It’s been eight years since Blind Pilot has released new music. Primary songwriter Israel Nebeker was facing a serious writer’s block. Meanwhile, bandmates and couple Luke Ydstie and Kati Claborn poured their energies into songwriting for their own project, releasing a slew of recordings as The Hackles. Even drummer Ryan Dobrowski joined the pair and a few other pals for a one-off album as Hook & Anchor, plus he also spent considerable time painting and focusing on his fine art career. (He’s created the band’s artwork, T-shirts and posters over the years.) This left Nebeker on an island, a heavy obligation hanging over his head.
Read more about how Blind Pilot overcame its eight-year musical drought.
Everything changed on August 16 when the Astoria-based folk pop band released the long-awaited “In The Shadow Of The Holy Mountain.” Israel Nebeker spoke to The Source Weekly about how the song “Lucky” came together with a little help from his friends — listen below. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Source Weekly: “Lucky” is a track on your new record that stood out to me. The vocal interplay between you, Kati and Luke is really beautiful. I also see that Luke and Kati contributed to the songwriting on the track. How did this song come about?
Israel Nebeker: It was a stormy Astoria night. I was over at their [Luke and Kati’s] house hanging out, and I suggested that we play a songwriting game. It was mostly just to have fun. The idea was we’ll just think of a subject to write on.
Luke was playing guitar, I sang a melody over it. So we had the melody. “Let’s each go to separate rooms and take 15 minutes to write a verse with this melody and then come back and share them.” We did that twice, two rounds of it. [During this time,] a chorus just came through. I was like, “Wait a second, give me a couple minutes.” I went in the other room and there was this chorus coming. It ended up being this song that we all co-wrote together, and we all sing our own verses that we wrote. I sing a verse, Kati sings a verse, Luke sings a verse.
SW: What’s the theme or story behind it?
IN: At the time, there was this unknown arsonist lighting fire to Astoria homes. Somebody’s porch burned, and I think a motorcycle got set on fire, and then a part of a house. Luckily, it’s very wet in Astoria year round, and there was no, very luckily, no houses burned down. But it was really terrifying to just think, “I could be sleeping tonight and maybe my house will get lit on fire.” I suggested, “Let’s write a song about that” because it was coming up in the conversation. What was interesting is that we all had different takes on it, like very different viewpoints on it. When we came together to make a song, it was like, “Oh, these don’t necessarily fit.” So we had to kind of talk it through and tweak small things to make it a cohesive song.
SW: You also have three different voices on the song so that’s interesting — the different voices could tell different stories.
IN: Yeah, completely. I really wanted that song on the album. There was a question in the studio whether it was working or not. But I’m really glad that it made it on, and we found a way to make it work because it’s always felt a little funny that Blind Pilot is my band where my voice gets heard and my songs. It’s autobiographical about my life. But here are Luke and Kati, these incredible singers and beautiful songwriters of their own. It felt really good to make a song that I knew they could be featured on the album by themselves and also on stages by themselves.
SW: So we can expect to hear “Lucky” in the set list?
IN: Yes.
Don’t miss Blind Pilot at Midtown Ballroom on Fri., November 8 with Molly Sarlé.
Blind Pilot
With Molly Sarlé
Fri., Nov. 8
Midtown Ballroom
51 NW Greenwood Ave., Bend
Doors 7pm; show 8pm; all ages
$32.50 advance
ticketweb.com/event/blind-pilot-molly-sarl-midtown-tickets/13689023
This article appears in Source Weekly October 31, 2024.
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