【ss.forever】二手小夜曲：专访约翰·维斯利的男人背后

BG：我们期待什么样的声音可以从下一张专辑？约翰维斯利：我一定要保持关闭，坚硬的岩石的声音，我做了一点点的在这最后的记录， 你要听我，我是绝对的下去岩石路径，我退一步， 清醒是一个伟大的音乐声和一种岩石组合-但它是声，然后 扭在我的故事里是一个完美的小中位数，两者之间。然后 听到我现在有点糊涂，是完全诚实的。这些歌曲都是伟大的，在我看来。我真的很喜欢的歌曲，但这张专辑感到困惑-它没有身份有很多。这张专辑将是更多的事情，我想，有 凝聚力的，这一切都将共同努力。我要回去 尽量清醒 []声去，在不同的方向向前发展。这是怎么回事，有很多更积极的声音，特别是，在生产中它会听起来更令人振奋。抒情，它会是相同的东西，很多像左右，真正尊重自己以积极的方式。我们有一首歌叫“回到过去”，这是一个真正的自我感觉良好的歌，想着回来时，事情很容易-当你没有一毛钱，但事情是如此容易得多，你可以去一下你的一天，你不必担心什么，这是一个伟大的时间。这是所有关于积极思考，并让自己更容易迷路，让他们激励你在你目前的状态。
BG：好吧，那么最后一个问题。为有抱负的词曲创作或表演，你有什么意见吗？约翰·维斯利：绝对有几件事情。真的，真的......我不真的有这样说，因为如果你真的是一个有抱负的作曲家或音乐家，那么你不能阻止自己不断播放，因为它像一个错误，它就像一种病，你不能得到足够它-所以我不必须告诉人们，要做到这一点，因为它是明显的。不过说真的，尽量专注于你正在做什么不是只为你，因为这是自私的。音乐是供大家欣赏，你真的要考虑，当你创建这个音乐。很多的时候我是成长起来的人会说，他们并没有想大的球迷基础，因为他们想要的，他们想要做的音乐 -和这很酷，你想使自己的音乐，不管，但有是没有点使人们不想要听的音乐。我认为它重要的事情写的，人照顾左右，并认为他们可以理解，和这么多的故事，从球迷怎么我的音乐已经影响他们的一些方法，形状或形式积极......每次我听到的东西一样，它是后想，'好吧-我要玩音乐的明天“。并注意你的球迷-球迷是最重要的事情，我们做什么。它让我作为一个专业的，如果我不玩音乐作为一种职业，那么我不会把我这个音乐，播放音乐， 这种音乐将永远存在。因此，球迷们真的公式中的最重要的事情-为艺术家，音乐家，唱片公司为大家。你必须依靠你的背部。对待他们尽可能多的尊重。发挥所有的时间做音乐。
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这里放个原版（英文）的吧！！
首先标题：
The Man Behind Secondhand Serenade: Interview with John Vesely

If you haven’t been following Secondhand Serenade since the first album, Awake, in 2007, like surely a good portion of his 3 million fans on Facebook have been, then you’ve most certainly heard his hit single, “Fall For You.” The man behind Secondhand Serenade, John Vesely, took some time to speak with The Berklee Groove about songwriting, the brand new upcoming album, and wearing his heart on his sleeve.
How did you get started with writing music?
John Vesely: Music has been in my family for quite some time. My brother is a musician and he went to Berklee and my father was a professional musician for 25 years, with some time spent overseas. It was around me constantly as I was growing up, and when I found it on my own, which happened around the beginning of high school/end of junior high, you know, I definitely was not the ‘put in the time and practice, practice, practice [type],’ I just more, dove right in. I had lots of creative surges and writing came really naturally to me, because I had the strive to make music right out of the gate. I started off playing bass, actually, and it was hard to get any writing in because usually the guitar player in the band did all of the writing, and eventually I switched over to guitar. And eventually I stopped trying to find a band and started doing it myself because I just had too much trouble.
BG: Do you have a specific method or process that you go through when you’re writing?
John Vesely: I guess you would call it organized chaos; it comes naturally, as any musician would know. You can definitely say ‘I’m going to sit down and write a song’ and write it, but it’s not going to be your most inspired work. It’s the kind of thing that happens when you’re least expecting it. I’ve written songs, I’ve started writing songs, I wrote melodies, wrote lyrical lines while I was driving my car, going to the bathroom, in the shower; it’s the kind of thing that happens, you know, whenever. Which is nice to have a phone that I can take voice notes on. It’s frustrating though, because nowadays you can’t talk on your phone when you drive. I looked kind of crazy; I actually had my windows tinted in my car for a long time because I would sing at the top of my lungs in my car. It’s the kind of thing that happens on a whim, and you have to be prepared for it. The most important part is that you never take for granted what you’re doing, you know? When you’re out in public and you have a good idea, you have to jot it down. You constantly have to be doing that and then you put the ideas together at some point. It’s like writers that produce literary work, but we hum things and we look even crazier.

BG: Out of all of your albums so far, do you have a particular song that you’re most proud of or the most connected to?
John Vesely: Yeah, well I had a song called “Never Too Late,” which I think musically is a pretty great song, and lyrically. It’s one of my newest songs that I released on my Weightless EP. I produced it myself and did all of the orchestration, the orchestral arrangements, and everything on my own in my own house. I was really hands-on with that song. I also definitely do think the arrangement and the writing for “Fall For You” was done really well, and I worked with Butch Walker for production with that song and it paid off – the song did really well. In this business, there’s a certain amount to be said about that unknown factor that people tend to latch onto songs for, and I don’t know… that song seemed to have it, and I’m not sure what made it so special, but it’s all about trying to harness that, whatever it may be, and trying to do it again.
BG: You’re pretty well known for “wearing your heart on your sleeve” with your music. Do you think that is part of why your music has become so popular?
John Vesely: Possibly. I think so. I think there are a lot of things that go into making a song, especially songs that people are going to listen to and appreciate on a larger scale. I think a lot of it is definitely being able to connect to the lyrics and being able to connect to what the writer is trying to say and get across. The second thing is making sure that the musicality is matching what you’re trying to say – that’s really important. There are some records that do that really well, that harness what they’re trying to get across with the lyrics and make you feel that with the music before you even hear the lyrics, you know, which is very important. And third, is just writing in a way that is just being catchy melodically – and that’s something that some songs are doing really well right now, obviously, that aren’t saying much at all, but that are obnoxiously catchy, and that you’re, without wanting to or realizing, going to be humming walking down the street. But it’s putting all of those factors together, and that’s very, very important, and it’s a necessity when you’re writing a song that you want to be successful. I’ve been trying to learn how to do that, and I’m still learning and I’ll continue learning until the day that I die, but I will always write very personally and I will always try to get my point across as well as possible, and the easiest way to do that is to be very, very honest and not write too cryptically. I’m not one of those writers who throw in a slew of metaphors, I just write really literally. I don’t want to hide what I’m saying. You can be creative and artistic without making it nonsensical.
BG: You originally started out as just a solo act; what influenced you to start recording and touring with a full band?
John Vesely: You know, I just wanted to keep my options open musically and I really do love to play with a full band. I recently got off of an acoustic tour and then I went with a full band out to Asia shortly thereafter, and the Asia tour was rad. I like the experience of hanging out with a band, and when you choose this as a lifestyle and a career, it’s just you out there. If you have a band with you, it enhances the experience, so that’s a lot of fun. And also just playing on stage, that’s a different dynamic all together. When you’re alone, you can’t put on a big show or extravaganza – it’s just you and a guitar. But touring with a full band is great; it’s really different. As far as recording, I usually record most of the stuff by myself. I’m not a drummer – you will never see me behind a drum set. I may produce some drum parts but I’ll never sit behind a drum set – it’s not my thing and I don’t have the coordination for it. I record it with midi and then send it off to my drummer and he records it and it’s a lot easier that way. My drummer usually puts his own twist on it and I just give him what feel I would like to have, and he turns it into a drummer’s performance.

BG: What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to overcome throughout your career?
John Vesely: You know, the most difficult thing has been psychological issues. Especially when you do well and you do really well really quickly. I went through a period kind of going down hill as a person for a while, and it affected me musically and it affected me personally and writing became nearly impossible. When I did write in that stage, it didn’t turn out to be what I wanted it to be, or at least what other people wanted it to be. I kind of had this little awakening over the course of this past year and it’s been great. Creatively, I’m in the best place I’ve been in years or possibly ever. Psychologically, if you’re not in the right headspace, you are worthless musically. It’s something you have to pull yourself out of on your own. You know, beyond that, once you have that inspiration, being able to work on something and being able to step away from it for a moment, sometimes you get too close, especially if you’re producing it yourself or if you’re performing with the instruments yourself, you can get so lost within that song or that recording. You need to be able to step away from it and gain some perspective and it’s a very, very difficult thing. I’m still not perfect at it but I’m getting better. Thinking objectively is very important in this industry.
BG: Your next album is being funded through pledgemusic.com and you’ve already exceeded your goal, which is awesome. What has that been like?
John Vesely: We reached the goal in like, a month, which was great and it’s still going. Now it’s just for promotional and financing to be able put out the record, but the budget for the record is done. I got a bunch of gear that I needed and I’m going to work with some producers and produce a bunch of it myself. I’m really, really excited; it reassures me how I’ve changed my own life and proves that everything is going to be okay. After a while with the label situation – not that they weren’t doing great or I wasn’t doing great, we both had our faults… But the fact of the matter is that nothing was particularly getting done in a really, you know, forward fashion. They were so busy and there were so many other bands on the roster and so few people at the label that it was really hard to allocate resources. I was also not on my A-game and I was lost and seeing crap on tour, and I wasn’t taking care of my body, I wasn’t taking care of myself. With my whole change of attitude and lifestyle, I thought it’d be a good time right now, if I wanted to put out a new record, to go somewhere and maybe get a fresh start. And we did and started to do a few songs and we were going to try to sign to a different label right away, but then I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to try to do this record on my own,’ and it started turning out really well – better than most of the stuff I’ve done, in my opinion. So I said I’m going to go about this without any regulations and without anyone checking up on me, I’m just going to make the album I want to make, like I did with Awake. So far, it’s going so great and pledgemusic.com is available for artists to use, where it worked out perfectly for me. Granted, you need to have a fan base and something to offer, but it’s a really, really great way. So many artists are going that route now and I think it’s scaring labels and putting them in awkward positions because they don’t want to do artist development, right? But the paradox lies within that, because artists that are already developed don’t need the label anymore. I feel really confident in my decision. And we can either choose to license the album out to a major or I can just distribute it myself… it’s just a matter of how busy you want to be, and I think me being busy as shit and not having time for anything else is okay, as long as I know work is being done, because when a label is involved, there’s so much time that you are just assuming that work is being done, and you don’t know for sure. I really like being on top of everything. Since I left the label, my online numbers have skyrocketed, my sales numbers have skyrocketed, it’s all been going uphill since Ileft the label, and I’m not expecting someone else to do it. But in the same token, it goes to show that they weren’t doing as much as I am doing right now.

BG: Well you do have over 3 million fans on Facebook now, which is nuts.
John Vesely: Yeah, I’m really lucky to have people that support me. And some of them may be stagnant and some of them may be really assertive and really active, but the fact of the matter is - they’re there. And once I have this new material and once I start really doing these major video updates – I’m going to do tons of updates as soon as I start working and this next week, I should be starting full-on on this next record with updates constantly and actually tracking – and once I start doing all of that, it’s going to be a community that’s going to be buzzing and I want people to excited about it.
BG: What kind of sound can we expect from the next album?
John Vesely: I’m definitely going to keep off of that hard rock sound that I did a little bit of on this last record, Hear Me Now, and I was definitely going down more of a rock path, and I’m stepping back from that. Awake was a mix of great acoustic music and a kind of rock – but it was acoustic, and then A Twist In My Story was a perfect little median, in between. And then Hear Me Now was a little confused, to be perfectly honest. The songs were all great, in my opinion. I really liked all of the songs, but the album was confused – it didn’t have a lot of identity. This album is going to be a lot more, I guess, cohesive and it’s all going to work together. I’m going back to Awake as far as acoustic goes and moving forward in a different direction. It’s going to be a lot more positive, in sound especially, and in production it’s going to sound more uplifting. Lyrically, it’s going to be the same stuff, a lot more about like, really respecting yourself in positive ways. We have a song called “Back to the Old Days,” which is a really feel-good song, which is about thinking about back to when things were easy – when you didn’t have a dime, but things were so much easier and you could go about your day and you didn’t have to worry about anything, which was a great time. It’s all about thinking positively and allowing yourself to get lost in easier times and letting them inspire you in your current state.
BG: Alright, so last question. Do you have any advice for aspiring songwriters or performers?
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看得眼睛都花了...