area of San Francisco, Vesely's father was a jazz musician in the Czech Republic for over 20 years before bringing the family to the US, with John starting out playing the piano at four-years-old and later trying out the saxophone. However, he soon became more interested in Guns N' Roses and Nirvana and joined high school groups as a bass player, before taking up the guitar and playing in an early band called Sounds Like Life with pop songwriter Ronnie Day.

Frustrated by the lack of progress his various groups were making, he took it upon himself to record his first demo album 'Awake' in 2005 and the solo project started to grow in popularity with the help of MySpace. It was still early days for the social network site, but Vesely worked diligently to respond to messages and build up a fan base and despite still living at home with no record label, he ended up the number one unsigned act on MySpace for seven months running and was making decent money selling CDs and merchandise. His success led to a deal with Glassnote Records and after his first big support tour with Plain White T's, it was his soaring, belting, pop tearjerker 'Fall for You' which was featured regularly on MTV and grew to reach number 21 in the US Singles Chart in 2008. His second album 'A Twist in My Story' continued to showcase Vesely's combination of raw singer-songwriter storytelling, emo rock riffs and anthemic pop hooks, but told of his break-up with his wife and his pain of being away from his two children. He also supported The All-American Rejects and grew from performing as a solo artist to playing with a full backing band while on tour in Asia, as third album 'Hear Me Now' made a departure into upbeat, punchy, rock bounce-alongs and featured his older brother Lukas. Vesley also relocated to Nashville and crowd-funded his 2014 album 'Undefeated' as well as featuring on Blues Traveler's 'Blow Up the Moon' record and starting side project The Rebel Roads with his fiancé Veronica Ballestrini.