After releasing “3 Rounds and a Sound” on a micro scale in their native Portland, Ore., in July 2008, Blind Pilot had to undergo reality training.
Frontman Israel Nebeker and drummer Ryan Dobrowski wrote those first songs with humble intentions. And the songs led them to everything they’d hoped for: They attracted a local following. They toured the West Coast via bicycles, towing their instruments behind them. They told their story to those wanted to hear it.
And after making a name for themselves — and opening tours for the Counting Crows, the Hold Steady and the Decemberists — Blind Pilot soon was headlining its own national tours. In rock clubs. And then theaters. And then even larger rooms — and festival appearances at Sasquatch, Lollapalooza and Outside Lands.
As of this month, Blind Pilot has been touring its first record for three years. And that’s a long time to be playing the same songs and supporting the same CD — even if that record has become one of the best pop listens of the last decade.
“We kept waiting for the opportunity to stop touring and go back into the studio, but other opportunities kept coming up and we didn’t want to pass them up,” said Nebeker earlier this week, wending his way toward Colorado, where his band will play five shows in the next week.
This is the easy part for Nebeker and his band. They found their audience and wrote their follow-up to a record that Billboard acknowledged as a hit. Now they’re tooling around the western United States in their converted school bus and polishing material for their second release, “We Are the Tide,” due Sept. 13.
“It feels great to be touring and traveling and playing new songs for audiences,” said Nebeker. “After being in the studio for so long, you’re listening to such specific things for so long that it’s not music anymore. It’s just sounds. Now that we’re done with that, this is the reward — to be able to play actual songs for actual people.”
“We Are the Tide” is a treasure of a record that is built on Nebeker’s vocals, which occasionally come off like a gentler Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard. The album is decidedly down-tempo, but its woozy indie- pop is vibrant and intoxicating. Some bands write music that begs to be sung along with, and Blind Pilot owes much of its success to the accessibility of its sweeping chamber-pop hooks and the reliability of its folk-rooted melodies — the full package.
Touring in front of “We Are the Tide” is the easy part, because writing the record proved to be more difficult than recording it. Nebeker went back to Astoria, Ore., the coastal town where he and Dobrowski wrote much of “3 Rounds.” And they also spent time writing on the North Carolina coast in Kitty Hawk, where the Wright Brothers first took flight.
Writer’s block took over toward the end of the writing sessions, mostly because of the changed expectations.
“When you know that people are actually going to hear the things you’re writing down, it changes everything,” Nebeker said. “That was the wrong atmosphere to write in. I had to struggle to get out of it, and to get back where I was before — before Blind Pilot was anything.
“When you’re in it and not thinking about that anymore, great. But if it comes back, and I start thinking about how the song might come off on a stage or on an iPod or with people listening to it — the end goal instead of the intent — then I have to stop and take a walk, or go back to it a few days later when I’m not thinking about that.”
Nebeker got help from a couple of old friends — namely a song or two from the “3 Rounds” sessions that he was considering for the new album. He didn’t think any of them would make the final cut, but he and the band still recorded “Get It Out,” the first song Nebeker and Dobrowski worked together on. It’s one of the most instantly likable tracks on the new album.
” ‘Get It Out’ really came together in the studio,” Nebeker said. “It’s the oldest song that Ryan and I have collaborated on. And it ended up being one of my favorites.”
Ricardo Baca: 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com; @RVRB on Twitter
BLIND PILOT
Folksy chamber pop. The Portland, Ore., group plays five Colorado shows this week.
Winter Park SolShine Festival, noon Saturday, Hideaway Park in Winter Park, free,
Smokin’ Moe’s, 9 p.m. Saturday, 78930 U.S. 40 in Winter Park, $5,
Belly Up, 9 p.m. Sunday, 450 S. Galena St. in Aspen, $15,
Sheridan Opera House, 8 p.m. Monday, 110 N. Oak St. in Telluride, $23,
Chautauqua Auditorium, 8 p.m. Wednesday, 900 Baseline Road in Boulder, $25-$45,
