Take Vertical Horizon,
who have survived a turbulent ride that began with their
platinum-plus smash Everything You Want, rocketed
through a year and a half of sold-out shows, hit a brick
wall when their former label inexplicably dropped them,
slowed briefly into a period of reassessment, picked up
speed as they renewed their commitment to themselves and
their fans …
… and now they blast back with Go, their Hybrid
Recordings debut and a new standard for passion,
honesty, and exhilaration.
As always with Vertical Horizon, the music is the story.
Their sound, which became a radio staple with Everything
You Want, is even stronger here. Its key ingredients –
solid writing, a vast dynamic range, thundering rhythms,
and vocal harmonies soaring over wave after wave of
muscular guitar – kick into action during the opening
seconds of “When You Cry,” rise to a high point in the
thoughtful verses and resonating choruses of the album’s
first single and video, “Forever,” and sink beneath the
dreamy depths of the last track, “Underwater,” a
masterpiece of delicate arrangement and dark imagery.
Each song brims with drama and emotion – but perhaps
“I’m Still Here” best captures the message of Go.
There’s pride and triumph in the words (“The cities
grow, the rivers flow … but I’m still here”), and though
the focus is personal, a declaration of faith within a
relationship, a broader meaning is evident too:
Vertical Horizon is here. They’ve kept the faith – in
their fans and in themselves. And Go is their gift to
those who have waited …
Flash back to the summer of ’00. Vertical Horizon is on
fire. Everything You Want is climbing toward two million
sales. They’re playing sold-out shows with Third Eye
Blind and Nine Days. Billboard will soon honor them as
the Adult Top 40 Artists of the year as “Everything You
Want” hits the top of their Hot 100 and Adult Top 40
singles charts.
Yet Matt Scannell is already focusing on what lay ahead.
“Everything You Want was the record I had always wanted
to make, but at the time we were unsure about who we
were as a band,” he remembers. “It was a very difficult
process. And having gone through that, I felt much more
ready to tackle the next one.”
After wrapping up eighteen months on the road behind
Everything You Want, the band took some time off and
then regrouped to work on the follow-up. “That way,”
jokes Keith Kane, “we weren’t sick of each other
anymore. We were excited to get back into it. It was
definitely a creative time.”
Their choice for producer on Go was inspired. Though he
had recorded several major bands, John Shanks was
celebrated more for his work with Sheryl Crow, Michelle
Branch, Melissa Etheridge, and other female rockers.
“But he’s the best producer I know in terms of vocals,”
Matt points out. “He’s a guitar player too, and he’s
just as much into guitar sounds as I am. And since
guitar sound is one of Vertical Horizon’s defining
characteristics, I knew he would be a great match.”
The sessions for Go went smoothly and quickly. After
three weeks of pre-production, stretched over a
three-month period to keep the feel fresh, the band
spent no more than two months tracking at Henson Studios
in L.A. “That was maybe half the time it took for
Everything You Want,” says bassist Sean Hurley. “At that
point we were built for speed, able to turn on a dime.
It’s like we’d been exercising and were ready for the
game. And we were playing a lot better than we ever
had.”
Then came that grim twist that’s become almost a cliché
in this business: A purge at their label sent Vertical
Horizon’s main supporters off into corporate exile, and
almost overnight, despite their track record, the band
lost its record deal. “That totally sucked,” Keith
admits. “We were completely demoralized. There were
definitely days when I wasn’t sure if Vertical Horizon
would play another note of music.”
Those days passed quickly, as the greater truths sank
in: “First of all,” Keith continues, “we’re brothers.
Just as important, we knew that we couldn’t just turn
away from this record without fighting for it.”
“We stepped back and asked ourselves whether we had the
will to keep doing this,” Sean adds. “Then we kept
seeing our answer on the faces of our fans and hearing
it in their voices as they sang along with us.”
“That’s why, a year after everything went down, we were
talking about how we would move forward,” Matt
concludes. “Bands that aren’t so close to each other and
to their fans couldn’t have survived any of this.”
Their plan was to move slowly. Each member set time
aside for his own projects: Matt co-wrote with Richard
Marx and toured as his lead guitarist; Sean played on
some of those dates and also filled his calendar with
album and soundtrack dates. Keith and Matt did an
acoustic radio tour, recalling for longtime listeners
the early days when Vertical Horizon was mainly a duo
act working clubs around Washington, DC. The band
acquired the rights from RCA to license Go and signed it
to Hybrid. They made sure to play Vertical Horizon shows
too, though at a pace designed to build their energy
rather than wear them out.
“It was,” Keith recalls, “a great way to transition back
into the chaos of a full band tour.”
Now, with the re-release of Go, chaos – wonderful chaos
– is imminent. Since their longtime drummer Ed Toth
became an official Doobie Brother, they’ve been tearing
through summer concerts with Craig Mcintyre as their
fourth member. “We’re fueled by our belief in this music
and give that back in return to all of us onstage and
everyone in the audience,” Matt says. “It’s incredible;
we’ve been playing sets that run for an hour and a half,
and I always feel at the end like we’ve been up there
for five minutes. We’re just warming up.”
What, then, are the band’s goals as Go takes off? Matt
thinks for a moment, and then gives a typically candid
reply: “The real answer is that I want it all, which
means playing to as many people as we possibly can.”
In other words, it’s about beating the odds, exceeding
even the expectations of their fans, and following this
road as far as it goes – somewhere beyond the horizon,
vertical or otherwise.