I recently caught up with Scale the Summit on their current tour with The Devin Townsend Project, Cynic, and Between the Buried and Me.  I had the chance to talk to Chris Letchford (guitar) and Travis Levrier (guitar).  The boys talk to me about the road, their influences, and…bowling.

Tanner Fisher: First off, great show.  They mixed the sound very well, and I felt you played your best songs.

CL: Well thank you.

TF: So I’d like to know, how’s it like to be on tour with these three huge bands? I mean Devin Townsend is lendary.

CL: It’s amazing, man.  We just did a Dream Theater show, and that was huge. But on this tour, it’s a little younger crowd, a little more metal crowd, which I think is where we belong, because we’re younger dudes. So yeah, I mean like you said, Devin Townsend is legendary.  Every night that guy is spot on with his singing and his guitar playing. And of course you have Cynic; we’ve been fans of them forever. We’ve actually known Between the Buried and Me for a long time as well, so it’s about time this tour happened.

TL: Pretty much this tour is just a killer package.  I mean every band here offers something different, but at the same time, they all mix well together.  It’s one of the best lineups for a tour that I’ve ever seen, so we’re really excited to be a part of it.

TF: I know it’s early on the tour, but do you guys have any crazy stories for us?

CL: Not really…I don’t personally have any stories.  I mean we’re sitting on the non-party bus right now. I mean, most guys in Between the Buried and Me are straight edge vegan, and some of us don’t drink either. I don’t personally drink at all, so as far as stories, I guess that the past six or seven shows in a row have been sold out.  I don’t know if tonight’s is sold out. It did? OK, so yeah, and I think the second show on the tour sold out. So yeah, do you have any stories…?

TL: [laughs] Not like…Motley Crew tour stories, or anything like that. Let’s see, on our first night off, all of the bands went bowling for a couple hours in El Paso, so that was pretty fun.  And yeah just to be hanging out with three bands that you, not only enjoy their music but, just that everyone on this tour including the crew is just really nice, so we went bowling, and it was really fun.

TF: I know you just said that you’ve been on some big tours, but what would you say the exposure has been like on this tour? Do you think you’re being exposed to a new crowd that wouldn’t necessarily see you otherwise?

CL: Yeah definitely, like I was saying earlier, it’s a younger crowd. I mean obviously, we just did a tour with Dream Theater, and that is comparably an older crowd. On this tour, definitely not everyone knows us…I mean that’s for sure. I mean this is our…fourth full tour ever, so we’re still a pretty new band, even though we have the internet thing going.  But I mean, this tour is totally going to open new doors when it comes to a new crowd, you know a younger generation of kids in the progressive world.

TL: I mean Chris is right.  No matter what tour you’re a part of, I mean obviously we will share some fans of Cynic and BTBAM already, but not all of them.  So every night, we are being introduced to new fans, and people are being introduced to us.  It works out well.

TF:  I guess this is a fairly common question, but what would say your main influences are, as a whole, or personally?

CL: [laughs] Well, first, the four bands on this tour are definitely all influences…wait…yes it’s three bands.  I influence myself I guess.  Also, obviously Dream Theater, you know, a lot of the shredder guys like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, [John] Petrucci, Jason Becker…

TL: Well some other ones that we all share would be Guthrie Govan, a guitar player from England, a bunch of jazz people, Brothers Green…Mastodon, Opeth...the list can go on and on.  One band that our drummer [Pat Skeffington] likes a lot is Deftones. A lot of good bands, I guess.

TF: Since Carving Desert Canyons came out in 2008, and you didn’t play any new ones tonight, I was wondering, are you writing new tunes, are they almost ready? What’s going on?

TL: I currently have a few songs written, because we were home for a good chunk of time after the Protest the Hero tour during the summer, so we’re always writing, like all musicians, but the plan right now is to do one more big tour, and take a little bit of time off, finish writing, then record.  We’ll probably release a new record early 2011, possibly later this year. So we already have quite a bit written, and things are coming along nicely.  We are all excited about it.

TF: Are there any up and coming bands that you would like to take on tour with you? One band that comes to mind is Animals As Leaders.

TL: We know the guys in Animals As Leaders.  They opened for a headlining show we did in Dallas not too long ago at The House of Blues.  Great guys, I’m mean Tosin [Abasi] is a ridiculous guitar player.  We know him back from his old band, Reflux, you know the earlier Prosthetic Records days, and then I’ve kept in touch with him over the internet for the past couple years, and seeing Animals As Leaders come out, I know they’ll do well.  What I’d like to do is do a co-headlining tour with them, you know, in the future, down the line, but I think it’s still a little ways out. Yeah so the only other up-and–coming band I can think of is Periphery.

TF: Well I don’t know if you know this, but Animals As Leaders and Periphery are just starting up a tour with Veil Of Maya and Circle of Contempt…

TL: Yeah, yeah, that’ll be great.

TF: So I guess that’s it guys. Once again, great show, and keep on keepin’ on. I can’t wait to hear what you guys have in store for us in the future.