Blind Pilot
Blind Pilot's Israel Nebeker talks bikes, tours and digital downloads.
Blind Pilot is a Portland based band who has toured with The Hold Steady and The Decemberists. They’ve also biked a tour around the northwest – and just recently played Lollapalooza in Chicago. We had a chance to catch up with bike enthusiast and all around nice guy Israel Nebeker to talk about Lollapalooza and what was next for Blind Pilot
HEAVE: Who were you excited to see?
Israel Nebeker: I was very excited to see Langhorne Slim, which goes on in ten minutes. Oh, and Flee t Foxes was the biggest. I saw them last night. It was amazing. I want to see Band of Horses and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, too.
HEAVE: It’s hard to ask how your set went since you haven’t played – so what has your favorite part of the festival been so far?
Israel Nebeker: I really liked standing out in the rain on Friday and watching music. It was just so much fun.
HEAVE: You guys did an entire tour riding bikes. What kind of bike do you own?
Israel Nebeker: I have a Zeus. It’s from this old Spanish racing company from the sixties.
HEAVE: You guys built the storage devices for all of your instruments so you could ride your bikes on the tour. How long did that take to build?
Israel Nebeker: The only one who actually built his own trailer was Luke. He plays upright bass. It took him a while. I helped him with sanding it and stuff. It was very impressive, but he is very good with wood. So it all worked out.
HEAVE: Your album is currently in the top twenty on the charts for digital music downloads – did you think something like that would ever happen to you?
Israel Nebeker: No, not at all – especially not this album. I remember going through some of the transitions on the album and kind of being like, “Well. I’m not going to play these songs for anybody. They are pretty personal.” And then I went from that to, “Well, I guess I’ll put them on this album, but it will probably only go out to my friends in Portland and a few other people.” Now it’s a lot different. It totally exceeded our expectations.
HEAVE: In sort of the same vein – how important do you feel getting in touch with the world digitally through Twitter and all of that is?
Israel Nebeker: It seems to be everything. Word of mouth is what has been going for us – and that seems to be what the Internet is, essentially.
HEAVE: You are about to play in front of a pretty substantial crowd – are you nervous about it?
Israel Nebeker: You know, I don’t get nervous until about a couple hours before. And then I get really nervous.
HEAVE: Nervous you are going to screw up or just nervous there are so many people out there?
Israel Nebeker: It’s not so much screwing up. It’s not really the opposite of confidence. I think it’s excitement and my body knows this thing is going to come and I think my body is just getting ready for it.
HEAVE: You’ve toured with The Hold Steady and The Decemberists. Now you are playing Lollapalooza. What is next?
Israel Nebeker: We are going to do our own tour across the United States in the fall.
HEAVE: You probably won’t be riding bicycles?
Israel Nebeker: Sadly, no. That would be a long trip.
HEAVE: What is your favorite fictional vehicle?
Israel Nebeker: Oh, man. I’m going to go with Falkor.
Posted by Wes Soltis on Aug 24, 2009 @ 9:19 am
