BLIND PILOT

“THE CROWN JEWELS OF OREGON INDIE” (PITCHFORK)

TRIUMPHANTLY RE-EMERGE WITH FIRST NEW ALBUM IN EIGHT YEARS ‘IN THE SHADOW OF THE HOLY MOUNTAIN’ (16 AUGUST 16 VIA ATO RECORDS)

LISTEN TO THEIR RADIANT NEW ORIGINAL 'JUST A BIRD' HERE

Blind Pilot have returned radically transformed and revitalized on their first release since 2016 - 'In The Shadow Of The Holy Mountain' - giving hard-earned depth and perspective to the group's "elegant, thoughtful reflections" (NPR Music). The eleven-song collection arrives on 16th August via ATO Records, on the other side of a years-long journey for Blind Pilot’s Israel Nebeker - both geographically and spiritually - to reclaim his voice as a songwriter. "I was struggling with a lot of fear surrounding expectations of who I was supposed to be", he confides, "I’d lost my path with music".

Travelling to Scandinavia to reconnect with his family's roots in the nomadic Sámi community, a drum ceremony led Nebeker to visions of his ancestors, and to the mountain where his creative rebirth began. From there, his return to songwriting was solidified when he and Blind Pilot co-founder Ryan Dobrowski were invited to perform in Mexico City by a humanitarian group helping migrants in the country. After speaking with them for hours, "I got the idea to write a song that looks at ideas of ownership and othering, and what it does when we tell people, ‘This is our home, not yours.'" After years of not writing so much as a single verse, 'In The Shadow Of The Holy Mountain' flowed out of him in one month. Soon after, he found himself reuniting with Dombrowski, bassist Luke Ydstie and multi-instrumentalist Kati Claborn to begin work on Blind Pilot’s first new album in eight years in their longtime homebase of Astoria, Oregon.

First single 'Just A Bird' here is a song with carefree spirit that sharply contrasts the emotional complexity of its lyrical sentiment.

LISTEN TO 'JUST A BIRD' HERE

Teaming with producer Josh Kaufman (The National, The War On Drugs) at a 19th-century church turned home studio in upstate New York, the recording sessions for 'In The Shadow Of The Holy Mountain' were the most free-flowing of the band's career, approaching perfection like "an overly Photoshopped picture of someone you love". The final result was "the most joy we’d ever had in making an album together", as Nebeker described it - which shines through palpably on a collection that's equal parts celebration and revelation. “We’re still feeling that deep connection that’s been a throughline for our entire adult lives,” adds Dombrowski, who formed an early version of Blind Pilot with Nebeker nearly two decades ago as college students.

Much of the enrapturing energy pulsing through 'In The Shadow Of The Holy Mountain' stems from Blind Pilot fully harnessing the chemistry of their live performances (“listening to each other and trusting our instincts”) - which has included tours with The Shins, Andrew Bird, and Gregory Alan Isakov along with major festival stages like Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo. This time around, they’ll tour North America deep into 2024 - beginning with a cross-country run of intimate shows this summer at venues like Los Angeles’ Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever and New York’s Sultan Room. They will debut new material from In The Shadow Of The Holy Mountain at these shows - celebrating Blind Pilot’s first album since And Then Like Lions in 2016, a collection they brought to CBS This Morning and NPR’s Tiny Desk alongside praise as “reminiscent of Lou Reed’s ‘Magic and Loss’ and Arcade Fire’s ‘Funeral,’ which are excellent company” (Wall Street Journal).

‘In The Shadow Of The Holy Mountain’ Tracklist

1. Jacaranda

2. Brave

3. Pocket Knife

4. Don’t You Know

5. Just A Bird

6. Coming Back

7. Faces of Light

8. One Drop

9. Lucky

10. Bitter Water

11. Same Thing