www.verticalhorizon.com
www.myspace.com/verticalhorizon
Vertical Horizon was founded by Matt Scannell and Keith Kane in 1991, while both were attending Georgetown University. Initially a duo, Vertical Horizon, recorded and toured extensively throughout the Northeast. They released 3 albums independently, There and Back Again, Running on Ice, and Live Stages before signing with RCA in 1999. Their first major release, Everything You Want sold 2 million copies with the title song hitting #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and Adult Top 40 charts. The song was the most played song of 2000. In addition to the success with “Everything You Want”, the band also garnered success at radio with “You’re a God” (#4 on Billboard’s Adult Chart) and “The Best I Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning)”which in 2005, became a Top 20 country hit for Gary Allen.
Their follow-up album Go was slated for release in 2003, but the merger of Sony/BMG left the band and the album lost in the proverbial shuffle. Released from their contract in 2004, the band signed with Hybrid Records and the album was re-released in 2005. Soon thereafter, the band took a self-imposed hiatus and went their separate ways to pursue other interests. In 2007, realizing as Matt says “there was more to do” and ‘thinking the timing was just right to start working on a new album” the band began writing and recording, Burning the Days. The album is slated for release on September 22, 2009 with the first single, “Save Me from Myself” recently sent to radio. The single has been extremely well received and is currently climbing the Hot AC charts with strong airplay in McAllen, Modesto; Monterey-Salinas, El Paso, and New Orleans.
Independent of label constraints, Burning the Days was produced by Scannell and recorded at his studio over the course of the past 2 years. For the band, it was a complete return to their beginnings of working at their own pace and “nurturing those moments of inspiration.” According to Matt, the album is “sonically as good as anything we have ever done. I take great pride in this album and feel that our renewed sense of creativity will resonate with our fans.” The album also features virtuoso drummer Neil Peart of Rush on “Save Me from Myself”, “Even Now” and “Welcome to the Bottom” as well as Richard Marx playing piano on “Here” and producing two of Matt’s lead vocal tracks.
“I’m actually in a pretty positive place right now”, says Scannell, “Of course I still have that underlying fear of everything falling apart and crumbling to the floor, but it is not the first thing on my mind, like it’s been at times in the past.” And so one of the main themes of Burning the Days is about finding balance in a journey from hardship to peacefulness – knowing that the up must follow the down, and vice versa. “It’s about being OK with things going well, and also finding strength to get through the tough times.”
The first single, “Save Me From Myself,” is about “the danger of getting so lost in your own struggles and personal demons that you can’t help the people you love, and you won’t let the people you love help you. You’re to far away in your own head to do anything but spin off in self-criticism and doubt. There’s a lot of anger and frustration in that song.” Conversely, “The Lucky One” is one of the albums most upbeat tracks, a fact that took the song’s author a bit of time to get used to. “I’m usually wary of songs that have really upbeat messages, but this song resonated for me because I tend to be the last one to believe when things are really going well. Songs where everything’s perfect and everyone’s in love make me suspicious, but this song has enough of a gray area to feel real for me.”
Other highlights on the album are “Afterglow”, “All Is Said and Done” and “The Middle Ground”.
