Gratitude For The Work Put In

Vertical Horizon

Cris Cohen: You've described the through line of Everything You Want and your songwriting on it as “a young man who's trying to understand all the ways in which he's broken.”

Matt Scannell of Vertical Horizon: Yes.

Cris Cohen: Which I get -- and my therapist can attest to -- but I'm wondering, as you look back and with the passage of time, do you now see that younger you in a different light or maybe have a little bit more sympathy toward what he went through?

Matt Scannell: Well, first of all, I have such a hard time talking about myself in the third person. My feelings over time about that time in my life and in our career… I do have to say that I'm proud of myself. And that's a pretty great way to feel. Because there are many things in my life that I'm not proud of, ways I handled situations, ways I treated people, things I've done and things I haven't done. And I've always tried to learn how to be a better person, a better human being, sometimes with greater effect than others. But I think I have learned to feel proud of myself for really drilling down, putting in the time, trying to become a better songwriter, become a better singer, learning how to be a front man… and you know, failing along the way at all those things.

But many bands that I know are almost resentful of their hit song(s) and they begrudgingly play it every night. And I am elated to feel the absolute opposite. I'm so grateful that I found my songwriting identity or voice in time for us to have been given that opportunity, to be on a major label and promoted at the highest levels. It could so easily have happened too soon for me.

So there's so much gratitude from me about all of this: the record, the work that we did, the luck that we had, but also the hard work that we put in.

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