INhonolulu Magazine Issue #15 - March 2014 | Page 20

Review / Pillar Point

From page 19
reggae vibes, some Hawaiian, some
rock beats—it’s kind of like a fusion of
just good, fun music. There’s no sorrow in my music right now [laughs].”
Although making music professionally is new for Rothman, playing music
is not. He learned to play the ‘ukulele
almost as young as he learned to surf.
“My whole family is really musically
inclined, so it was natural for me to
play and dance and sing as a kid.”
That said, the professional world of
music is not the same thing. “Music
is definitely more challenging for me,”
Rothman said. “With surfing it’s more
of a personal thing which, I guess, I’m
just more used to. You don’t have to
depend on four other guys to have the
same thought process as you. Surfing,
it’s you against the elements, and how
much preparation you put in it, that’s
how much you’re going to get out of
it. Simple as that.”
But once things come together, RothPage 20

man says, you’ll learn a lot from stepping
out of your comfort zone.
“Once you got the right people
lined up, things get really cool,” said
Rothman. “Working with John Feldmann—he just has such a good work
ethic; everyone that was working with
us had such a good work ethic.”
That includes Adam Topol (the
drummer for Jack Johnson), Chad Sexton from 311, Dean Buttersworth from
Sugar Ray and Good Charlotte, Nikki
Sixx from Mötley Crüe and others.
“All these great musicians we got to
work with—seeing how a professional musician works—it just blew me
away,” said Rothman. “We were all in
L.A. together. Jon flew over for a few
days and to watch him and Feldy work
and just to listen to certain things and
make notes and smooth things out:
That was amazing.
“To watch these two geniuses of
engineering do their thing—I just
was blown away,” continued Rothman. “I’m not going to disagree with

the guys that have sold tens of millions of records in their lives. If they
say it sounds good, I’m sure it sounds
good; if it sounds bad, then it sounds
bad [laughs]. I mean, I had my input. I definitely stood firm on some
of my own decisions and wanted the
music a certain way, and everybody
respected that and I was happy. It
turned out wonderful.”
And for Rothman, that’s what matters most.
“I just hope people can get joy out
of listening to my music. I hope this
music takes anything and everything
Hawaiian and just takes it beyond the
reef to spread it to the world; spread
aloha to the world [laughs].”
“I think he has enormous potential
to do that because he’s already been
around the world,” commented de
Mello. “He’s already been doing that
through his surfing.”
“I’m just going to make more wonderful music, surf bigger waves and
enjoy myself,” said Rothman. ■

Pillar is on point
Jeanne Hua

S

eattle-based Scott Reitherman,
known for his role in the band
Throw Me the Statue, recently
debuted a new project, Pillar Point,
with a self-titled release. Reitherman
intended the album to be an encapsulation of all that he is these days.
During an interview with Polyvinyl
Records (which released Pillar Point
on February 25), the inventive synthpop artist said, “One of the things
I wanted to do differently is to lay it
all out on table this time; to make my
songs more bare and personal.”
And that he certainly did. The
nine-tracks on Pillar Point’s debut
album consist of an array musical
emotions, each unique and specific compared to the next. Exploring

the world of sounds that Pillar Point
has created leaves one thirsting for
more. Reitherman uses his own vocals on his tracks, which adds to the
“dreaminess” of his music, since his
voice sounds like a combination of
Capital Cities’ Sebu Simonian and
Elton John.
Besides his soft, engaging voice,
Pillar Point’s lyrical voodoo is spellbinding; its content genuine and intimate. The opening track of the album, “Diamond Mine,” is filled with
lines such as, “When I’m lost inside
that deep dark ocean all I see is your
eyes… I found your diamond mine.”
“Writing darker songs with dance
elements helped me to process the
confusion and change I was experiencing in my own life, because within the confines of a pop song I could
control little moments of clarity and
redemption,” he said in the Polyvinyl interview. “And for the listener, it

adds depth to what might otherwise
be just dance music.”
Sad dance music? How oxymoronic, yet brilliant. With lyrics like “Baby’s got a black hole between the eyes,
and for a little I can’t tell she’s crying”
in the fourth track (entitled “Black
Hole”), accompanied by a pounding
drum-beat-and-bass-line
opening,
what else can you do besides violently
dance away, while also trying to understand the meaning of it all?
Pillar Point’s music has feel-good
moments as well, which can be attributed to the beats he’s created in
his songs, bound to make the listener move where the music takes them.
Pillar Point utilizes the keyboard to
its maximum potential, giving his
music that extra synthpoptic feel that
can really spark something wonderful
in the listener’s brain.

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