After graduating from Vassar College, Scott Reitherman, 27, moved to Seattle to start a record label and make music. His solo project, Throw Me the Statue, has bloomed into a four-piece singer-songwriter rock band now signed to the indie label Secretly Canadian. The band plays the Annex Aug. 28 in support of a second album, Creaturesque.
Here's what Reitherman had to say when we talked by phone last week:
On the new album: "Moonbeams [2007] was essentially a solo project. Heading into the studio as a four-piece band to make Creaturesque was a different creative process. Some people have said I've mellowed a bit on the second album. When I listen, I realize how different it is to be a 27-year-old songwriter versus a 24-year-old songwriter."
On his latest songs: "I was not actively rebelling against [the first TMTS hit single] 'Lolita' on this record. I was trying to get better as a songwriter with writing different kinds of music. 'Lolita' was the one song most people had heard off our first record. I was a little weary of getting typecast."
On music critics: "I try not to read reviews. I think it's a worthless thing to do. There's been a changing tide in the world of music journalism as blogging has become more prevalent. Sometimes there is a lot of laziness in music writing. A lot of it is just about the writer's feelings and sounds a lot like something you'd hear in a middle school cafeteria."
On covering a Huey Lewis song: "We got asked to play a Huey Lewis cover ["If This Is It"] for a tribute album. I wasn't that familiar with his music, but what I knew I didn't like. There's this oblivious, really white quality to his lyrics, and then he'll hit you over the head with a big horn hook. But there's also something unabashedly happy about it. And the feeling I still love getting from music is that John Hughes cinematic moment of dancing by yourself in your room alone with total abandon and joy."
