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."
The Colored Night
Blind Pilot Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I was a burning branch
Close to feeling tall, almost a free fall
I was made of chance
And when the colors bleed, mix up my memories
When I write it new
I'll just be a sound you heard, I'll be a foreign word
That's meaning your type of blue, and I'll leave that here with you
Oh our lines will blur but you've got a face like no other
I'll keep it where I see things right
Oh a darkness comes, but you've got a way like no other one
I'll keep it where my black keeps light
Make me a mirror of all that I cannot love
Let me hold the cast
Of my favorite years, the truth how they gave me here
And let that be last, let that be my last
Oh our lines will blur but you've got a face like no other
I'll keep it where I see things right
Oh a darkness comes, but you've got a way like no other one
I'll keep it where my black keeps light
In a darkness I do not know
If it takes me, I'll feel you glow
In a darkness I do not know
Oh our lines will blur but you've got a face like no other
I'll keep it where I see things right
Oh a darkness comes, but you've got a way like no other one
I'll keep it where my black keeps light
The lyrics to Blind Pilot's song "The Colored Night" portray a sense of being caught in between different states, both physically and emotionally, but still holding onto hope and love. The first verse speaks of being in a state of uncertainty and chance, where the world seems to be changing and the memories are mixing up. The singer refers to being a sound or word that is foreign, but at the same time resonates in a familiar way, like a certain shade of blue that carries a specific meaning. The feeling of being lost and out of place is further emphasized in the second verse where the singer talks about blurring lines and darkness, but highlights the significance of the other person in their life who is like no other. The song continues with a mention of a darkness that is unknown, but the singer feels the other person's glow in that darkness.
The lines "Make me a mirror of all that I cannot love, let me hold the cast of my favorite years" reveal the singer's desire to reconcile with their past and be at peace with the experiences that left them unable to love. They suggest a willingness to accept the past, and the hope to move beyond it, to keep the other person in their life, who has been a source of light and strength.
Overall, "The Colored Night" is a beautiful song about navigating through the complexities of life and finding comfort in the love and support of someone who is unique and special. The lyrics are poetic and powerful, perfectly complementing the gentle melody of the song.
Line by Line Meaning
I was in between, I was an offering
I was caught between choices and opportunities, willing to give myself up
I was a burning branch
I was bright, but also at risk of being consumed by my own flames
Close to feeling tall, almost a free fall
I was on the brink of success or failure, on the cusp of something great or a disaster
I was made of chance
My path was uncertain and unpredictable, subject to the roll of the dice
And when the colors bleed, mix up my memories
When things get confusing and jumbled, it's hard to sort out what's real and what's imagined
When I write it new
But if I can put it down on paper in a fresh way
I'll just be a sound you heard, I'll be a foreign word
Then maybe I'll be something different, something new and unfamiliar
That's meaning your type of blue, and I'll leave that here with you
Something that resonates with you, that represents your unique perspective or experience
Oh our lines will blur but you've got a face like no other
We may be entwined, but you are still someone special and distinct
I'll keep it where I see things right
I'll remember your face in a way that feels true and real to me
Oh a darkness comes, but you've got a way like no other one
Even in hard times, you possess a certain strength or ability that makes you stand out
I'll keep it where my black keeps light
I'll hold onto that light that you bring into my life, even in dark times
Make me a mirror of all that I cannot love
Help me see myself more clearly, even in the parts that I don't want to acknowledge
Let me hold the cast
Let me keep the memory of what has shaped me
Of my favorite years, the truth how they gave me here
The most significant moments of my life, which have brought me to where I am now
And let that be last, let that be my last
And let those memories be the ones that stay with me forever, my final moments of reflection
In a darkness I do not know
Amidst an uncertain future, when I can't see what's ahead
If it takes me, I'll feel you glow
I trust that you will be with me, shining a light through the unknown
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: AARON NEBEKER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind