The band has performed on Carson Daly's show, opened arena shows in England and been selected as iTunes' Single of the Week. After a busy summer that included the Lollapalooza, Sasquatch!, and Outside Lands festivals and a high-profile slot opening for fellow Portlanders the Decemberists on select dates, Blind Pilot is embarking on a national headlining tour to support their magnanimous debut, 3 Rounds and a Sound, released last year on Expunged Records. Initially a duo of Nebeker and drummer Ryan Dobrowski, the group now includes Kati Claborn on banjo and dulcimer, Luke Ydstie on upright bass, Dave Jorgensen on trumpet and harmonium, and Ian Krist on vibraphone.
Nebeker and drummer Ryan Dobrowski first met as college students at the University of Oregon. They played together in the occasional band, but the roots of Blind Pilot didn't take hold until the two friends spent a summer abroad in Newquay, England, a laidback surfing town in the coastal county of Cornwall. Nebeker says, "The first night we saw a musician playing on the street. A cop came up and we thought, 'This guy's going to get busted.' But the cop stood and listened, then flipped a pound into the guy's case and walked off. So we said, 'Oh, we're doing this!'" Nebeker strummed an acoustic guitar while Dobrowski, a fine art student, kept time on a makeshift percussion kit constructed out of a sketchpad and pencil tin. "I used that sketchpad more as an instrument than for artwork," laughs Dobrowski. "By the end of the summer, the tin was all flared out from me hitting it."
After that summer of busking by the English seaside, it was a couple more years before Blind Pilot became a serious endeavor, but when Nebeker and Dobrowski decided to focus on making music as a duo, they again sought the ocean air for inspiration. In2006, the pair relocated to the dramatic landscape of Oregon's Pacific coast, a few miles north of Gearhart, Oregon, where Nebeker grew up. His hometown memories are strung throughout the lyrics to 3 Rounds' "Things I Cannot Recall": "We took off sleeping by the river and the beaches in your car/Up where you taught me how to drive a stick and told me your family secret."
In the fishing town of neighboring Astoria, Oregon, the pair camped out on the top floor of an old cannery to prepare songs without outside distraction. The building jutted out into the water, not far from where the Columbia River's broad mouth collides with the Pacific Ocean. Against that tumultuous backdrop, the gentle songs took sturdy formation. Nebeker's honest delivery, accompanied by Dobrowski's uncluttered timekeeping, steered a batch of very personal songs to completion--much like the river's pilot boats, from which Blind Pilot derived their name, guide the mammoth, freight-laden barges up the Columbia.
Both avid cyclists, Nebeker and Dobrowski decided their next move would be a tour by bicycle. Once the songs were together, and a batch of CDRs was readied and hand-pressed, the two embarked without a map or any gigs scheduled. They biked down the West Coast, playing wherever they could along the way. The effort of touring by bicycle was reward in itself. "If we rode all day and we couldn't find a show, or we played for just ten people, we still felt good about our day," remembers Dobrowski.
The first Blind Pilot bike tour started in Vancouver and ended abruptly in San Francisco after their bikes were stolen. But when 3 Rounds and a Sound was finished in Portland last year, they toured again by bicycle, this time making it all the way down to San Diego with new members Claborn and Ydstie in tow--Ydstie's upright bass lumbering behind in a coffin-like trailer. Says Nebeker of touring by bike, "Ironically, the harder you worked, the more fun you had, as long as it's good work for a good reason. When you just sit all day in a van, that's not as much fun." Of course, for this upcoming national tour, Blind Pilot will be traveling by van--a circumstance borne out of practicality, and a necessary side effect of the group's remarkably quick success--but they hold future hopes to tour by bicycle again as soon as possible.
In the meantime, the songs of 3 Rounds and a Sound have stood up after countless miles of road- travel, and Blind Pilot has evolved into a live unit whose group dynamic elevates the music. On record, songs like "The Story I Heard," and "Go On, Say It" are intimately personal meditations, but in the live setting, they take on a communal, celebratory air. Nebeker's voice is buttressed by Claborn's and Ydstie's soaring harmonies, and the folk-spun, roots-inspired arrangements take on both the austere gorgeousness of classical chamber music, and the breathing, perspiring qualities of a great rock 'n' roll show.
"They're playing our song/Can you see the lights?" sings Nebeker in 3 Rounds' title track. "Can you hear the hum of our song? I hope they get it right/I hope we dance tonight before we get it wrong/And the seasons will change us new."
Those lyrics are of careful optimism--but Blind Pilot already has much to look forward to. Very near the start of their journey, they've reached a broader audience than they'd ever imagined, yet they're not willing to make themselves comfortable, even insisting that their first European tour will be via bicycle. "And one of the things I'm most excited about recording the next album is to see how different we can make it,"
Nebeker adds. "The sound that we have going is working really well right now, but I'm totally excited to mess it up."
Go On Say It
Blind Pilot Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I am my breath
Letting in waves
There will be time when the sleep I'm in
Covers me whole
Covers me thin
Forgetting which box this is in
How I will keep you
Just how I left you
Our daughter once told me I know a lot
Now I'm strutting off with more than I've got
A hitchhiker told me I don't talk a lot
It made me feel fine, made me quiet
If you'd of said it right
Instead of painting words white
How I will keep you
Just how I left you
Come on, say it right
The lyrics of Blind Pilot's song "Go On Say It" are reflective and introspective, as they explore the passage of time and the experience of aging. The opening lines suggest a sense of movement and transience, as the singer "picks up sound on the interstate" and becomes absorbed in the process of breathing and feeling the rhythm of life in the waves around them. However, there is also a sense of uncertainty and vulnerability, as the singer contemplates the idea of being "covered whole" or "covered thin" by the sleep they are in.
Later on in the song, the singer reflects on their life and the people who matter to them, including their daughter and a hitchhiker who they encountered. The singer acknowledges the passing of time and the changes that come with aging, but also expresses a desire to hold onto the people they love and the moments they cherish. The refrain, "how I will keep you / just how I left you," suggests a longing for continuity and stability in a world that is constantly shifting.
Overall, "Go On Say It" is a beautifully written and deeply emotional song that explores themes of love, loss, and the passage of time. The lyrics are rich with imagery and symbolism, and the song's gentle melody and acoustic instrumentation help to capture the soulful and introspective mood of the lyrics.
Line by Line Meaning
Picking up sound on the interstate
Listening attentively as I drive down the highway
I am my breath
Focusing on my breath and being present in the moment
Letting in waves
Allowing myself to feel emotions and experiences as they come
There will be time when the sleep I'm in
Sometimes I will be asleep to the world around me
Covers me whole
I will be completely lost in my own world
Covers me thin
Other times I will be only partially submerged in my own thoughts
I know I'll wake up old
I am aware that time passes quickly and I will age
Forgetting which box this is in
I may forget details from my past
How I will keep you
Wondering how I will maintain a connection with someone
Just how I left you
Hoping that the relationship remains the same
Our daughter once told me I know a lot
My child recognized me as knowledgeable
Now I'm strutting off with more than I've got
Feeling more confident than my actual knowledge warrants
A hitchhiker told me I don't talk a lot
Being given feedback that I am quiet
It made me feel fine, made me quiet
Being reassured by the positive feedback and feeling at peace with being quiet
If you'd of said it right
Wishing that something was communicated more clearly
Instead of painting words white
Trying to avoid sugarcoating or softening the truth
Come on, say it right
Encouraging someone to communicate truthfully and clearly
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: AARON NEBEKER, RYAN DOBROWSKI
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Seth Dickfield
Picking up sound on the interstate
I am my breath
Letting in waves
There will be time when the sleep I'm in
Covers me whole
Covers me thin
I know I'll wake up old
Forgetting which box this is in
How I will keep you
Just how I left you
Our daughter once told me I know a lot
Now I'm strutting off with more than I've got
A hitchhiker told me I don't talk a lot
It made me feel fine, made me quiet
If you'd of said it right
Instead of painting words white
How I will keep you
Just how I left you
Come on, say it right
Kelsey Lynn
I still listen to this album all the way through. I can't believe this was released 11 years ago!
boobabiegirl
I went to school with Nebeker and can say he was one of the few worthy writers I had to contend with in Creative Writing class, now I can see why. Blind Pilot's music is definitely indicative of the inspiring coastal towns we grew up in. Bravo.
Ah Satan
One of my top ten bands for the last 10+ years. Never gets old
Aixa Jazmín
I can't believe there's people who actually dislike this...
This song is so calming
Charrua Celeste
I know , this whole album is.
kgummee
Just discovered Blind Pilot!! Love them!! So much talent!! This whole video screams Oregon coast...love it!!
Jonathan Maybury
This is one of the best groups I've heard from America for a long while, and well over due, but worth every second of the time I had to wait... more please!!! This one got to be a classic
2LoveLiberty
This video is AMAZING! They captured the atmosphere of the Pacific North West so well in this video! beautiful! this is real talent! I was in The Wiz in HS and he was the BEST scarecrow EVER! I'm so glad all of you beautiful people are making it big! yay for Blind Pilot!
Anthony Larussa
These guys are so good, there even better live! I saw them in San Francisco and so humble
Zvbosch
"The inspiration came from me being really furstrated with a relationship that I was in. I felt like we were parting ways and neither of us really wanted to, you know? She said something to me that out of context was such a reasonable, sane thing, but the way she said it really upset me. I remember thinking, "My whole life after this will be different." Just because of the way she said that one thing. The story in the song is fiction, but the feeling within it is based on that moment." - Isreal