Moody alt-rock duo Idiot Pilot blend electronic elements including noise and synths into their melodic post-hardcore sound. After releasing their debut album, 2004's Strange We Should Meet Here, they toned down the harsher sounds while remaining within the style on a handful of releases over the next few years. After going on hiatus in 2011, they returned in 2019 with their third full-length, Blue Blood.nnMulti-instrumentalists Michael Harris and Daniel Anderson launched Idiot Pilot as high school students in Bellingham, Washington. Their first album, Strange We Should Meet Here, arrived on Bellingham label Clickpop before Reprise issued a remastered version in 2005. In the meantime, the band self-released the EP A Silent Film. The To Buy a Gun EP followed on Reprise before the end of the year, as did Strange We Should Meet Here: Remixes.nnIn August 2007, Idiot Pilot issued their second studio album, Wolves. With production by Ross Robinson (Korn, Glassjaw) and blink-182's Mark Hoppus, it featured Travis Barker on drums on one song, and another track, "Retina and the Sky," was included on the soundtrack to that year's blockbuster Transformers film. The EP Cruel World Enterprise also arrived before the end of the year. The duo released another EP, Heart Is Long, in 2008.nnIn 2009, Idiot Pilot parted ways with Reprise, and Harris toured and recorded with the Killer and the Star, a project led by Cold frontman Scooter Ward. Idiot Pilot then released the song "The Tail of a Jet Black Swan" in 2010. A year later, citing the need for a break from recording their third album, Idiot Pilot went on hiatus. They didn't officially end the break until February 2019, when they announced the self-produced Blue Blood, which saw release in March. ~ Marcy Donelson