Read Full Bio ↴Blind Pilot is an American indie folk band based in Portland, Oregon.
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."
New York
Blind Pilot Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Our subtle lives
And I have a job to do, walking these cars, walking all this sleep
To get to you
But I don't feel you stir beside me
And you're not in my morning hours
Some ties are made to break, some stalks grow high and green to rot away
And these lines tell a truth, these city veins answer all we do
So could you keep me in the pulses?
Could you keep me in the sound?
I got wise and I got old, not once, not once did I fold
So don't you now
Maybe you bet on me while we were still young enough to know
What to believe
But for every year you took, for every soft breath or loving look
Believe me
And don't keep me like you have me
And don't kiss me like you don't
I got wise and I got old, Not once, not once did I fold
So don't you now
Some land holds a home, some of my years only hold
Me to roam
But I tell myself it's true, you see a home, you see a man
You see it too
And I say, "don't you know you have her?
Go on kiss her now, you boy"
I got wise and I got old, not once, not once did I fold
So don't you now
The song "New York" by Blind Pilot is a poetic expression of longing, reminiscence, and a call for action. The song opens with the singer hearing the sound of a train all night, indicative of his restlessness and desire to reach his destination. He then acknowledges his job of walking these cars to get to the person he wants to be with, but notices that the person is not beside him, and is absent even in his morning hours. The theme of absence and longing continues throughout the song, as the singer questions whether or not the person can keep him in their pulses and sound.
The second verse of the song suggests that some things are made to break and that some good things will eventually fall apart. However, the singer believes that the city veins hold answers to our actions and that it is possible to be kept alive through the pulses and sound. The singer then reflects on his journey and the challenges that he has faced in life without ever folding, and challenges the person to not keep him like they have been and not to kiss him as if they do not want him anymore. In the final verse, the singer contemplates how some land holds a home, and some years only hold one to roam, but continues to believe that he carries his own destiny, and urges the person to kiss her now before it's too late. Altogether, the song resonates with the feeling of wanting to be with someone, and the urgency of action before it's too late.
Line by Line Meaning
I hear the train all night, sound of its wind blowing through
Our subtle lives
I can hear the train's wind blowing all night, it seems insignificant, but it's a part of our subtle lives
And I have a job to do, walking these cars, walking all this sleep
To get to you
My job is to walk through these train cars and travel the long distance just to see you
But I don't feel you stir beside me
And you're not in my morning hours
I don't feel you near me at night or see you in the morning
Some ties are made to break, some stalks grow high and green to rot away
And feel the weight
Some relationships are meant to end and some things that seem strong only last for a temporary period of time, and it can be a heavy feeling to carry
And these lines tell a truth, these city veins answer all we do
So could you keep me in the pulses?
Could you keep me in the sound?
The city reflects the truth of our lives and actions, can you keep me close in your life's rhythm and in your thoughts?
I got wise and I got old, not once, not once did I fold
So don't you now
I've gained wisdom and become older, but I've never given up or surrendered, don't you do it now
Maybe you bet on me while we were still young enough to know
What to believe
But for every year you took, for every soft breath or loving look
Believe me
And don't keep me like you have me
And don't kiss me like you don't
You believed in me when we were young and naive, but for every moment we spent together, trust me and don't keep me just like you did before or kiss me like you don't love me
Some land holds a home, some of my years only hold
Me to roam
But I tell myself it's true, you see a home, you see a man
You see it too
And I say, "don't you know you have her?
Go on kiss her now, you boy"
Some places feel like home, and some of my life feels like I'm wandering without direction, but I believe that when you see a home, you see a complete man. Don't you know you have her? Go ahead and kiss her now
I got wise and I got old, not once, not once did I fold
So don't you now
I've become wise and old, but I never faltered or gave up, don't you give up now
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: AARON NEBEKER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Word Unheard
There are songs that deserve the respect of having either praise or in the very least, constructive criticism. To not have people bashing each other's races, religions, atheism, country, spelling errors or each other over the trivial. This is definitely one of those songs. Just sit back, close your eyes and enjoy it. There are a lot of terrible things in this world. Blind Pilot is beautiful and deserves better. We deserve better. Let's stopping tainting the beautiful things we have with words.
Kris Obertas
They played at Vancouver International Folk Festival 2017. Like a lot of bands at fests celebrating the vast world of music, I didn't know them. They put on a great main stage show.
Zach Nonofyobiz
I heard this band on the RADIO, and loved it.
Maria Castro
This song helped me so much! Today I celebrate 8 years clean!
everymusic96
I started listening to Blind Pilots right after Imagine Dragons, thats when they were not main stream, and now everyone knows who imagine dragons are. Blind Pilot is effing awesome !!!
Pamela Cradduck
OMGSH SAAAME!!
Emmy Jorge Guineve
Yes We discovered them WATCHING ONE TREE HILL 2021
Jennifer Biam
they are soooo amazing! i wonder y i hadnt discovered dem all dis while......
kanini mutemi
I love this song...I love OTH
Adam Goby
Only just discovered this band and there fucking great, made me realise how many more cool as fuck bands there are out there that I am yet to have listened to.............