Scale the Summit
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Blistering.com: In comparisons to Monument, where is Carving Desert Canyons better? In other words, how does it stack up?
Letchford: It’s 10 times better, and I feel very confident saying that. Like I mentioned earlier, I was able to spend a lot more time on the core song writing of this record. Not only is the song writing matured and shown a lot more growth, Carving Desert Canyons production is amazing. That was actually the biggest disappointment for Monument - was we had little time and money to make it sound good. It's not terrible, but it could have been far better. That been saying, it stacks up a lot higher than Monument.
Blistering.com: As complex as your songs appear, they are very digestible (i.e. “The Great Plains,” “Bloom”), so is that the goal – to be complex, yet organic and catchy?
Letchford: We are obviously all huge fans of complexity in music, but it was definitely not our main goal to sound as technical as possible. We spent more time writing this new album to have good songs other than just packed full of chops. "The Great Plains" is definitely a great example. I love the clean solo I have in that song by itself probably as much as the rest of the entire album. I think "Dunes" is another great example of a "nice song;” one to really get into without have to concentrate more on the amounts of notes we're playing, ha-ha.
Blistering.com: Without vocals, how did you decide what the hooks and/or main feature of the song will be?
Letchford: After certain parts are written we could all pretty much tell which parts we thought were the most epic, and made sure to make them a re-appearing theme throughout the song.
Blistering.com: Tell me how the 8-string guitar factors into your music. Most people associate it with down-tuned chugging, but you use it differently…
Letchford: Much differently. You are correct, most people are starting to follow Meshuggah down the low F# road and beyond, with the extra 2 low strings... down from a 6 string guitar. I on the other hand I'm one of the few that tune B E A D G B E G, with one extra high string and an extra low. It's something that I thought would personally fit my playing more being that I like writing and creating extended melodies and larger chord voicing. I got the 8 string half way into writing Monument and it sparked so many more ideas, it was amazing. It's also, as some may think a much harder instrument to play, but I consider it to be one of the most fun instruments to play, and a great move for me. I have been playing 8 strings for going on a little over 4 years now.
Blistering.com: Have you encountered any difficulty in the live setting in pulling off your material?
Letchford: We haven't. We play our entire songs note for note. We spend five days a week practicing to make sure that we are able to fully pull of all the music that we write. Now obviously, we're not robots, so we do make mistakes from time to time but I think most of them are only noticed by us, or the one that made the mistake. A lot of people think we do a lot of improv as well, but all the music we write and play is 100% written.
Blistering.com: You’re entering the music industry at a very volatile time, so is there any trepidation on your part?
Letchford: I think is definitely a lot harder to get your name out their because of all the new resources that all bands have, it's a little swamped now with new bands coming out. But then again, without those resources we wouldn't be where we are now. We're just going to keep working hard and writing music. People will always be there and will always be looking for new music to listen to, so we're going to make sure they get it. I also think in a time where not only the [people in the] music industry, but the USA are in a bit of a pickle, people tend to turn to entertainment to help escape the reality! I know when I'm jamming a killer CD, like right now (Cynic's new album Traced in Air), I'm feeling pretty good.
Blistering.com: You’ve pushed the envelope quite hard on the new album, so where can you go next?
Letchford: Thanks a lot! Well it's like we all in STS use to talk about. We all thought the material on Monument was going to be hard to top. We're human and musicians constantly learning new things and progressing. I think we'll have a few things to pull out to push it even further!
Blistering.com: What are your tour plans/goals for 2009?
Letchford: We have an upcoming US tour with Intronaut, Bison BC, and Tombs starting in April running through most of May. Dates should be posted on our sites pretty soon. Our main goal is to definitely be touring full time this year. With the help of our new booking agent, I'm sure we'll make it happen!
www.myspace.com/scalethesummit
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