Your Subtitle text
Period 3 Entertainment 3
A First Hand Look into SecondHand Serenade
His Music is His Soul…But, Has He Traded His Soul for His Music?
By: Jeffrey Valfer
TeenNewsNet Editor
His song “Fall For You” is climbing up the charts with the expectation to be a top ten single by August. You would think that life is great for John Vesely a.k.a SecondHand Serenade. Many of us who had dreams to be in the limelight or a famous musician would trade places with Vesely in a heartbeat. Then some of us may sit back and remember the famous words of wisdom… “Getting everything you ask for isn’t always what you think it will be.” On a Wednesday afternoon Vesely contacts me from his cell phone. The beginning of the interview starts off like a Verizon commercial. Vesely’s phone starts to break up and he continues to move around saying, “Can you hear me now”? Like his own life, Vesley is moving all over the place in hopes people will hear his music. At times though, there are moments of ‘inner static.’
As odd as it sounds, the success of Vesely's music has been based on sharing his inner pain. You often hear the more famous you become the lonelier you are. How can that be? How can someone that is now known throughout the country, if not world, feel lonely? Then you think back to songs written by Paul McCartney, Journey, Michael Jackson and more recently Britney Spears, and you realize that fame and success often come at a significant price. Perhaps, as Vesely explains later in our conversation, you need to share your pain as a musician so people can relate to you as they most likely have been through the same thing.
With the static now gone I can hear Vesely clearly. He has found the perfect spot, perhaps even a personal point of clarity, to share with me who he is, his music, his marriage and future ambitions.
Q: You released your second album “Twist In My Story” last February. How is it different from your first album “Awake”?
A: It’s really different. There’s a little more range to the songs, more dynamics to the writing and a lot more production. The first time I didn’t really have a budget, this time [with more money] I was able to do more on production. I did a little bit of everything on the new album to more orchestra to harder rock and acoustic songs.
Q: You mention not having a budget, and you are known to like to do things your way. What are the pluses and minuses when you were independent and not with a label?
A: It depends on what deal and who you sign with. I happen to have a lot of creative freedom. I was able to make the album I wanted to make. It is definitely better for you creatively as an artist to be on your own, but then again there are a lot of outlets you can’t reach, like distribution. If you are independent you can’t do outlets like VH1, and there is a lot of stuff you can’t do by yourself. There is a lot of give and take on both sides. Today someone in there teens can record an album by themselves and make an amazing living selling it over the internet.
Q: Do you think you could go independent 15 to 20 years ago without the internet and satellite radio and be as successful?
A: No. Definitely not! In a years time I sold over 20,000 albums without any touring. 10 to 20 years ago that would not make any sense, it would be impossible. With the internet you can expose an unlimited amount of music and then offer to sell it to them. You can promote through I-Tunes, My-Space and Face Book. It is a totally different world than it was. Once you decide to go out on tour you can draw 200 to 300 kids from any demographic in the US, just off you’re my-Space page.
Q: What you say is interesting because you hear it is a lot tougher today to make it as a musician. Do you think that it isn’t because it’s tougher, but that you have to be more creative?
A: You definitely have to be more creative and adaptive. We are going back to the singles market, but not like it was in the 80’s where the single was chosen by the label. Now the single is chosen by the consumer. They can go to I-Tunes and download any songs they want. They do not have to download the whole album, and that’s why album sales aren’t as high as they were 5 to 10 years ago. 9X Platinum sales aren’t happening anymore. What is happening is a whole lot of single sales.
Q: Speaking of singles, “Fall For You” has reached Top 40. Can you take us along the road to how you got to where you are today?
A: It was definitely tough. Most of the Top 40 artists are artists that have been there before. Being the artist that doesn’t have a major radio fan base yet, I just have a gigantic online following, we kind of had to build a whole new radio fan base and build it station by station. It was difficult coming into radio and saying, “You never heard of us – give us a chance.” We do have a great radio team and once they [stations] did give it a shot it has rated very highly. It [Fall For You] has rated top 5 in most demographics in phone call requests. We are hoping by August to have a Top Ten song and get on the next single.
Q: Do you write your own music?
A: Yes, I write all my songs.
Q: It seems from your titles that you are taking your fans along on a journey with you. Is what you write from your own personal experience?
A: They are all from very personal experiences and they are very literal too. When someone reads through the lyrics they kind of get a feel of what is going on when the origin of the song was happening.
It started off that this is the way I write and it was kind of hard to have people dab into my personal life. But, I like to write that way and in that fashion and I think that is why people connected with the music so much. They can relate to it because it is very real and very literal and gives them a starting point to deal with their own life.Q: What is your current hit “Fall For You” about?
A: It’s about my wife and when we were splitting up. We kind of really went through tense issues. It is hard when you have a relationship that slowly over time deteriorates. Everyone over time has experienced that over one time or the other. You then get to that one point in the relationship where you say, “We have to end this or fix this.” Then seeing what your life would be like and all the things you would be missing without that person – then you can fall in love all over again. That’s the concept of the song. But, sometimes it doesn’t work out. The music is bittersweet, but it tells people it’s OK if it doesn’t work out and life goes on.
Q: How long ago did you separate?
A: It was about a year ago. We are very close friends and not saying it’s over either. The reasons we had the problems is we kind of got thrown into a life none of us were used to, which she wasn’t necessarily expecting to happen when we met. Right now my life is so sporadic and I’m out of town so much it is very difficult to maintain that relationship.
Q: It seems the music that tore you apart can possibly bring you back together?
A: That’s very true. She has been having me write songs for quite some time and a lot of the songs are about her. And then you hear people say, “If only that song was written about me.” After awhile you say it’s nothing special because it happens all the time and it’s something that’s a fact of life. But, she does love the music. She’s very supportive and I am really appreciative of that. It’s also very important to a lot of people out there that are listening. I get compliments about how my music is helping people—especially younger kids in their teenage years – people who are going through their first break-up or long term relationship break-up. I value the fact it helps people sort out feelings and get something out of it.
Q: Where were you when you first played “Fall For You” to your wife and what was her reaction?
A: We were having a lot of problems, but still together. I had just got a piano a month before and was starting to learn how to play it. I was messing around with this progression, this song, and started writing for it. One-thirty or two o’clock in the morning she was sleeping and I had my headphones on. The next day I said, “You have to hear this song.” It was the first time I ever wrote a song on the piano. I could barely play piano. After she listened to it she knew it was one of her favorites –she knew there was something special about that song.
Q: You talk about adjusting to the growth of your career in your relationship, but how are you personally adjusting?
A: It’s difficult not to be able to hold down a relationship. Right now it’s basically all work. I am constantly working; maybe collectively I had a week and a half off since February. It’s such a hectic schedule for me that I don’t have time for it [relationship]. It’s kind of hard sometimes because I want that. I want to be able to just sit down and go to the beach and have a relationship. Right now we have a single that's climbing that could break and be a huge hit. There’s no rest for me.
Q: As a solo artist why did you pick the name SecondHand Serenade?
A: Two reasons. I wanted something that had a little meaning to it that would get people ready for the music. I want people to focus on the music more than the person. I want it to be about the music and art work – then eventually people will learn about me.
Q: When did you know you wanted to be a musician?
A: I was very interested in High School. I always wanted to play base. I started playing in 8th grade. I played shows and with multiple bands in High School and then eventually picked up the guitar so I can play on my own.
Q: We see teens in High School that aspire to be musicians. They spend a lot of money on equipment against their parent’s wishes. Were your parents negative about your aspirations?
A: My Father was a musician and supportive to some extent. He never really considered me much of a musician because I never took voice lessons, guitar lessons – I just kind of learned on my own. He’s a very popularly trained guy. At the point he heard “Awake” and what I did and started to take me seriously.
Q: What type of music did your Father play?
A: He was a jazz musician for 25 years in the Czech Republic until they escaped and came to America. He stills plays for fun, but not professionally since then.
Q: Is it your dream to go back to your parents roots and play a concert there?
A: Definitely! And we are working on going overseas now. Just to go back to Prague and the Czech Republic – I was there when I was much younger – It would be surreal to go there and play music.
Q: You see a lot of inequality in today’s schools. Speaking of music, some of the poorer communities can not afford to fund music programs. From your perspective how important is it for youngsters to have access to learn music they desire?
A: It is very important to be exposed to that. It is also very important for programs to integrate more current music in their curriculum. What a lot of these kids are doing is going in and being turned off to the programming as it is not necessarily stuff they are interested in. It is important to let students know there are instruments available to them and choose if this is something they really want to do. There are a lot of people that have that natural talent that never got the opportunity to pursue it , which is tough to see.
Q: If you could write the next chapter of your life what would we be reading?
A: I would love for the album to break and have the opportunities to break out. I would love to work with other artists. I do a lot of writing and producing and want to do more of that. I love creating music whether if it’s my own or for someone else.
Q: As your desire is to work with other groups is anything in the works?
A: We are looking to tour with some large acts this Fall.
Press play below to view SecondHand Serenade perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live:
