Culture
Vertical Horizon’s Matt Scannell reflects on massive success of ‘Everything You Want’ 25 years on
By: Ian Saint
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CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio (WOUB) — When Vertical Horizon’s Everything You Want topped Billboard’s Hot 100 in the first summer of the new millennium, it marked the end of what the band’s lead singer and guitarist Matt Scannell calls a “seven-year slog.”
The blockbuster single was the title track of Vertical Horizon’s fourth record — three self-released albums preceded their signing to RCA — and their first Hot 100 entry whatsoever. Mirroring their long persistence to a record deal, Everything You Want’s pace to No. 1 — six months after entering the Hot 100, and nine months after being released to radio — is one of the most glacial in history.
Despite the double-platinum success of Everything You Want and two more Hot 100 entries, Vertical Horizon’s next album Go floundered, and RCA dropped the band. The group lost their drummer, as well, as Ed Toth left to join the Doobie Brothers.
In a remarkable turn of events, Rush’s Neil Peart stepped up to the kit as Vertical Horizon soldiered on as independent artists once more, playing five songs (and co-writing one) on their next two albums. Those sessions were among just a few times the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer ever recorded outside of Rush, before Peart’s untimely 2020 death. Their critics-defying collaboration was the culmination of a close friendship that Scannell says was built slowly — much like Vertical Horizon’s path to a record deal and their No.1 single.
Today, Vertical Horizon is celebrating the 25th anniversary of Everything You Want. The record has been reissued on translucent orange vinyl and the band is embarking on a tour that plays three Ohio cities this month, two of which are with Gin Blossoms and Toad the Wet Sprocket.
WOUB’s Ian Saint spoke with Scannell ahead of their upcoming performances throughout the state. Find a transcript of their conversation below, edited for length and clarity.
Ian Saint: Vertical Horizon is playing throughout Ohio. Have you any takeaways from touring the Buckeye State over the decades?
Matt Scannell: I don’t know that I’ve ever met someone from Ohio that I didn’t like; and I can tell that I like you, too, so Ohio is batting 1.000. There’s a real passion for live music performances, and we feel it every time we play there: people excited to support bands go out and attend live shows, and really become present in the moment. So I’m grateful that we’ve got multiple appearances in your state this summer.
Cleveland is famously where Rush first broke in America. Can you share your experiences working with Neil Peart, especially since these were among his final recordings?
Scannell: Neil and I wrote a song on our (2009) record Burning the Days, called Even Now. He wrote the lyrics, and I wrote the music. He (drummed) three songs on that record, which was astounding.
Rush is my favorite band. I grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts; and Rush was the second concert I ever attended — on the (1982) Signals Tour. Through a strange confluence of events, I was introduced to Neil; he and I became friends, and he was a big brother to me eventually. It was beautiful, because it took some time for us to get to know each other — and that’s the way it kind of ought to be, over a course of a few years. We just spent more and more time together, and eventually we’d go on car trips.
It’s hard to speak about him in past tense, even all this time (since his 2020 death). Neil was this boundless source of light, joy, laughter, and enthusiasm; being in his orbit was energizing. I always found myself walking taller after hanging with him; he had that effect on people. I miss him so much; but I’m grateful for the experiences and memories that I have with him — like these beautiful songs we collaborated on, I still can’t believe it. I’m eternally grateful that my favorite drummer and lyricist of all time made incredible contributions to my band’s legacy.
Congratulations on the 25th anniversary reissue of Everything You Want. Achieving double platinum and a No. 1 single is a dream, but Vertical Horizon had a long journey, releasing three independent records before signing with RCA, right?
Scannell: “Slog” is the perfect word. It was a seven-year slog, building the band brick-by-brick. We toured around the country in a Ford SUV, and slowly built an audience. We were paying our dues; I mean, seven years is a very long time.
The amazing thing, when I listen back to Everything You Want, is I can hear me starting to feel unsure if I could continue doing it at that level. It was getting to be a little too hard. We really weren’t making money; I was sweating the rent every month, and seven years of that can start to tear you down. So when we got to where we had interest from major labels, we’d just sold our seventy-thousandth record as independent artists… I mean, I’m proud of us. I’m grateful to our fans and friends who bought those records, and they were keeping us alive. So major labels started sniffing around. “Why are these guys able to do this without us?”
When it was starting to look like we potentially had opportunity to sign with a major label, I doubled-down on my songwriting and singing, trying to get worthy of their focus, time, and consideration — not in terms of trying to write songs that were commercial, but songs that were good, true, and real. “Does this song make me feel something?”
Songwriting has always been intensely introspective for me; it’s a very sacred and selfish pursuit. I’m continually trying to fix the broken pieces inside me, and I don’t think about what someone else is going to feel or not, or are they going to want to sing along. It’s just, “Am I going to want to sing this song a thousand times in the future, at concerts around the world?” You have to ask yourself the tough questions in that regard; make sure that it’s as tight, good, and true as possible. When I read a song that stands up to those tests, it seems to resonate with other people at some level as well.
Everything You Want’s title track topped Billboard’s Hot 100 in 2000, and that was an “intensely introspective” song you wrote about somewhat-unrequited love…
Scannell: Not “somewhat,” that’s putting it kindly. Completely, utterly…
Completely, utterly unrequited love; not the easiest thing to air. Was it unusual for an intimately personal song to become not just a No.1 hit, but an anthem for the Y2k era — which conjures so many different meanings to different people?
Scannell: Yeah. I think it’s kind of a miracle, because it was just me in a dark room, “digging in the dirt” as Peter Gabriel sings. It still boggles my mind that it has gone so far in height, and also distance around this beautiful world. People have held it in their hearts, and had it be part of the soundtrack to their lives. When we play it, people sing it; and it’s just magic.
There is this moment when the intensely private becomes public. Once you put your song out in the ether, it is — on some level — no longer yours. It’s part of many peoples’ experiences, whether they like it or don’t like it, whatever; people will have feelings about what it means to them. And I always love that music doesn’t come with a decoder ring; that it can mean something to one person, and mean something very different to another.
Everything You Want was a song that I wrote, because I loved a girl who didn’t (love me back). She just thought of me as a friend, and she kept seeing these guys who were so bad to her; and I wanted so desperately to be the one that she would run to, I wanted to lift her up and love her. But she just couldn’t see me that way, and it was hard.
Unfortunately, though, that’s what happens as you walk through this life: you have moments where you wish something could be different, so what are you going to do about it? I wanted to fix that crack inside of me, so I wrote Everything You Want — and now there’s this affection from people all over the world, it’s part of their lives and stories, so it made something beautiful out of the wreckage.
Now we’ve got people who come up to us and say, “My grandfather played me your record, and I love your record.” It’s both strange, and the dream, at the same time. You’ve got generations of families who share our record as part of their collection of music that they listen to together; I mean, that’s insanity, that’s wonderful.
As you’ve discussed in the past, Go struggled commercially despite the recent success of Everything You Want. After Go, Vertical Horizon lost both your label and drummer; but when you created your next album (Burning the Days) independently, you recorded with the drummer and lyricist of your favorite band (Rush). That’s a compelling testament to not being broken by the devastation of those setbacks.
Scannell: That’s astounding. If you’d told 13-year-old me that one day Neil Peart would be playing on our records, I would’ve just said, “No, there’s no way. Impossible.”
Maybe your 33-year-old self, going through the label misfortune, would’ve also found that encouraging.
Scannell: Totally. There have been a few heroes of mine, who became dear friends and big brother figures. Richard Marx is another one of those guys. Growing up, I had so much love for his music; I learned a lot from his writing, and the guys playing on his records. He and I have collaborated on some of our best songs, and done shows together.
I remember an email from Richard as Go came out. He could tell that Go was not being supported in the way that Everything You Want had: “Hey, I know what’s happening, and I know it’s really hard; but every morning I drive my kids to and from school, I ask what they want to listen to and they (pick) Go. So just know you’re singing to the Marx family every day.” What a kind, generous, and supportive thing to do — at a time when I definitely needed it.
Vertical Horizon comes to Cain Park Evans Amphitheater (14591 Superior Rd.) in Cleveland Heights next Wednesday, the free Tomato Festival (1640 Davidson Dr.) in Reynoldsburg on Saturday, and the Rose Music Center (6800 Executive Blvd.) in Huber Heights on Sunday, August 18.
For more information, visit https://www.verticalhorizon.com/tour.