Vertical Horizon will mark the 25th anniversary of its breakthrough album with a show Aug. 15 at Wind Creek Event Center, Wind Creek Boulevard, Bethlehem.

“Everything You Want,” the alternative rock band’s third studio album, topped 2 million in domestic sales, with the title track hitting No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart. The album also featured the hits “You’re a God” and “Best I Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning).”

Vertical Horizon, opening for Gin Blossoms and Toad the Wet Sprocket, formed as a duo in Washington, D.C., in 1991.

Founder/songwriter Matt Scannell fronts the group on lead vocals and guitar. Rounding out the lineup: Ron LaVella, drums/percussion and vocals; Mark Pacificar, bass and vocals; and John Wesley, guitar and vocals.

Scannell, born and raised in Massachusetts and living in Los Angeles, received his first guitar at around age 7, after he would “mess around” with his father’s guitar.

“It was a fairly nice instrument, though he wisely bought me a Stella student model so I could bash that around a bit instead,” said Scannell, who started taking lessons at age 13.

In junior high school, Scannell played in a band with his childhood best friend, with whom he “loved designing band logos and stage plots. We made tour books for tours that didn’t exist. We had big dreams.”

‘Changed my life’

Scannell, who cites Rush as his favorite band, also played in rock bands during high school and sang in the school choir. While students at Georgetown University, Scannell met Keith Kane — Vertical Horizon co-founder, who departed the band in 2010 — at a party.

Kane, who had a weekly gig at a small Georgetown bar, invited Scannell to sit in with him. Hence, the birth of Vertical Horizon.

During the 1990s, “we were pounding the pavement and trying to gain fans,” Scannell said. “We would drive from D.C. to Texas and back playing wherever we could along the way.“

While challenging, “it was also fun and relatively carefree, except for making sure we had enough money to pay the rent. When we finally sold 70,000 records independently, the major labels started to become interested in us.”

Vertical Horizon’s independent releases consisted of studio albums “There and Back Again” and “Running on Ice,” plus a live set. The band had officially added a bassist and drummer to the lineup for the 1999 RCA debut “Everything You Want.”

The album, Scannell said, “felt more like what I was hearing in my head than the two studio previous records, although I still love those records. We just had so much more dynamics on tap with the full band.”

When he now listens to “Everything You Want,” Scannell hears “a band that is absolutely desperate to make it work — somehow, anyhow. That’s almost a dangerous place to be in, because we could have made a record that we don’t believe in today.“

Fortunately, the musician added, “I had worked on and written a bunch of songs that I still love, and Keith had written an incredible song called ‘Shackled’ that was a beautiful and definitive way to end the album. That record changed my life.”

An RCA label restructuring, which brought record executive Clive Davis in as CEO, delayed the release of the group’s fourth studio album “Go.” The 2003 set, featuring “I’m Still Here,” spent just three weeks on the Billboard 200 albums chart, compared with 71 for its predecessor.

“It was a challenging time,” Scannell said. “It was crystal clear to us that with the change of leadership at RCA, we were no longer a priority. It was hard to go from the highs of ‘Everything You Want’ to the lows of ‘Go.’ I really love that record.”

In 2005, Sony/BMG-owned label Hybrid rereleased the album as “Go 2.0.” As did “I’m Still Here,” the tracks “Forever” and “When You Cry” cracked Billboard’s Adult Top 40 chart.

‘Gift we’re given’

Vertical Horizon released its fifth studio album, 2009’s “Burning the Days,” on its own label, Outfall. Scannell co-wrote one of the album’s tracks, “Even Now,” with late Rush drummer Neil Peart, whom he met through a friend.

Scannell “somewhat sheepishly” asked Peart if he would consider playing drums on the track. “His answer was, ‘Nobody else can play drums on it,’ ” with Peart also playing on “Save Me From Myself” and “Welcome to the Bottom.”

Singer-songwriter and friend Richard Marx also appeared on “Burning the Days,” playing piano on the track “Here.” Scannell and Marx had collaborated on the 2008 acoustic album “Duo,” which featured their own material and a new song, “Always On Your Mind.”

As for wishlist collaborators, Scannell thinks “being in a room with Peter Gabriel and hearing him sing something that we were working on together would be yet another dream come true. But I’ve had a lot of my dreams come true, so I’m not holding my breath.”

Vertical Horizon released its seventh studio album, “The Lost Mile,” in 2018, with Scannell currently working on two new band records set for release through Outfall.

While Scannell has had “many special moments along this crazy journey, being able to play shows and have anybody care 33 years on is a pretty big highlight. We’ve been fortunate.”

“It’s a gift we’re given — this bizarre life of being a professional musician — by our friends and fans,” he said. “It is not something we have any right to. So just keeping this train rolling feels like a heck of an accomplishment.”