Blind Pilot releases ‘In The Shadow Of The Holy Mountain’

The indie-folk band Blind Pilot has released its first new album in eight years. The band has been on tour and will perform in Portland in February. The group, which was formed in Oregon, joins us for an in-studio performance and to talk about the album, “In The Shadow Of The Holy Mountain.”

Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. This summer, the indie-folk band Blind Pilot released their first new album in eight years. The group formed in Oregon in 2008 and had put out three full length albums before that eight-year pause. “In the Shadow Of The Holy Mountain” is the sound of a creative dam breaking, of a bunch of new songs tumbling out. The members of Blind Pilot join me now, instruments in hand. Israel Nebeker is a lead singer and primary songwriter. Ryan Dobrowski, the drummer, is another co-founder of the band. Luke Ydstie plays bass. And Kati Claborn plays a bunch of instruments. It’s great to have you all here.

Israel Nebeker: It’s great to be here, thanks.

Miller: I thought we could start right in with one of the songs from the new album. This is “Brave.”

[“Brave” playing by Blind Pilot, performed live in the studio]

Some have and some don’t

I’ve been both, I’ve been bought and sold

Nothing is worth more than a need

No, we’re not just the miles we walk

We’re not just the ways we talk

We have the same fire to feed

Hola, hello, I’m gonna walk with you

And share every place that we know

Hola, hello, I’m gonna welcome you

Yes, you are part of my home

Hola, hello, I’m gonna walk with you

Hola, hello, I’m gonna walk with you

Yes, you are part of my home

Lines we’ve drawn have made us sick

Kept us apart, kept us locked in

What do we really think needs to be saved?

‘Cause some will give and some will hate

I don’t want to be one that sits and waits

I want to be on the side that is brave

Hola, hello, I’m gonna walk with you

And share every place that we know

Hola, hello, I’m gonna welcome you

Yes, you are part of my home

Hola, hello, I’m gonna walk with you

Hola, hello, I’m gonna walk with you

Yes, you are part of my home

[Song ends]

Miller: That was Blind Pilot, playing the song “Brave,” with Israel Nebeker on guitar, Ryan Dobrowski on drums. Luke Ydstie on bass and Kati Claborn playing mountain dulcimer.

Israel Nebeker, the creation story of this album, as I mentioned in my intro, is that it came after a long period of writer’s block. Had you ever dealt with serious writer’s block before?

Nebeker: It’s changed over the years. I think I never did before finding success in a path in music. But once there’s a destination, it changes the relationship a little bit ...

Miller: As the question of pressure … it came after success, not before?

Nebeker: Yeah. I think pressure is a way to put it. I think my goal is always to just be in an open, honest-feeling relationship with the process. And if I ever have a thought of, like, “oh, that’ll sound really good on a stage and people will like that,” then I have to get up and walk away and come back later.

Miller: Do you feel like you came to understand what was happening or is there still a mystery about the block?

Nebeker: There’s still a mystery about it. But I’ve always held the loose sense of … my sense of songwriting is … it’s not the craft, it’s listening for what wants to come through. And I’ve always held that pretty loosely, but that was the breakthrough for me most recently, to write this album was just full-on embracing that. And the solution ended up being creating an atmosphere that was where the songs wanted to come through.

Miller: What was that atmosphere, physically or even geographically?

Nebeker: I think it was the relationships of the band. It’s not like it got bad. We’re all really good people. It’s always felt like a good family, but it just needed to feel a certain sense of openness, excitement, adventure that was missing. It had gotten to be something we depended on. And yeah, that’s the best I could put it.

Miller: Before that breakthrough, was there a point when you thought the songs weren’t gonna come? I mean, did it ever get that bad in your own mind?

Nebeker: Yeah, I think that’s common for most artists. When you’re not creating, you’re not an artist … and then what are you? And it’s a crisis of identity and I definitely went through that. Yeah, it was dark.

Miller: Can we hear another song: “Just a bird”? Anything we should know about this before we hear it?

Nebeker: This one was really fun to record because I brought the song in complete, as I do with the songs. But in the studio, recording this album was very exploratory, and this song changed. It changed dramatically in its feel and the drive of it. So, I hear a lot of the elements of each band member contributing to this song.

Miller: Let’s listen to the song, then I’m curious to hear more after it about how it evolved. This is “Just a Bird.”

[“Just a Bird” playing by Blind Pilot, performed live in the studio]

Tell me why I hear the curtain calling still

Tell me why time gets away from me so well

If you can do it, I’ll give you my salt

Everything right, everything wrong

Everything I kept behind to tell you why

Just come on honey, yeah I know you’re tough

And you might be right- not right enough

If you’re just burning all that holds you back

That fire’s warm but it sure burns fast

Gonna stand where I see the truth

If I can’t see it yet, I’m gonna walk till I see it

Through

Tell me why so much to say and have no words

Tell me why sometimes a bird is just a bird

If you can do it, I’ll give you my salt

Everything burned, everything gone

Everything I kept behind to tell you why

Just come on honey, yeah I know you’re tough

And you might be right- not right enough

If you’re just burning all that holds you back

That fire’s warm but it sure burns fast

Gonna stand where I see the truth

If I can’t see it yet, I’m gonna walk till I see it

Through

Come on honey, yeah I know you’re tough

And you might be right- not right enough

If you’re just burning all that holds you back

That fire’s warm but it sure burns fast

[Song ends]

Miller: That’s “Just a Bird” by the band Blind Pilot. Their latest album, which came out over the summer, is called “In The Shadow Of The Holy Mountain.”

What was the recording of the album like? I’ve read that you did it in a place in the Catskills in Upstate New York state. But what was the vibe of the studio? And how did it affect the work you did?

Nebeker: Yeah, we went to that studio because it’s Josh Kaufman’s favorite studio – he produced the album. And the vibe was … [when] he and I first connected, our first conversation was about the Grateful Dead and the exploratory nature of what they do. And we’re a very different band from that, but he definitely takes that approach of respecting that maybe you don’t know exactly what the song is until it’s the moment that it’s being made. There was a lot of that.

That song, I brought it in, it was pretty solemn, kind of melancholy. And even though the sentiment of the words have this self-empowerment, encouraging feel, that wasn’t there in the music yet. I don’t really know what his process is internally, but he just kept hunting for, like, “Ryan, what if you did this on the drums instead?” And, “OK, Israel, what if this is where you do that?” And it just got to this place of feeling locked in with the sentiment of the words of the song.

Miller: You have to go in with a certain level of trust to be that open to have your songs change?

Nebeker: Completely. And that’s a difficult thing to find. I’m a huge fan of what he does with Bonny Light Horseman and it also is apparent, right away, that this is a guy I trust. I trust how he works in music and his ability.

Miller: I’ve read that you gave yourself what seems like a scary, to me, creative challenge after this period of blocked songwriting, where you said I have a month to write the songs for the album. Why did you give yourself that challenge?

Nebeker: No idea. I have no idea. It was one of those things. I was half asleep, half awake and the thought came like, “Oh, this is easy. All you gotta do is just write an album in a month and then bring that to the band.” And before I’m fully awake, I was like, “Yeah, that’s the solution. That’s great.”

Miller: That sort of out-of-yourself feeling of this idea, is that that different from the way songs sometimes come to you?

Nebeker: No, it’s the same place, for sure.

Miller: What is that place?

Nebeker: That’s a mystery. I mean, if I knew the answer I would never go through another songwriting drought, I think.

Miller: Or maybe you wouldn’t be a songwriter at all.

Nebeker: Maybe. I think that, like I referred to it, it’s honoring whatever is on the other side of that channel and that I’m in a relationship with it. That’s what helped me to get on the other side of it this time.

Miller: We’re going to hear one more song from the album called “Jacaranda” in English. Anything we should know about this before we hear it?

Nebeker: This is a song … it’s sort of a love letter to my band and Ryan, especially, for waiting for me for years. But also anyone in my life who’s waited for me a lot, which there’s a lot of people. It started in Mexico City, under blooming Jacaranda trees.

[“Jacaranda” playing by Blind Pilot, performed live in the studio]

He left them on the stairs of gold

Matsumoto crossed the world

Heard it on the southern wind, blew the seeds into his hands

Blooming with the color of a miracle

Meet me on the same park bench

When the trees hang their purple heads

I’ll be playing the same song, the beat you were working on

Singing, “Don’t be long don’t be long.”

I won’t be long. I won’t be long

Played it raw, played in true, when I was young enough to lose

Saw it shine ever brighter when I was young and on fire

When I was young and on fire

Spread my arms and plant my roots

Until I am native too

Heard the question in her song, calling just before the sun

“Where do I belong, where do I belong, where do I belong

Where do I belong, where do I belong?”

I didn’t fear, didn’t tire, when I was young and a liar

Just my breath was my gold when I was young enough to know

When I was young enough to know

And though I heard no help at all

It came to me and I let it fall

The only home is in our steps, I won’t wait to catch my breath

I am asking you for a miracle, I am asking you for a miracle

I heard love in it all when it was young and my fault

Saw it shine ever brighter when I was young and on fire

Just our breath was our gold when we were young enough to know

Saw it shine ever brighter when we were young and on fire

When we were young and on fire

[Song ends]

Miller: That’s “Jacaranda” by the band Blind Pilot, from their new album “In The Shadow of the Holy Mountain.”

Israel, before we go, can you tell us about the trip you took to Norway before this album came out?

Nebeker: Yeah, it was just before going into the studio with everybody. I was invited to be part of a documentary that was about the Sámi people, indigenous to Northern Scandinavia – that’s my family’s line on my dad’s side. I went there to study Sámi music, joik. It was an incredible trip. I met amazing musicians and Sámi activists, and I was just a sponge. I soaked it all up, everything I’d been curious about, and hadn’t before been able to go there and learn.

Miller: Israel Nebeker, thank you so much.

Nebeker: Thanks so much for having us.

Miller: That’s Israel Nebeker, lead singer and primary songwriter for Blind Pilot. We also heard drummer Ryan Dobrowski, Luke Ydstie on bass and Kati Claborn playing banjo, clarinet and mountain dulcimer.

We’re going to go out on the song “Believe Me,” from their new album. Again, Blind Pilot’s new album is called “In the Shadow of the Holy Mountain.” They’re gonna be playing at Revolution Hall in late February. The February 25th show is sold out. There are still seats for February 26th.

[“Believe Me” playing by Blind Pilot, performed live in the studio]

… Childhood stutter, one time lover

They all say the thing, they all say the same thing

Father, mother, isn’t she a stunner?

They all say the same, they all say the same thing

Sleeper in the park, dancer in the dark

They all say the thing, they all say the same thing

The lost getting found, spud in the ground

Sister, brother, kiss of another

Pills are what got her, branches in the water

Nothingness in dead, eagle overhead

Winner and the loser, killer and accuser

Becoming what you hated, never graduated

Sinner and the saint, there’s praise in what it ain’t

Betrayed by your kin, sunlight on your skin

Secret of your lust, swallows in the dusk

They all say the same thing

Please believe me

[Song fades out]

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