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 August 16 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.” 

Traveling 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 Dobrowski, 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.

Pre-order the new album In The Shadow Of The Holy Mountain: https://atorecords-ffm.com/itsothm 

Listen to “Just A Bird” here, a song with carefree spirit that sharply contrasts the emotional complexity of its lyrical sentiment: https://atorecords-ffm.com/justabird 

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 Dobrowski, 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

Blind Pilot Tour Dates
June 16 – Fry Family Farm – Medford, OR [SOLD OUT]
June 18 – The Venice West – Los Angeles, CA [SOLD OUT]
June 20 – Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery – Los Angeles, CA [SOLD OUT]
June 21 – Ojai Deer Lodge – Ojai, CA [SOLD OUT]
June 22 – Felton Music Hall – Felton, CA
June 23 – The Grove House – Mariposa, CA
June 25 – The Big Room at Sierra Nevada Brewing Co – Chico, CA
June 26 – WOW Hall – Eugene, OR
July 13 – The Sultan Room – New York, NY [SOLD OUT]
July 14 – United Theatre – Westerly, RI
July 15 – Iron Horse Music Hall – Northampton, MA
July 16 – The Atlantis – Washington, DC [SOLD OUT]
July 19 – Maurer Hall at Old Town School of Folk – Chicago, IL [SOLD OUT]
July 20 – Vivarium – Milwaukee, WI
July 21 – Off Broadway – St. Louis, MO
July 23 – The Raccoon Motel – Davenport, IA
July 24 – HI-FI Indy – Indianapolis, IN
July 26 – Grog Shop – Cleveland Heights, OH
August 11 – Remlinger Farms – Carnation, WA
August 12 – Biltmore Cabaret – Vancouver, BC
August 15 – Churchill School – Baker City, OR
August 16 – Mississippi Studios – Portland, OR
August 17 – Trout Lake Hall – Trout Lake, WA
August 31 – The Gorge Amphitheater – George, WA *
November 8 – The Domino Room – Bend, OR
November 9 – Harlow’s – Sacramento, CA
November 12 – The Fillmore – San Francisco, CA
November 15 – Teragram Ballroom – Los Angeles, CA
November 16 – Lobero Theatre – Santa Barbra, CA
November 17 – Belly Up Solana Beach – Solana Beach, CA
November 19 – Hotel Congress – Tucson, AZ
November 20 – Meow Wolf – Santa Fe, New Mexico
November 21 – Gothic Theatre – Englewood, CO
November 22 – Washington’s Foco – Fort Collins, CO
November 24 – The Commonwealth Room – South Salt Lake City, UT
November 26 – The Bing Crosby Theater – Spokane, WA
November 29 – Liberty Theatre – Astoria, OR

* with Dave Matthews Band

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