Tonic & Vertical Horizon
Grammy-nominated alternative rock band Tonic joined by Billboard Music award-winning band Vertical Horizon at Seacrets Monday, July 16th.
Tickets $20 $10
Doors 9pm
ABOUT TONIC
With six top 10 singles, over 4 million records sold, multiple Grammy nominations, platinum albums, hit songs around the world including the #1 most-played rock song of 1998, it is safe to say that Tonic is a musical powerhouse. Merging the raw honesty of rock with their unabashed melodies Tonic have helped usher rock n roll into the new millennium.
Many bands would be content with that sort of history. Tonic breaks the mold.
“When we play music together it feels like going home,” explains singer and guitarist Emerson Hart. “Getting together, playing some rock-n-roll: it’s the best feeling in the world.”
Hart founded Tonic with guitarist Jeff Russo – a childhood friend – adding bassist Dan Lavery shortly after inception. After storming the charts with debut album Lemon Parade and its monster hit “If You Could Only See,” the band released two additional studio albums (Sugar, the twice Grammy-nominated Head On Straight and the self-titled Tonic). With multiple soundtrack features, including the lead single from “American Pie” (“You Wanted More”), Tonic garnered this momentum with the release of their Greatest Hits CD/DVD package in July of 2009.
Tonic, the self-titled fourth studio album, debuted on the Billboard 200 charts, while also appearing in the top 50 on the Billboard Rock Album Charts and top 25 on the Billboard Independent Album Charts. Their single, “Release Me” climbed the charts reaching top 30 at Hot AC.
Tonic’s well-earned reputation as a massive live act came at a price. After finding themselves on the road for the better part of a decade, the band was ready to take a breather. “We toured relentlessly,” Lavery admits, “It was a whirlwind.”
“We needed a break,” Hart agrees. “We toured for so long – we were on the road for ten years – and everybody needed the room to do something else, work on other projects, and come back stronger.” In Hart’s case, that meant releasing a critically acclaimed solo album, 2007’s Cigarettes & Gasoline. The album spawned two Top 20 singles and a follow up Beauty in Disrepair in 2014. While Lavery built a recording studio and recorded/toured with a variety of acts including The Fray and the Revisionists, Russo was focused on composing for film and television, including “CSI:Cyber”, “Power”, and “Fargo” receiving an Emmy-nomination.
All three acknowledge the break was a welcome respite. In addition to exploring other creative outlets, the trio focused on their favorite project to date: fatherhood. “Now that I’m a father, I see the world a little differently,” Hart says. “It affects my lyrics and my music; I’m inspired to work harder. We’re all more mature now, and much stronger musicians for it. Of course,” he adds with a laugh, “We’re in a rock band, so that translates to 60% maturity and 40% nine-year-old.”
It wasn’t long before the band was compelled to get back together and start recording. “Tonic is like my baby,” Russo says. “I know Emerson and Dan feel the same way. My other projects are very important to me, but there’s something both comfortable and exciting about playing together.”
“We’ve been doing this long enough – it feels like it’s what we’re meant to do,” Lavery explains. “And once you find the people that you enjoying doing it with, everything just falls into place.”
ABOUT VERTICAL HORIZON:
Vertical Horizon was founded in the early 1990s, but it was seven years before lead singer Matt Scannell’s songs became the radio hits that brought the popular grass roots band to national attention. Vertical Horizon released three albums independently (There and Back Again, Running on Ice, and Live Stages) and toured extensively before signing with RCA Records in 1998. In 1999, they released their breakout album, Everything You Want, which went on to sell more than two million copies. The second single off the CD, the title track “Everything You Want,” captured the #1 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 and Adult Top 40 charts, and became Billboard’s Most Played Single of 2000. Having carved out a page in the annals of music history the band garnered further radio attention with “You’re a God” (#4 on Billboard’s Adult Chart) and “Best I Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning).” In 2005, “Best I Ever Had” became a top 20 country hit for country star Gary Allan.
Their follow-up album, Go, was released in 2003 and solidified the band as a no-nonsense pop rock entity. Eventually, the band took a hiatus to pursue individual interests. In 2007, feeling the time was right to start working on a new album, Matt began composing the songs which would eventually become Burning the Days. The album was released in 2009 on Vertical Horizon’s own label, Outfall Records. One of the songs, “Even Now,” was co-written by Scannell with his close friend Neil Peart, the much-heralded drummer from Rush. Peart played drums on that song as well as two other tracks on the record. Burning the Days was critically acclaimed and produced two Hot AC radio singles, “Save Me from Myself” and “The Lucky One.”
In addition to writing and producing songs for Vertical Horizon, Matt has spent the past few years writing songs with and for other artists. In 2010 he wrote “Wish You Were Here” for the band Hey Monday, featuring lead singer Cassadee Pope, who went on to win season 3 of NBC’s hit show The Voice. In 2012 Scannell teamed up with Daniel Powter to write “Come Back Home,” which was used to promote NBC’s “Chicago Fire.” Scannell and Grammy-winning songwriter/producer Richard Marx collaborate often and sometimes play acoustic duo shows together. They co-wrote Marx's 2012 AC hit “When
You Loved Me,” which reached number 15 on the Adult Contemporary Chart.
This fall Vertical Horizon will release their new album, Echoes From The Underground. The title of the album is a lyric from the song “Evermore.” It captures recurring themes throughout the record, such as a emotional and physical distance, as well as the often-hidden layers of emotion that exist within relationships. The first single, “Broken Over You,” is available for download on VerticalHorizon.com. This summer, the band takes to the road as part of the Under the Sun 2013 national summer tour with Sugar Ray, Smash Mouth, Gin Blossoms and Fastball.