My Top 10 Favorite Foreign Bands - Top 7

Top 7: Secondhand Serenade

Secondhand Serenade is an American acoustic rock solo project fronted by vocalist and guitarist John Vesely. The solo project began in Illinois, USA, in 2004. Vesely has released two studio albums to date under the name Secondhand Serenade, Awake in 2005 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.

History

John Joseph Vesely formed Secondhand Serenade in his home town of Menlo ParkCalifornia, USA, in 2004. Vesely was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area in a musical family and as the son of a professional jazz musician father, commenting that "getting into music was a natural thing" for him. He spent 8 years playing as a bassist in local bands, featuring in a number of acts ranging in style from ska and hardcore to rock and pop. After years of playing bass, he opted for an acoustic guitar and began writing his own songs when he met his wife Breanna Russell. 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. inThe pseudonym Secondhand Serenade is a reference to the way in which his songs are 'serenades' sung to his wife. People around the world are merely getting to hear the songs 'second-hand'.

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. 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, naturally, the labels came knocking. Secondhand Serenade was signed by longtime label executive Daniel Glass, on his new label Glassnote Records, which is distributed through Warners Independent Label Group. In 2006, Rolling Stone announced Secondhand Serenade as #3 in the magazine's reader's poll for Best Myspace Artist. He sold over 15,000 copies of the album on his own.

Secondhand Serenade

References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondhand_Serenade
http://www.secondhandserenade.net/
http://www.imeem.com/arthe/playlist/67vHOJhz/secondhand-serenade-music-playlist/