The global success of the Ohio duo Twenty One Pilots puzzled everyone, including, it seems, its members. Decorated with tattoos and black paint, Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun, as if descended from posters from Bravo magazine in 2005, quietly released albums and slowly increased their “skeleton cabal” (as their fans call themselves). Suddenly their word of mouth hit " stressed out” sounded on all the radio stations of the planet, and the song “Heathens” appeared on the soundtrack of the loud summer blockbuster “Suicide Squad”. In general, now they own the hearts of teenagers who are hungry for beautifully reflective idols with tunnels in their ears.

The program composition of Twenty One Pilots, the track "Stressed Out", was released in April last year. But the hype around him began with a delay of about six months. It has since been viewed over 650 million times.

About tours in Russia

Actually, Tyler and I have been dreaming of coming to you for a long time. We know a lot of cool Russians, we are waiting for something unforgettable. In turn, I promise to beat the drums with all my might!

About the handshake from the "Stressed Out" video

We came up with it five years ago. We sat in the hotel room at four in the morning, could not sleep, and then they were like: “Let's come up with a secret handshake? All best friends should have it, right? Since then, every time we say hello. After the clip, however, this is no longer a secret. But I won’t teach anyone: come on, you yourself will come up with your own version with your best friend.

About the film "Suicide Squad", the main theme of which was the track "Heathens"

Listen, well, the film entertained me personally, and this is the main thing. I love superhero movies in general. And I never approach them overly critical: it's just an opportunity to disconnect from reality for a couple of hours and relax.

About superpowers

I would like to be able to run very fast. At least 50 miles per hour.

About reading

The best I've read in recent times, was Hulk Hogan's tweet: "Kevin Owens and A.J. Styles, remember: for WWE to blow everyone's mind, you need to rip off Eric Young's pants and leave him in speedos" (American wrestlers are listed. - Note. ed.).

About fear and uncertainty

The older you get, the more you start to worry. Anxiety grows over the years - my doctor once compared it to a volcanic eruption. Generally, the main problem in that it is often difficult in principle to understand what exactly you are experiencing. For me, music has always been the best antidepressant and a substitute for psychotherapy. I'm sure I'm far from the only one.

About the funniest colleagues

We've toured with a lot of artists from Fall Out Boy to Echosmith. Who is the most fun with? Last summer I celebrated my birthday in New Hampshire with Mutemath and Chef'Special. So I ate Oreo pudding and ate it with Oreo cake - and it was probably my wildest birthday in my life.

How to maintain healthy relationships in a team where there are only two members

What do we do if we fight? To be honest, we just don't fight at all. What is important here is that we have already been good friends when they started playing together. We wildly respect each other, which is very important when you spend so much time together.

On October 22 and 23, Twenty One Pilots will perform in Russia for the first time. Tickets for the Moscow concert at the Sokol club (formerly Stadium Live) have long been sold out, in St. Petersburg the organizers moved the performance to a more spacious Ice Club.

Hey Josh! Some of these questions may seem strange to you, but know: no complaints against us, these are fans tried! First of all, what are your expectations from Russia? You probably think that perestroika is still going on in our country and bears roam the streets?

Haha, no.. I have never been to Russia. This will be my first visit with Twenty One Pilots. But since the seventh grade, I dreamed of visiting your country. Therefore, I am very excited that I will finally be able to come and feel like a part of a great culture. Of course, I have no idea what to expect from you. But I would not want to rely only on someone's jokes, stories and videos - it is important for me to get own experience. You can't understand a foreign culture until you visit that country yourself. So I'm really looking forward to the trip and I want to find some , meet cool people ... In general, I'm ready for adventure!

What are the first rumors or myths about Russia that come to your mind? For example, about vodka...

Right now I'm trying to remember anything, but nothing like that comes to mind. But I met a lot of Russians, they were all very kind. So I think I'll meet a lot of good people there.

Whose idea was it to come to Russia? Your manager or did you decide to visit such a dangerous place? Maybe an adrenaline rush?

Hehe! When Tyler and I got into music, we traveled extensively in our home state of Ohio, where we were born and raised. But one day we agreed that when we succeed, we will definitely start traveling on a grand scale. And so it happened, we began to travel around the world abundantly and now we want to visit as many cool places as possible! And speaking of what Russia will be like: I think it will be amazing!

What is the first thing you do when you get off the plane in Moscow?

First things first, I'll probably find your best coffee and fill it with plenty of it to keep me awake. I love coffee, you know.

We approve! What do you know about Russian music? Have you listened to any of our artists?

Good question. I'm sure I heard someone for sure, but I don't remember now. Maybe you will advise something?

No problem! "" just has a tradition: when famous performers come to Moscow, we show them the best Russian clips. If you do not mind, we will invite you to this program and you will get to know Russian music as closely as possible.

Yep, cool!

Okay, we'll contact your manager and try to arrange a meeting. What music have you been listening to lately?

Hmm... I don't know what I was listening to Last year... Sometimes I turn on old records - those groups from which I was crazy in high school. I recently drove Rage Against the Machine and. Sometimes I can listen to opera, sometimes even pop music. Type green day. Or just relaxing music, without words. Basically, I listen to a lot.

To talk about words. Do you remember the lyrics of all your songs by heart?

If I remembered all our songs, it would be difficult for me. By heart, of course not. But I'm getting ready for the show.

Which drummer do you consider your idol?

A lot of those. A bunch of pros helped me learn the drums until I found my style.

American band Twenty One Pilots is one of the biggest new names in contemporary music. The video for their main hit Stressed Out collected 700 million views on YouTube, tickets for the Moscow concert in the Stadium hall were sold out six months before the show. The price for a ticket to the dance floor from resellers reached 30 thousand rubles. Before the performance, Lenta.ru met with the band members Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun and discussed their sudden popularity.

Lenta.ru: When you started, you probably thought about success. Now Twenty One Pilots is one of the most sought after bands in the world. How do you feel about your current success? Did it turn out the way you imagined it before?

Tyler Joseph: There's a lot in all of this that we just couldn't expect. Some aspects of popularity we could not even imagine. But me and Josh - we always believed in our band. Everything that we talked about with him before - what we want, what we would like to become - it all happened. This is a very good feeling. Feeling of confidence. The artist always doubts his art, and this doubt always accompanies the creative process. But when people appreciate what you do, it really helps.

And our daily life is pretty crazy now: all these endless trips and so on. None of us traveled that much before we started performing. See different countries is a dream come true. We are in Russia for the first time, and I must say, it was worth it.

And what are the unexpected consequences of popularity?

Josh Dun: It's hard to imagine what your ordinary daily life turns into. When we used to discuss our ideas and dreams, we only thought about playing on stage in front of a lot of people. That was the point. But what life consists of before and after performing on stage - we somehow didn’t think about it. And we are still learning how to live in this new situation for us. Let's even take our conversation with you. I would never have thought that we could end up in Russia and someone would be so interested in our group that they would ask us about our life there.

In the video for the song Lane Boy, two people in chemical protection and with the inscription "success" on their chests are dancing with you on stage. Does that mean you think success is poison?

T.D.: I've said that success can give confidence. It is his positive side. But there are also many negative aspects. There is a temptation to do something just for the sake of success and fame. When it comes to the fore, art suffers. We have experienced the truth of these words. Lane Boy is a song where we were open about writing, about pop culture, about wanting to get on the radio, to be famous. With this song, we kind of protected ourselves from this negative side of success. These two guys in chemical protection symbolize her. At the end of the video, they fall on their knees in front of me - in this way we show that we overcome all this.

This song also contains the line: "I can only really create in concerts." What does it mean?

T.D.: Good question. I tried to say that I feel most free in the creative sense on the stage. At this point, no one can tell us what to do. Everything happens so fast when you're performing in front of people. On the one hand, this is a great nervous shock, pressure, and on the other, complete freedom.

Concerts are the most important thing for us. Yes, we write and record songs, but we focus primarily on performances. We write songs in order to play more concerts. In Lane Boy we are talking about what kind of songs we want to write. This song itself was born out of longing for the freedom that I feel on stage.

We go through phases: what's written is recorded in the studio and we can't wait until the day we go on tour to play it live. But having played enough on the tour, we think about new songs - such a cycle.

How is songwriting going?

T.D.: I try to write more lyrics separately from the music so that they are more meaningful and rich. When you then combine it with music, in the end something completely unexpected comes out. Now we have to compose on the road. Such is our life now. Our latest album, Blurryface, was written entirely on the road. The gigs we play and our fans have a big impact on the music because we often write right after the show.

Sketching on a laptop?

T.D.: Yes, there is a laptop with all my sounds, and when we are on the bus, we have a mini-studio there. And the microphone is always with me. And there's always a phone on which I sing and slander ideas. I write down all sorts interesting phrases and words, and they pull various images behind them. Then it all can take shape in a song.

When there are only two people in a group, is it easier or harder to play?

D.D.: Probably, and so, and so. Sometimes it gives more freedom. We can rely on technology: among other things, it frees our hands on stage. The show is supposed to entertain, to captivate people - and sometimes it has nothing to do with playing instruments at all. We can afford more than just playing instruments. But on the other hand, be in our group more people, we could make the sound even richer. Yes, and fill the scene itself: because when there are only two of you, you sometimes feel very vulnerable and too open. All the attention of the audience is focused only on you. But it makes us look really cool ( laughs).

Could you tell us more about this character - Blurryface ("Blurred Face"), whose name is your album named after? Maybe someone will be surprised by your appearance on stage and in videos with your hands and neck painted black.

T.D.: I had an idea to make an album that would be a story about someone. But didn't want it to be just some real existing person. I wanted to dive deeper into myself. There's something I'm constantly working on and constantly struggling with, and that's insecurity. This is what I don't like about myself. I think every person is like that. But I wanted to give this uncertainty a name, a face, a story. Something that I can focus on to try to understand, to understand. Blurryface is a character that personifies uncertainty - whether it's a live concert or everyday life. I paint my neck black - so I show that Blurryface, uncertainty, suffocates me. Black hands are a symbol of how uncertainty can paralyze creativity and everything you do. Someone will see a familiar situation in this and will try to defeat Blerriface. The album captures several such attempts. I liked focusing on something specific while writing new album, instead of just recording a bunch of disparate songs. There is a thread running through the entire album. And this is what is happening to us right now. And we're wondering what's next.

Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for CBS Radio

That is, Blurryface will still appear?

T.D.: Yes, because the story should have some kind of denouement: whether everything continues as before or everything is over with this character. Either he has turned into someone else, or there will be some new character. We don’t know exactly which direction everything will go, but some ideas already exist.

What were your ideas about Russia before you came here?

D,D.: I saw photos of Moscow, I understood that this is a city with beautiful architecture. All the Russians I've met before have been very cool. It feels like everything is completely different here than in the States. But that's great. We already had time to see something here, very cool. And you know, this crowd in front of the entrance to the club, people who came here for a few hours to look at a group that they had never seen before - it's amazing.

T.D.: Those who come long before the show are the most dedicated fans. And they are what make our concerts so cool.

Josh Dun - drums Twenty bands One Pilots. While many people try to expand their passions and do several things at once, Josh from a young age improved exclusively in drumming and achieved the greatest professionalism in this matter.

Josh was born on June 18, 1988, the same year as Tyler Joseph, in Columbus (Ohio, USA), he has two sisters and a brother. Tyler, contrary to rumors appearing from time to time on the Internet, is not his brother 🙂

Josh grew up in a religious family (by the way, like Tyler), which did not stop him from making music. Parents always supported their son's hobby and even gave him a room in the basement under a music studio, where Josh sat for hours, pounding on his drums.

Josh doesn't music education and everything he learned, he achieved on his own, using videos of other musicians found on the Internet as a guide. There was a time when he didn't even have his own drum kit and went to practice at the nearest record store.

Josh's aggressive drumming threatened to ruin him on drumsticks, and then the musical equipment company Zildjian asked him to custom-make reinforced (and slightly elongated) drumsticks. Later, the model was put into mass production.

In the Russian-speaking crowd, Josh received the nickname "Kazakh", with light hand one Internet user who wrote a message in the style of “help identify the clip”, where he called the main characters of the video “a boy with a dirty neck” and “Kazakh” 🙂 After that, it started ...

At all concerts, Josh performs his signature number - a back somersault with a piano. Regular attendees of the band's performances are so used to it that everyone is already waiting for this number and Josh has no choice ...

Josh admits to natural modesty and this explains that at first he performed at concerts in various masks (including a balaclava). Later he managed to partially overcome this shyness and in this moment only red eyes and bright hair remained from the former costume.

At concerts, in addition to somersaults, Josh has another signature number - crowdsurfing with a drum kit. Those who have seen say that the sight is outstanding.

Tyler and Josh are periodically trolled about homosexual preferences. The guys show complete indifference to these hints, and sometimes they start to make fun and add fuel to the fire themselves. What can you not do to let the public scratch their tongues ...

Twenty One Pilots (the band's name is always written in lowercase) have made a lot of noise over the past few years with their experiments with musical style and notable live performances.

Debuting in 2009 and signed to Fueled by Ramen in 2012, the band, made up of vocalist Tyler Joseph and drummer Josh Dun, released two critically acclaimed albums, Vessel and Blurryface. The latter became their calling card. Their lyrical, cheeky lyrics have resonated with many fans around the world.

The nearest concerts of Twenty One Pilots in Russia will be held on February 2, 2019 in Moscow (VTB Arena) and on February 4 in St. Petersburg ( Ice Palace).

The name Twenty One Pilots is taken from a play by Arthur Miller.

In college, Tyler Joseph studied Miller's play All My Sons, about a man who stands in front of moral choice after knowingly selling defective Air Force aircraft parts resulting in the deaths of twenty-one pilots during World War II. Inspired by this moral dilemma, Joseph names the group "Twenty-One Pilots". It is these ethical issues and situations from life that became the basis for many of the group's songs.

The musicians put photos of their grandfathers on the cover of "Vessel"

The two older men on the cover of Fueled by Ramen's debut release are Tyler's grandfathers Joseph and Josh Dun. Joseph and Dan thought it would be cool because no one had done it before.

Their ski masks symbolize facelessness

After the release of Vessel, the Twenty One Pilots began wearing balaclavas during live performances, and at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards, the audience even followed suit. In an interview, the band stated that ski masks are a way not only to surprise people at concerts, but also to make the music more faceless and thus irrelevant - to separate it from faces and names so that people can make it their own.

Blurryface is the character the album was named after

Tyler Joseph said that Blurryface is a character he invented, personifying his own complexes and the complexes of other people. To get into character on stage, he applied black paint to his neck and arms, which he says symbolizes the fear of suffocation (the paint on his neck) and the thing he makes with his hands (the paint on his hands). He also wears red wristbands because red is the character's color.

They tried to attract the attention of stage workers during concerts.

When the Twenty One Pilots were just a local band in Columbus, they tried to get the attention of everyone in the club, even the bartenders who served the patrons. In an interview, Tyler said that they wanted even the attendants to stop their work for at least a second and look at the stage.

They are Christians, but not Christian performers

Both Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun have said that they are Christians, but they are not going to convince anyone of anything through music. However, since their beliefs are important to them, they often slip through texts and general symbolism in one way or another.

Tyler once kicked an attendee out of a concert.

Once Tyler Joseph stopped the show because he saw a guy in the audience hit a girl. He stopped playing and, along with several other people, pushed him off the court.

Twenty One Pilots Won't Tell What Their Logo Means

Tyler Joseph designed the band's logo himself, and refers to it as the "kitchen drain". He stated that it had a certain meaning to him, as well as the fact that he is the only person who knows what it symbolizes. And if he tells, then the meaning will be lost.

None of the band members play the guitar

Twenty One Pilots usually manage with synths, ukuleles and drums, which makes their music quite distinctive in that they don't use a guitar at all. This is because neither Joseph nor Dan play it. They say that if they used a guitar, they would have to look for someone to play it, and then the music would come through someone who wasn't part of the band.

Josh played drums for House of Heroes

Prior to joining Tyler Joseau in Twenty One Pilots, Josh Dun was the touring drummer for the rock band House of Heroes. After original members Nick Thomas and Chris Sahlin left the band, Dan, who worked at Guitar Center with Sahlin, met Joseph and they started playing together.

Tyler Joseph released solo album

While still at school, Tyler Joseph released an EP of Christmas songs. He also featured on a live performance of "Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel" on Christmas with the Stars for Five14 Church and as backing vocalist on Dallon Weeks's (Panic! at the Disco) single "Sickly Sweet Holidays".

Tyler also starred in videos for his church.

Before Twenty One Pilots became world famous, Tyler Joseph shone his acting talents in short videos that he and several others from his church in Ohio made. In the video, titled "The (moderately inspiring tale of the) Longboard Rodeo Tango", he plays a trainee who finds out that his comrades are a gang of skateboarders.

The Vessel album was written without much expectation that anyone would hear it.

When Vessel came out, the band was still fairly unknown, so when they went into the studio to record, no one expected anything from them. However, the band said that when they were recording "Blurryface" it was hard not to think about the fact that there is an audience out there somewhere that is hungry for this record.

They filmed a music video for Will Smith

In one of his most interesting videos on "House of Gold", the band appears in front of the audience in the middle of some kind of wasteland and half of their body is torn off. But the place itself is also of interest. The video was filmed on a ranch north of Los Angeles owned by Will Smith.

Once they got a tattoo right on stage

Both Tyler and Josh have an "X" tattoo that they got on stage in Columbus. Joseph wears it on his forearm and Dan wears it behind his right ear, symbolizing the devotion of the fans in their hometown.