When a band begins life as a duo, well, life is probably a bit simpler than dealing with swollen ranks. A loaf of bread goes farther. A sofa bed can accommodate the full troupe. And heading out on tour on bicycles is not necessarily out of the question. The Portland, Oregon-based folk-pop band Blind Pilot did it – twice.
“Blind Pilot, as a band, was started for the idea of doing the bike tour,” said singer/guitarist Israel Nebeker, speaking while traveling through North Carolina. “Ryan (Dobrowski, drums) and I recorded an EP by ourselves to tour down the west coast.”
Nebeker and Dobrowski became friends while enrolled at the University of Oregon, where they formed Blind Pilot, and undertook that first bike tour in 2007, during which they sold out copies of a homemade, self-released EP. Last year the duo recorded and released their debut album, “3 Rounds and a Sound,” but welcomed additional players for live dates.
With an expanded lineup for their second two-wheeler tour, the group pulled trailers behind two of the bikes, one with a sign reading “Blind” and the other showing “Pilot,” and passing motorists expressed their concern at times during the trek that the “Pilot” appeared to be pulling away and leaving the “Blind” guy behind.
Though “3 Rounds” was released last summer, and the band is excited about getting back into the studio for a follow-up, they decided to make the most for now of the extended life of their debut album, which has done well on iTunes and even made the Billboard Top 200 album chart. For their Portland shows, Blind Pilot had expanded to a total of nine musicians, while their current non-bike touring edition features six players, including the original pair.
“The album has kind of grown legs of its own, in a lot of places we haven’t been yet, which is why we’re doing this tour now,” said Nebeker. “The album was put together by Ryan and I, but all of these people that helped just worked out so well that we really want to keep playing.”
Mutual acquaintances led to an offer to join The Decemberists on the fellow Portlanders’ current tour, and while this jaunt will undoubtedly reach some fresh ears, it probably won’t quite match the surrealistic dates that Blind Pilot just wrapped overseas.
At one point the band had made plans to work with someone who had a relationship with Counting Crows, and though that connection didn’t quite pan out, they were still offered the opening gig on Counting Crows’ U.K. tour. Counting Crows are a major draw in the U.K., by the way.
“It was sort of a dramatic change for us to go to these huge arenas where there was catered food and everything was so professional,” said Nebeker. I guess the hardest part for us to overcome was feeling that our music was still our own and natural and honest, and being in that setting is so theatrical.”
Fortunately, the Blind Pilot crew was able to relax with some smaller performances of their own here and there, giving them the chance to say things to the locals like “Hey, we’re playing at Wembley Arena tomorrow night. You should come,” and happen not to be joking.
“We found ourselves traveling through Scotland on the coast, and we had a day off. We were playing some huge arena in Scotland the next night. We stopped for gas in this little town and it was so beautiful. At this really great hotel we bartered with the hotel owner: ‘We’ll play in your bar tonight if you’ll cut us a deal, put us up for the night.’ We played for just the local people in a tiny town of, like, 800 people.
“The five teenagers in that town came out, and one of them had heard of us, seen our video online, so he was all stoked. And then we put them on the guest list for the next show, the next night. It was really fun, having that contrast.”
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