Vertical Horizon

Vertical Horizon

Vertical Horizon is an American alternative rock band from Washington, D.C., United States, famous for the late 90's/early 00's popular hits "You're a God" and "Everything You Want". Their most current release is Go, which was released in 2003 and re-released in 2005. A new album is expected in 2008.

History

Vertical Horizon was formed in 1990, by Georgetown University undergrads Matthew Scannell and Keith Kane; after graduation in 1992 the duo relocated to Boston and, in 1992, self-released their debut album There and Back Again. Recorded in Matt's old high school (Deerfield Academy) over a period of a few days, Matt and Keith played all the instruments appearing on the album, as well as splitting the songwriting and lead vocal duties.

Matt and Keith toured as a duo for a few years after this, mostly appearing with similar bands such as Jackopierce. By 1995, they were ready to record again. The resulting album, Running on Ice (produced by John Alagia and Doug Derryberry), showed significant growth in the duo's songwriting. Though still acoustic based, ROI incorporated other musicians for more of a full band sound. Guests included Doug Derryberry, Jackopierce, and Carter Beauford (of the Dave Matthews Band) on drums. Two songs (Kane's "Wash Away" and Scannell's "The Man who would be Santa") were featured on the 2nd Aware Records Compilation.

More touring followed through 1996 as VH became an "official" four piece band, joined by Ed Toth on drums and Ryan Fisher on bass. A live album, Live Stages, was released at the end of the year and featured four new songs, along with more of an emphasis on electric guitar. By this time, the band was explicit in their intent to find a major record label; band members have said that it was no accident that the first track of Live Stages opens with the sounds of a large cheering audience. Their wishes came true, and the band was signed to Sony BMG Music Entertainment/RCA Records.

Fisher had never intended to join the band permanently and left in mid-1997. Seth Horan took up bass duties for the rest of that year (Horan had previously played with Toth in the Miami-based funk/rock band, Jennifer Culture). In 1998, Matt, Keith and Ed held auditions for their next bassist. Their first audition was Sean Hurley, and everyone liked him immediately. There were many more auditions, but they eventually came back to Sean, and he officially joined Vertical Horizon.

"Everything You Want"

The band's first effort with RCA was 1999's Everything You Want (with producers Ben Grosse, Mark Endert, and David Bendeth (Paramore, Your Vegas) RCA also re-released the band's back catalogue (originally released on Jackopierce's Rhythmic Records) with new packaging. The first single, "We Are", made little impact. The second single, "Everything You Want", skyrocketed to the top of the charts, and became one of the most played songs on the radio in 2000. A third single, "You're a God", also did very well and was released as a live performance on the charity album Live in the X Lounge III. It was also featured in the movie Bruce Almighty. The fourth single, "Best I Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning)", received moderate airplay. In 2005, a remake of the song would become a top 10 country hit for Gary Allan. The band, which had been touring constantly since the album was released, continued touring until well into 2001. They then took a break, then came back to the studio to record their follow-up, which they hoped would be released soon enough to take advantage of the huge popularity of Everything You Want.

"Go"

However, some management changes at RCA prevented this. It was announced that the new album, Go, would be released in September of 2002, but as the date drew closer, it appeared that this would not happen. It seemed everyone at RCA who had worked with the band on Everything You Want was no longer there, and the new employees weren't quite sure what to do with a band that did not quite fit the emerging trends of popular music.

Eventually the band went on a short tour in early 2003, and it was announced that Go (produced by John Shanks) would finally be released a year late, in September 2003. A larger tour started in August, leading up to the release of the album. A first single, "I'm Still Here", did moderately well, but faded relatively quickly and with little fanfare.

In the middle of 2004, the band ended their relationship with RCA. A new deal with Hybrid Recordings was inked in early 2005, with plans to re-release Go in the summer, including an additional track, "Better When You're Not There", which was not present on the original RCA release. The album track "Forever" was sent to radio ahead of the release, re-igniting interest for the album and indeed the band at numerous radio stations, and amongst fans old and new alike.

In July 2005, it was announced that drummer Ed Toth had left the band. He now plays with the Doobie Brothers. Temporary stand-in drummers since then have been Craig McIntyre, a close personal friend of the band, and Blair Sinta.

"Burning the Days"

In June 2006 Matt Scannell announced that the band is working on a new album. The official website also announced that Neil Peart, from Rush, will play drums on three tracks on the new album. It was also noted at least one of the songs is a collaboration between Neil and Matt Scannell. On a video blog posted to Matt's MySpace page on February 20th, 2008, the new album, "Burning The Days" is undergoing final mixing and a release date is expected to be announced shortly.

On 26 June, 2008, in Downer's Grove, Illinois, Vertical Horizon debuted a new song called "All is Said and Done" off the upcoming album. The song was added to the playlist on the band's myspace page on October 20, 2008.

Current members

• Matt Scannell (lead vocals, lead guitar) 1990 - Present
• Keith Kane (guitar, vocals) 1990 - Present
• Sean Hurley (bass guitar, vocals) 1998 - Present

Former members

• Ed Toth (drums, percussion) 1996 - 2005
• Ryan Fisher (bass guitar) 1995-1997
• Seth Horan (bass guitar, vocals) 1997
• Craig McIntyre (drums, percussion) 2005
• Blair Sinta (drums, percussion) 2006

Discography

• There and Back Again (1992)
• Running on Ice (1995)
• Live Stages (1997)
• Everything You Want (1999)
• Go (2003)
• Go 2.0 (Hybrid Recordings re-release of Go) (2005)
• Burning The Days(2008-2009)

Charting singles

Year	Title	Chart positions				Album
		US Hot 100	US Modern Rock	US Adult Contemporary	US Adult Top 40
1999	"We Are"	-	21	-	-	Everything You Want
	"Everything You Want"	1	5	-	1
2000	"You're a God"	23	15	-	4
2001	"Best I Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning)"	58	-	-	7
2003	"I'm Still Here"	-	-	-	17	Go
2005	"Forever"	-	-	17	18
2006	"When You Cry"	-	-	-	35
2008	All is Said and Done					Burning the Days

Song appearances

Several Vertical Horizon songs have been featured on the soundtracks of popular television shows. The song "Everything You Want" was played on the WB drama Roswell, "Finding Me" appeared on Buffy the Vampire Slayer's fifth season premiere, and "Echo" was played on The WB's One Tree Hill. "Goodbye Again" was played on The WB drama Smallville while "You're a God" and "Give You Back" were both played in the pilot episode of Alias.

"You're a God" also appeared in Bruce Almighty. "Give You Back" was played in the 2001 Sylvester Stallone auto racing movie, Driven. An instrumental version of "Everything You Want" was featured in the intro of the women's suffrage movie Iron Jawed Angels. The song "Heart In Hand" was used in the soundtrack to the movie The New Guy.

Several Vertical Horizon songs (including "Send it Up") were used by the radio comedy duo Scharpling and Wurster in a live 2002 comedy sketch on WFMU, as examples of songs written by "Cory Harris", the leader of a fictional, archetypically dull, generic, major-label alt-rock band called "Mother 13". The Vertical Horizon songs were later replaced for the commercial release of the sketch on New Hope for the Ape Eared on Stereolaffs records.

The song "Underwater" was also featured a couple of times on General Hospital in May of 2007 as Elizabeth Webber was giving birth to her baby Jake, as the baby's father Jason looked on nervously.

External links

• Official site
• Official message board
• Official Myspace page
• Liberty, a fan message board