Blind Pilot will release their first album in eight years ‘In The Shadow Of The Holy Mountain‘ via ATO Records, and to celebrate they’ve shared an advance look at one of the collection’s most foundational pieces: “Brave”, The soaring and soulful original helped the band’s Israel Nebeker emerge from a years-long journey – both geographically and spiritually – to reclaim his voice as a songwriter.

The origins of “Brave” found Nebeker and Blind Pilot co-founder Ryan Dobrowski in Mexico City, where they had been invited to perform by a humanitarian group in the region. After speaking with the group’s members for hours – especially about the hardships and prejudice endured by migrants travelling up to the United States – Nebeker “got the idea to write a song that looks at ideas of ownership and othering,” as he described it, “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 from there.

For Nebeker, penning “Brave” was a process that actually started an ocean away – in Scandinavia – where he’d travelled to reconnect with his family’s roots in the nomadic Sámi community. It was during a drum ceremony where Nebeker began to experience visions of his ancestors, who led him to the titular mountain where his creative rebirth began.“That vision involved my most immediate ancestors beckoning me along a path that went straight into a mountain, and I knew right then that the mountain represented the origins of all of us. It’s funny because I wrote many of these songs without fully understanding them, but when I listened back later it hit me how much of the album is about ancestral lines and connection, gifts passed down and ties that persist.”  

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. Blind Pilot currently have North American tour dates announced through late November of this year, including release celebrations in Portland and Seattle, a return to Los Angeles at The Teragram Ballroom and two intimate nights at the Liberty Theatre in their hometown of Astoria. A full list of dates is below.

Blind Pilot US Tour Dates   

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  

November 30 – Liberty Theatre – Astoria, OR  

* with Dave Matthews Band