You probably know Blake Lewis as the spiky-haired blond guy who might've won American Idol -- you know, if it hadn't been for a little lady by the name of Jordin Sparks. But you might also (wrongly!) remember him as the man behind Secondhand Serenade: John Vesely. And if you do, we completely get where you're coming from.
Okay, granted the guys aren't exactly musical twinsies -- Vesely is all about soft, tender emo love while Lewis is all flashy, loud and "Look Ma, I can beatbox!" -- but we're willing to bet you'd have trouble differentiating between the two singer-songwriters if, say, it was kinda dark outside and you were squinting 'cause you forgot your glasses.
So marvel at the similarities between the two (The baleful stares! The side dimples! The matching "Dennis the Menace" 'dos with the asymmetrical frosted-tips!) and then prove to yourself that they are, in fact, different people, by checking out samples of each fellow's work.
Oh, and when you're watching Blake's video, you may want to keep those glasses off. Like the controversial 2012 Olympic mascot, the video is so fast and crazy and full of flashing colors it just might trigger a seizure. And no one needs that.
Plus: more Wonder Twins:
+ Christina Aguilera and Anna Faris
+ Katy Perry and Zooey Deschanel
+ Pete Wentz and Dean Cain
Saying goodbye is never easy. Just last night we had to do it twice: once to Idol contestant Ramiele Malubay, and then again as we bid adieu to the general concept of youth in the collective form of 19 years of Real World casts who attended the Real World Awards Bash. And today, we're saying farewell to Secondhand Serenade, who's guest blogged for Buzzworthy for the past three weeks.
Fittingly, John Vesely's last Buzzworthy post is about "Goodbye," the final song off his latest album, A Twist In My Story.
Read about "Goodbye," catch up on John's other Secondhand Serenade Buzzworthy posts, and then go work on your separation issues.
"Goodbye" is the last song on the album. It had to end with a bang. I originally wrote this song for the acoustic guitar but never had an ending for it. When I started recording this album, I started working on it again. I'm a sucker for builds, so I wanted to incorporate something leading up to an explosion. I decided to use a full band for the ending because it was so powerful and it really summed up the album well.
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We, like John Vesely (AKA Secondhand Serenade), are drawn to anything classically epic: OneRepublic's latest single, "Stop and Stare," Jane Child's "Don't Wanna Fall In Love," the 2008 presidential election.
And epic is exactly how he wanted his track, "Like a Knife," off his new album, A Twist In My Story, to sound.
See what inspired "Like a Knife," and check out his previous Buzzworthy posts about writing and recording "A Twist In My Story" and "Fall For You."
I love "Like a Knife" because it's really big. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted this song to sound like, but the trick was actually having it end up sounding like it did in my head. It was the first song that me and Danny Lohner -- my producer -- worked on when we started the album. Brandon, the former drummer of the Used, came in and laid down an AMAZING foundation for us to work with. From there I just started adding the layers. I wanted to give it a really epic feel. All the parts came really naturally, and it turned out sounding better than I imagined. Needless to say, it was a pretty good start for the album.
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Last week, Secondhand Serenade's John Vesely wrote his first Buzzworthy blog post, about writing "Fall For You," off his new album, A Twist In My Story.
This week, in his second Buzzworthy post, John talks about the orchestration of the album's title track and its extra-special relevance to his personal life.
"A Twist In My Story" is one of my favorite songs on the album. First off, the production is great. I always wanted to have an orchestral-based song, and I think it came together really well. I didn't really know what to do with it when we started recording. There were ideas of throwing in a full band, but I really had my heart set on keeping it simple and intimate. It needed to be acoustic-based, so I recorded the acoustic guitar track, and we sat down to start throwing ideas out. We ended up giving stings a try, and instead of keeping them in the background, we put them right up front.
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