Fans of modern rock and pop music, and not only them, are well aware of the duet of Josh Dun and Tyler Joseph - two guys from the North American state of Ohio. Talented musicians successfully work under the Twenty One Pilots brand (for those who do not know, the name is pronounced approximately like “Twenty One Pilots”).
Twenty One Pilots: How did it all start?
Since its founding until mid-2019, the band has achieved great success: 30 music awards, including one Grammy, 5 studio albums, 25 music videos and 6 big concert tours. The duo's genre palette is diverse: reggae, indie pop, hip-hop, electro-pop, rock.
In order to understand how Twenty One Pilots managed to conquer the Olympus of American pop and rock music, it is worth going back to the beginning of the XNUMXs. Then the future musicians of the first line-up of the group met: Nick Thomas and Tyler Joseph. The guys played together in one of the youth basketball teams in their hometown of Columbus, the capital of Ohio.
Young people were connected not only by sports, but also by many other interests, primarily music. To communicate more often, Nick transferred to the school where Tyler studied. One day, my mother made T. Joseph a wonderful, as it seemed to her, Christmas present - a synthesizer. But at first, the musical instrument did not interest Tyler.
Much later, he looked into the closet and found a half-forgotten synthesizer there. The first pieces of music that Tyler performed on the instrument were melodies that often sounded on the radio at that time.
2007 was a fateful year for T. Joseph. It was then that his first solo album with the unusual title No Phun Intended was released, in which two similar-sounding words were played out:
- fun, which can be translated as "fun, fun, pleasure";
- Phun is a popular computer game.
"No intentions to have fun" - this is approximately the translation of the title of the album, on which Nick Thomas also actively participated. The next track "Trees" (Trees), created by T. Joseph, will become one of the iconic songs of the "21 Pilots" group in the future.
A little later, when Tyler began studying at Ohio University, he met Chris Salih at one of the parties. Chris was originally from Texas. He was able to surprise Tyler with his talent as a songwriter. It was Chris who came up with the idea of creating a group.
The first steps of the group Twenty One Pilots
The guys began to compose music together in a compact studio equipped in Salih's house. Soon Tyler invited Nick Thomas to the group. The created team has not yet had any name. The guys recorded the first album in the house where the three of them moved. They set up a new studio in the basement and were actively working on the album, which was released on December 29, 2009 under the name Twenty One Pilots.
This date has become fateful for musicians. A new band has appeared on the American pop and rock scene. The first line-up of Twenty One Pilots included three talented musicians:
- Chris Salih;
- Tyler Joseph (Tyler Joseph);
- Nick Thomas.
The group's first success
At the very beginning of their career, the musicians were guided by an unpretentious audience. In the US, such fans are called grassroots - ordinary people, the broad masses. The musicians performed in Columbus, as well as in the vicinity of the capital of Ohio. Even Tyler's mother was involved in selling concert tickets.
The band's style was influenced by their performances on a wide variety of stage venues, which typically featured tunes from genres such as metal, electronic music, and hardcore. The success of the group was indicated by the fact that they performed in the main concert halls of Columbus: The Basement (“Basement”) and The Alrosa Villa (“Alroza Villa”).
The guys boldly experimented with style, costumes and arrangement, surprised fans with tricks on stage. Numerous fans, which were growing in number, cheered for the musicians who participated in the television competition "Battle of the Bands". In 2010, the duo posted two tracks on the popular SoundCloud portal:
- Jarof Hearts – Christina Perri cover version;
- Time to Say Goodbye is a remix of a song by Sarah Brighton and Andrea Bocelli.
The second track was heard by Josh Dun. At that time, he was the drummer for the band House of Heroes ("House of Heroes").
Band name Twenty One Pilots
Fans of Twenty One Pilots can easily explain why the group has such a strange and obscure name for many. At one time, Tyler read "All My Sons" - a play written by the famous American playwright Arthur Miller (ordinary people know him as the third husband of Marilyn Monroe).
The plot of the work impressed T. Joseph. During the war years with the German fascists, one of the heroes of the play, taking care of the prosperity of his business and the well-being of his family, supplied defective spare parts for aircraft to the army. This resulted in the death of 21 pilots. Tyler wanted to show with the title the importance of choosing the right target in those difficult situations that often happen in life.
2011: new lineup of Twenty One Pilots
The end of spring and the beginning of summer 2011 were marked by fundamental changes in the group. The tight touring schedule did not suit Nick Thomas, who decided to devote more time to his studies. Therefore, on June 3, 2011, he left the group.
A month earlier, Chris Salih announced his departure. He could not be torn between touring and non-musical work. Chris preferred a more earthy career. He now owns Elmwood, a small carpentry shop in Columbus.
Changes in the composition of the group
Although Chris and Nick announced their departures from the band and even posted farewell posts on the 21 Pilots Facebook page, they helped push Twenty One Pilots into the US music market for a long time. It was K. Salih who brought Josh Dan to the group. Since the spring of 2011 and until now, Twenty One Pilots has been a duo of two musicians:
- Tyler Joseph - vocals and instruments: guitars (Hawaiian, bass and electric), synthesizer, piano;
- Josh Dun - drums and percussion
On July 8, 2011, a fateful event took place in the life of the duet - the release of the second album. Its original title, Regionalat Best, can be translated as "at best of regional importance". The musicians delighted fans with a CD release of the album and a concert they gave in the hall of New Albany High School (New Albany) in Ohio. More than 800 spectators witnessed a spectacular event.
The success of the album was consolidated during the tour with the group Challenger. The concerts were recorded on video and some of them uploaded to YouTube. Big success awaited the musicians after the performance at the Newport Music Hall - a club in Columbus, popular among music lovers.
After this event, several record companies showed interest in the promising group. Their owners saw the great creative potential of the artists and the opportunity to successfully promote the duo outside of Ohio.
Third album and new success
In April 2012, a new turn took place in the history of the group. Twenty One Pilots have signed a contract with Atlanta Record, a label subsidiary of the American record company Fueled by Ramen (pronounced "fueld by ramen"). The duo announced this at their performance in their hometown.
Soon, in July 2012, the band recorded Fueled by Ramen at the studio and released an EP with a simple title, which speaks for itself - Three Songs ("Three Songs"). The terms of cooperation were discussed during Tyler's negotiations with company representatives. The rights to most of the tracks on the second album went to Fueled by Ramen. Further events in the life of the group developed successfully for the performers:
- August 2012 - short tour with rock bands Walk the Moon and Neon Trees;
- 12.11.2012/XNUMX/XNUMX - Hold in video release
gon - 8.01.2013/XNUMX/XNUMX - the release of the third album called Vessel ("vesel", which can be translated as "vessel");
- 7.04.2013/XNUMX/XNUMX - two new videos for the songs Car Radio and Gunsfor Hands have been recorded and are available for viewing; director - Mark Eshleman;
- May 2013 - Tour with Fall
out - 8.08.2013/XNUMX/XNUMX - Debut performance on the Conan talk show with the song House of Gold, which appeared on YouTube in October;
- March - April 2014 - participation in two shows on MTV and in the popular program "Live on Saturday Night" with Seth Myers, a famous American TV presenter and actor.
Stage of participation in festivals
Throughout 2014, the duo delighted their fans and not only with their performances in various parts of the United States at festivals: Fire fly, Boston Calling, Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza. From September to November 2014, Twenty One Pilots toured the country with the Quietis Violent tour (“quiet from vayelant”, which can be translated as “silence is aggressive” or “silence is violence”).
On December 31, 2014, the duet pleased the fans with a new video for the song "Ode to Sleep" - "Ode to Sleep". The video consisted of recordings from three concerts.
The video clearly showed the rapid growth of the duet's performing skills. From a provincial musical group, Twenty One Pilots turned into an alternative group of a national scale.
2014 was proof of the duet's professionalism and skill. The group has achieved high positions on a wide variety of national music charts:
- 10 – the Alternative Albums;
- 15 - the Rock Albums;
- 17 - the Internet Albums;
- 9 – the Digital Albums;
- 21 - Billboard 200.
Blurry face - breakthrough album
In the spring of 2015, the duo prepared fans for the release of a new album. Three singles were released in April and May: Stressed Out, Tear in my Heart, and Fairly Local. ). With the first two songs, a video was released on YouTube. Stressed Out was a huge success:
- 1 billion views on YouTube;
- No. 1 on the Hot Rock Songs and Alternative Songs charts;
- No. 2 - US Billboard 100.
In May 2015, the long-awaited album Blurry face was released (one of the translation options into Russian is “Blurred Face”, pronounced “blurryface”). In the first week, 134 copies were sold in the US, by April 2017, the number had grown to 1,5 million. From 2015 to 2019, the album did not leave the Billboard 200 charts.
Blurry face turned the duo into the No. 1 group in the United States. Thanks to the album, on May 22, 2016, the band was awarded two prestigious awards at the Billboard Music Awards: Top Rock Artist and Top Rock Album. US music critics also praised Blurry face.
2015 and 2016 marked by two tours with songs from the album, which won recognition from a wide variety of audiences. The first BlurryfaceTour started in May 2015 and ended in February 2016.
Concerts were given in London, Glasgow, cities in the USA, Australia, Europe and Asia. The second tour took place in the summer of 2016. The duet performed in the USA, Europe, Mexico, Canada and Australia. In the artist bios, both tours are treated as one.
Twenty One Pilots record
Twenty One Pilots became the third musician in history to have two singles simultaneously in the top five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Before T. Joseph and J. Dana, only the Beatles and Elvis Presley achieved such a result. In September 2016, the 21 Pilots received awards for Favorite Rock/Pop Duo and Alternative Rock Artist at the American Music Awards. The prizes didn't stop there:
- 12.02.2017/XNUMX/XNUMX - the duet was awarded a Grammy for Stressed Out;
- March 2018 - "Gold Certificate" for the song "Hometown" (Home town) from the RIAA - Recording Industry Association of America.
At the end of March 2017, the duo went on a five-day tour with concerts at the stages of their hometown. The purpose of Tour De Columbus is to focus on the lyrics.
This tour can be interpreted as a return to the very beginning - to the theme of the first album, when the band did not depend on the recording company and performed independently.
The fifth album of Twenty One Pilots
During the break, which lasted a little over a year, the musicians rethought their work and worked on a new album. The pause was interrupted in July 2018, when T. Joseph gave a radio interview to Zane Lowe, a popular TV presenter and DJ from New Zealand. From July 2018 to July 2019, new singles and video clips for them, included in the group's fifth studio album, began to be released:
- Jumpsuit ("Jumpsuit");
- Levitate ("Take off");
- Chlorine ("Chlorine");
- Nico and the Niners
( Niko and the Nine Bishops - Bandito ("Bandit") and others.
Trench's fifth album ("Trench" is the name of a fictional valley), which was released on October 5, 2018, included 14 tracks. It very quickly took first positions in the Alternative Albums and Billboard charts. For the first time after a hiatus since spring 2017, fans saw their idols live in London on September 12, 2018. The duo performed on stage at the O2Academy, a 5-seat venue in Brixton, the metropolitan area. In October, the musicians performed the song Jumpsuit in Los Angeles at the American Music Awards (AMA).
Bandito Tour
On October 16, 2018, the Bandito Tour started - this is how the musicians called their next tour. The route passes through the cities of the USA, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Germany, Mexico, Canada and other countries. The tour will end in November 2019. The duo will perform 14 songs from their fifth album for the public.
The theme of musical compositions, as in previous albums, is mental health, suicidal thoughts, doubts, reflections on life. During concerts, artists constantly surprise the audience with tricks:
- back somersault;
- jumping to a height of more than 1 m;
- falling into the crowd, which begins to carry the musicians in their arms around the hall;
- walking on a suspension bridge;
- climbing on scaffolding installed on the stage.
In 2019, Columbus authorities temporarily renamed one of the central boulevards of the musicians' hometown Twenty One Pilots Boulevard. This event is timed to coincide with the performances of Josh Dun and Tyler Joseph on the stage of the local concert hall - the National wide Arena.
7 interesting facts about Twenty One Pilots:
- Tyler and Josh are hilarious and often joke about their first meeting, coming up with more and more complex stories, including meeting on Tinder, selling a car on eBay, meeting in a crashed train in which everyone died except them, and so on.
- Josh Dun and Tyler Joseph have once identical "X" tattoos, which signify the devotion of their fans from their hometown of Columbus. The musicians got the tattoo right during the Lifestyle Communities Pavilion performance in Columbus on April 26, 2013.
- The Ohio duo often wear balaclavas during live performances. Ski masks are not just a way to catch an audience by surprise in an interesting accessory, but an opportunity to make the music even more impersonal, so that each listener can make it their own.
- The group has its own logo |-/, which was designed and drawn by Tyler. He calls it a "kitchen drain", but the musician does not disclose the meaning and meaning of this symbol.
- At the end of December 2018, Josh stopped being a bachelor, he decided to propose to actress Debbie Ryan. The star announced this unexpected news to Instagram subscribers by posting a photo showing her and her boyfriend with a ring standing in front of her.
- Twenty One Pilots does not use guitar playing, which makes their songs more unique and catchy, clearly unlike anything else. They make do with a synthesizer, ukulele and drums.
- Both members of the group believe in God. Although the guys say that they never sought to call for religion through their work. But still, their beliefs sometimes slip through the lyrics and symbolism.
Twenty One Pilots in 2021
The Twenty One Pilots team has pleased the "fans" with the release of a new album. The record was called Scaled and Icy. Recall that this is the sixth studio album of musicians. The band members started recording the album in 2019. The guys mixed the record at Joseph's home recording studio.
