The first Blind Pilot album in eight years, In the Shadow of the Holy Mountain emerged from a period of
artistic crisis and the radical transformation of their creative ecosystem. “I went through a few years
where I wasn’t able to write—I tried therapy, I read books on writer’s block, I went on writing trips,
but nothing was helping,” says Israel Nebeker, frontman for the Oregon-bred band. After stepping
back and reimagining his songwriting approach, Nebeker challenged himself to write an entire album
in a month, then brought those songs to his bandmates with a newfound sense of receptivity. “I told
myself that whatever songs came through in that month would be for the love of the band and
music we make together,” says Nebeker. “Instead of being controlling in the studio, I wanted to let
the songs live and breathe with the band as an entity. By the time we finished, it was the most joy
we’d ever had in making an album together.”
Produced by Josh Kaufman (The Hold Steady, David Wax Museum), In the Shadow of the Holy
Mountain brings a potent new energy to the elegantly composed folk/indie-rock of past LPs like
2016’s And Then Like Lions. In a profound step forward for the band—whose lineup also includes
drummer/co-founder Ryan Dobrowski, bassist Luke Ydstie, and multi-instrumentalist Kati
Claborn—Blind Pilot’s fourth full-length unfolds with an exquisite fluidity, fully harnessing the
undeniable chemistry. “In the past we’ve always been very serious and intentional about the process,
but Josh often encouraged us to throw away our preconceived notions of what the songs were
supposed to be,” says Nebeker. “So much of the album came from all of us playing live together,
listening to each other and trusting our instincts, and really getting to the core of the song,”
Dobrowski adds. The result: the most revelatory expression yet of Blind Pilot’s palpable reverence
for music as a connective force.
While Blind Pilot intends to tour principally as a quartet in support of the record, the album includes
contributions from longtime trumpeter/keyboardist Dave Jorgensen and vibraphonist Ian Krist. In
bringing the album to life, the band worked with a rich palette of instrumentation, handling each
track with equal parts extraordinary care and unbridled spontaneity. For both Dobrowski and
Nebeker—who formed an early iteration of the band as college students in the mid-aughts—those
moments of ineffably closeness serve as the lifeblood of Blind Pilot. “For me making this album felt
like celebrating being together and still feeling that deep connection that’s been a throughline for our
entire adult lives,” Dobrowski says. “One of my very favorite things about music is the way it not
only connects us as bandmates, but allows us to connect to an audience—and then within that
audience, people end up connecting with each other. It’s this powerful thing that’s unlike anything
else, and in a way it’s kind of like magic.”
