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."
Just One
Blind Pilot Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Let my heart just drift like wood
And will I break and will I bow
If I cannot let it go?
Feel that sun just hold you right
Leave you burning down the night
Feel that wind lap up your soul
If I cannot let it go
Born in with a reason
Blown out like a ghost
We came with our best lines
Told them like jokes
If I could have known then we were dying to get gone
I can't believe we get just one
And when your thirst can come to me
I am a river for the sea
When you can hold me in your sway
I give myself away
Will I give myself away?
Born in with a reason
Blown out like a ghost
We came with our best lines
Told them like jokes
If I could have known then we were dying to get gone
I can't believe we get just one
Let all things be as they will
Let my heart beat itself still
Blind Pilot's Just One is a song about embracing life, accepting one's fate, and living life to the fullest. The first few lines of the song suggest that the singer is willing to let things be as they should and let their heart drift like wood, which means they are willing to let go of control and trust that life will unfold as it should. However, the next lines show some doubt and vulnerability as the singer wonders if they will break or bow if they cannot let go. This line suggests that it can be difficult to fully embrace life and let go of control, but it is important in order to experience the fullness of life.
The song then touches on the fleeting nature of life and how we only get one chance to live it. The lyrics state that we are born in with a reason but blown out like a ghost, meaning that life is short and can end unexpectedly. The line "I can't believe we get just one" emphasizes the idea that we should not take life for granted but live it to the fullest. The final lines of the song repeat the sentiment from the beginning, with the singer willing to let things be as they will and let their heart beat itself still.
Line by Line Meaning
Let all things be as they should
Things should happen as they were meant to
Let my heart just drift like wood
Let my heart float like wood without resistance
And will I break and will I bow
Will I be able to handle it or will I submit
If I cannot let it go?
If I cannot release my grip or get over it
Feel that sun just hold you right
Experience the warmth of the sun embracing you
Leave you burning down the night
The intensity of the sun leaving you hot even at night
Feel that wind lap up your soul
The feeling of the wind taking your soul away
If you cannot let it go
If I cannot let it go
If you cannot get over the past or let go of someone or something important,
If I cannot detach myself from someone or something important
Born in with a reason
We were all born to fulfill a destiny
Blown out like a ghost
Our time is temporary and we disappear like ghosts
We came with our best lines
Told them like jokes
We came into the world confident, putting on our best acts and jokes
If I could have known then we were dying to get gone
If I had known we were searching for a way out of life
I can't believe we get just one
I cannot believe we only get one life
When your thirst can come to me
When you are thirsty, I am here to help
I am a river for the sea
I am constantly flowing and helping others, like a river feeding the sea
When you can hold me in your sway
When you control me and I am happy with it
I give myself away
Will I give myself away?
I lose myself in the relationship
Will I continue to do so?
Let all things be as they will
Let nature take its course
Let my heart beat itself still
Allow my heart to calm down and find stillness
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: AARON NEBEKER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Nonya Business
I cannot listen to this song without crying. It reminds me of the years I spent caring for my mom when she was terminally ill and the aftermath that I thought was going to break me. It's been a little over two years and I have finally reached a place in my life where things are starting to turn around. But damn, I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to listen to this without crying, but it won't stop me!
Tiffanni Grams
OMG. I cry too, but I don't even have a reason. I will think of your mom when I hear this now too. Such a gorgeous song.
Abbie
This song moves something in my soul <3
Robyn Green
great song! ❤
Juliane Reinhardtsen
I looooove this song so much <3
Matthew Doucette
I never thought I could relate to this song
Edson Luis
Gostei
Gwyne Henke
"I can't believe we get just one."
Zuzana Jurova
Just one a.k.a my favourite song
onebadmedic
Gonna catch these guys with DMB in Tampa!!!