Twenty One Pilots is an American musical duo that originates from Columbus, Ohio. The band was formed in 2009 and consists of Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun. They put out two self-released albums, Twenty One Pilots in 2009 and Regional at Best in 2011, before being signed by Fueled by Ramen in 2012. They released their signed debut, Vessel, with Fueled by Ramen in 2013. Their second signed album, Blurryface, was released on May 15, 2015 through the same label.
The band was formed in 2009 in Columbus, Ohio by college friends, Tyler Joseph, Nick Thomas and Chris Salih. Tyler came up with the band's name while studying All My Sons by Arthur Miller, a play about a man who must decide what is best for his family after causing the death of 21 pilots during World War II because he knowingly sent them faulty parts for the good of his business. Tyler explains that this story of moral dilemma was the inspiration for the name of the band. On December 29, 2009, they released their debut, self-titled album, Twenty One Pilots, and began touring Ohio.
In 2010, the band released two officially unreleased tracks to their SoundCloud account. These included an original song titled "Time to Say Goodbye" and a cover of "Jar of Hearts" by Christina Perri. They were originally available for free download, though the option has since been removed.
In mid 2011, Thomas and Salih sequentially left due to busy schedules. Both posted farewell notes on the band's official Facebook page. Joseph was then joined by Josh Dun, former live drummer of House of Heroes.
Their second self-release, Regional at Best, was released July 8, 2011 with the new lineup consisting of only Joseph and Dun. The album was accompanied by a free CD release show on the grounds of New Albany High School. In November 2011, they played a sold out show at Columbus' Newport Music Hall attracting the attention of a dozen record labels. Although many labels fought over the band, it was ultimately decided that they would sign to the Atlantic Records subsidiary label Fueled by Ramen.
During the same year, the duo also gave fans two free, otherwise unreleased, songs via their email newsletter: the original version of "House of Gold" and a single entitled "Two."
On February 11, 2012, the band released a music video on YouTube for an unreleased song called "Goner". "Goner" was rewritten and re-recorded for its release on Blurryface in 2015.
In April 2012, at a sold out show at the Lifestyle Communities Pavilion, they announced their signing to Atlantic Records subsidiary label Fueled by Ramen. On July 17, 2012, they released their debut Fueled by Ramen recording in the form of a three song EP, entitled Three Songs. In August 2012, they embarked on a short tour with Neon Trees and Walk the Moon. They worked with Greg Wells, producer of Adele and Katy Perry, on their first full-length album on the record label Fueled by Ramen, Vessel. It was released January 8, 2013 and reached No. 58 on the Billboard 200, No. 42 on the Digital Albums chart, No. 17 on the Internet Albums chart, No. 15 on the Rock Albums Chart and No. 10 on the Alternative Albums Chart.
The group currently has their first radio hit in America, "Holding on to You", which has reached 11 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart; additionally, the singles "Guns for Hands" and "Lovely" reached No. 21 and No. 67, respectively, on the Japan Hot 100.
On November 12, 2012, the official music video for "Holding on to You" was released on YouTube. Sequentially in 2013, music videos for "Guns for Hands" and "Car Radio" were uploaded on January 7 and April 19.
As the new year began, the band started to break into the mainstream, proven to be in demand at music festivals and other events all around the country, such as Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Boston Calling, and Firefly. As a result, they took the show requests from different cities and blended them into the Quiet Is Violent World Tour, beginning in September 2014.
On April 13, Twenty One Pilots performed "Car Radio" at the 2014 MTV Movie Awards. On the 28th, the band performed "Car Radio" on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
On December 31, 2014, the band released a music video for the song "Ode to Sleep".
"MY NAME'S BLURRYFACE AND I CARE WHAT YOU THINK"
On March 16, 2015, the band announced that Blurryface was to be released on May 19. They also released the first single, called "Fairly Local". Their second single of the album, "Tear in My Heart", and its music video were released on April 5, 2015. On April 28, "Stressed Out", the third single from the album, was released along with a music video. "Stressed Out" peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, and number one on both Alternative Songs and Hot Rock Songs.
Blurryface was released four days early on May 15, 2015 and sold over 134,000 in the first week.
This album was their first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200.
The band began the Blurryface World Tour on May 11 in Glasgow, Scotland. The US part of their tour started on September 8 in Washington, D.C. The tour went to in the United States, Australia, South East Asia, Japan and Europe. They toured with Echosmith and Finish Ticket.