It's easy for John Vesely, a.k.a. Secondhand Serenade [ tickets ], to write personal songs such as "Fall For You."

Vesely said during a phone interview that it's more difficult to share those songs, but that "I see how it helps people. It helps people a great deal and it's very, very important to me that I keep doing it for them."

"Fall for You," from Secondhand Serenade's album "A Twist in My Story," is an unlikely hit, Vesely explained. He admitted he wrote the song about someone in particular, and that all his songs are personal.

"I knew it was a pretty good song," Vesely said. "I knew it was a good album. I was really proud of the album. I absolutely had no idea ["Fall For You"] would go Top 10. How that happened is beyond me. I'm amazed at how much support it's getting from fans and radio. It's been a really, really good experience. I'm very, very fortunate.

Recording was a "great" experience for Vesely, who worked with producers Butch Walker (formerly of Marvelous 3) and onetime Nine Inch Nails member Danny Lohner.

"I was a little nervous--I'm not going to lie," Vesely said. "It was the first time I worked with a producer. Working with someone like him was a big deal for me. It took a little while to ease into it. The second time I worked with him, it got so much easier. We're friends now so it was a piece of cake. It was great. He's just really easy to work with, really professional and he knows what he's doing."

With Lohner, the vibe was a little less anxious as the two were longtime roommates. With Lohner's industrial-music background, it seemed like an unlikely pairing, but Vesely said it worked.

"I've had really, really good experiences with Danny," said Vesely, who is joined on the road by John Harvey on bass guitar, Lucas Vesely (Vesely's brother) on keys, Alex Sier on lead guitar and Tom Breyfoggle on drums.. "He's one of my best friends. I lived with him for, like, seven months when we were recording the album. He's a great, great friend of mine. Very, very talented. He was one of the first people who really believed in the project. It was definitely a pleasure to work with him.

"Danny was more of a recording experience. Living in his house [in Los Angeles], we'd wake up in the morning, go to breakfast at like Swingers Diner or something, come back at 12, sit down and work for awhile, go to the store. He lives in Laurel Canyon, so it was amazing. It was a really, really great experience."