The second life of Secondhand Serenade

Long before reels grabbed our attention for all of five seconds and doom scrolling was an elite sport, the land of html reigned.

Choosing your best friends was a battlefield, 12 year olds were doing high-level coding, your mood was told through your media player track, and everything was rawrsome. Cyanide and Happiness brought the disturbing giggles, tiger strips were a hairdressers nightmare, and MySpace was the home of music discovery. Ahh, what a bright memory, one that wasn’t too long ago…

John Vesely comes in with a harsh reality – that was in fact 20 years ago. Of course Vesely would know. His moniker music act Secondhand Serenade was THE MySpace “band”. 

Secondhand Serenade Australian Tour

WHEN: FRI 19 DEC
WHERE: MAX WATTS, MELBOURNE

Keep connected to your live music scene here.

 

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“That was a great time – it gave a voice to a lot of independent artists who didn’t have a voice without a label at the time. MySpace was like “here you go, have a platform where we can help grow your music and we’ll give you a way to interact with fans around the world. It was wild. Before that you could only be a local artist who started gaining traction and go web out from there, but with MySpace, immediately people around the world could figure out who you are just by putting a song on their page,” Vesely explains.

MySpace built the global Secondhand Serenade story. The platform allowed Vesely to build a loyal fanbase and was the ultimate marketing tool to self-promote debut album, Awake. With the ability to connect directly with fans and sell his album without a middleman, MySpace catapulted the emo-pop masters career. The popularity resulted in Secondhand Serenade becoming one of MySpace’s “Top Unsigned Artists”, led to a record deal with Glassnote Records, and made Vesely a staple of the scene. 

“I’ll never forget it because I feel like I did it at the right time. I recorded my album at just the right time. It’s crazy! I posted my album right after I got the master and started selling it and within a few months I was number one on the MySpace Unsigned Artist Chart,” he recalls.

“I would spend four hours a day responding to fans. It was just a thing where you just talk to people and everybody used it to grow each other. I wouldn’t be doing this today if it weren’t for that.”

Soon followed the 2008 cornerstone album, A Twist In My Story, which revealed emo-revolutionary ballad, ‘Fall For You’, yet again transforming the artist’s appeal. Another two albums would slide into Vesely’s catalogue, before taking a step back from the spotlight. He wasn’t gone, just hidden, working in Nashville with a bunch of amazing musicians as a writer and producer.

“I definitely needed a bit of a break, I was still making music and establishing myself in Nashville working with other musicians, but now I’m back full force into Secondhand,” he explains.

Now, at the 20th anniversary of his announcing album, Awake, Vesely is back, bringing the album to Australian audiences. It’s been a whopping sixteen years between drinks with Secondhand Serenade and he’s ready to celebrate the album that made him a household name with an audience who was there from the start, as accompanied by a symphony orchestra.

 “I’ve been wanting to come back but it was coming down to the right circumstances and when I would be heading to that side of the world. I wanted to be able to bring the right show. The first time back I wanted it to be something special and something memorable, so I made sure that Australia was one of the spots on this tour.”

 

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“I found this amazing guy, Nike – he’s my violin player and also the string leader and he has helped me through all of my melodies throughout this album and put together the most beautiful parts, and not just for the songs but with intros and segways and transitions that gives the album a whole new life. It’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve heard anyone do with my music and I’m really excited to share it with people.” 

The return is not just for a once-off celebration for the title. Though he has a view of doing the same dedicated tour with A Twist In My Story, Vesely is back in the studio for the Secondhand Serenade project, his first release since 2023, and first album since 2012.

“This is my passion project. It’s what I do and I do it just for me. I’m about half way through a new album but I’ll be dropping the new song in December and I’ll be playing it on the tour so people can be familiar by the time I get here.”

The spark is back – you can see it in his face as he details the return to music. 

Join him to spotlight the Secondhand Serenade starting point. Tickets are available here.