One word comes up a lot when talking to the members of The Horizon Is After Us: Legitimacy. At times, it starts a sentence. At others it adds emphasis to a thought. Truth is, the four current members (vocalist Lance Grant, guitarist Erik McGreevy, guitarist Dan Knatcal, and drummer Scott Perket) couldn't be more preoccupied with legitimacy and all the different ways to go about establishing it.

Coffee beans have nothing to do with legitimacy, but the bandmates munch on a few as they discuss the most legitimate product they can offer: their music. McGreevy and Perket have played music toget... (+) expand

One word comes up a lot when talking to the members of The Horizon Is After Us: Legitimacy. At times, it starts a sentence. At others it adds emphasis to a thought. Truth is, the four current members (vocalist Lance Grant, guitarist Erik McGreevy, guitarist Dan Knatcal, and drummer Scott Perket) couldn't be more preoccupied with legitimacy and all the different ways to go about establishing it.

Coffee beans have nothing to do with legitimacy, but the bandmates munch on a few as they discuss the most legitimate product they can offer: their music. McGreevy and Perket have played music together since high school in local metal bands such as Hindrance, Poor Mans Vision and Music For An Image. The last of these brought former bassist Jason Ball into the fold after his stint in the group Pivital. Which led to Pivital's frontman, Grant, joining the others in the fall of 2006. After Ball departed, Knatcal came on to fill the void. Playing Six Degrees of The Horizon Is After Us may require a flow chart and an abacus, but the members say what they have now is an extraordinary chemistry and creative energy. When we started, we had so many ideas, McGreevy says. We were playing songs that were 30 minutes long.

The band crafts a very ambient style of hard rock, exemplified on its self-titled EP release (November, 2006) that is now available in local music stores and across the internet. The albums six tracks are the result of painstaking studio work; the band members spend every waking hour either working their day jobs or recording. We're a stressed-out group of guys, Perket says.

They've sought just as much legitimacy in how they market themselves, writing out a step-by-step plan on a dry-erase board in the basement of Nick Sibleys downtown studio. The overall philosophy: Play fewer shows, but make each one a memorable event. Make the concert as much a visual landscape as a sonic one. Always leave people wanting more.

Its worked to tremendous effect so far; the bands first show in April of 2006 brought in 50 people, many of them friends and acquaintances. Their next few shows were in front of 100 people, most of them unfamiliar faces. The bands EP release show on November 18, 2006 was only the band's sixth concert, but already the group had over a dozen corporate sponsors on board to help promote it and a large turnout with over 400 copies of their EP sold. (A strong feat in Springfield, Misssouri's struggling live music market.)

THIAU caught the attention of Phil Taylor (Future Leaders of the World & Machina), also featured on THIAU's song, "Theatre," and John LeCompt (Evanescence & Machina). Since the EP release, THIAU has been working on new music under the production of Taylor and LeCompt and will be putting out a new demo in early 2008. "These are strong songs that show a more commercial appeal while still maintaining our ambient metal roots," says Perket, "The band has played a number of shows with the new material and have recieved a very strong response. We can't wait to get this music in hand and ears of our fans." Despite the progress, McGreevy says he maintains a simple philosophy: Never get arrogant. You can always do something better in music, he says. Its as legitimate a credo as one could hope to hear from a band.

By: Chris DeRosier, GO Magazine (-) collapse