Twenty One Pilots: Inside the Biggest New Band of the Past Year
Right now, Joseph and Dun are enjoying their first month off since their major-label debut came out in early 2013. They’ve spent the time hanging out with their families and old friends, but they’ve also logged many hours working on complex backing tracks for their upcoming arena tour. “I know that concept gets a lot of flak,” says Joseph of the tracks. “But we’re so proud of them — we slave over them.”
They head to Dun’s parents’ house; the drummer now lives in L.A. but crashes in his old bedroom when he’s in Ohio, which is often. (Joseph and Jenna bought a house in Columbus and live there full-time.) They filmed much of the “Stressed Out” video at Dun’s childhood home, so it’s become a destination for Twenty One Pilots fans. Because the home number is listed, Dun says his parents have had to cancel the landline to put an end to the calls coming in at all hours.
A Christmas tree sits in the living room, next to a ceramic Nativity scene. There’s not a single Twenty One Pilots photo or bit of memorabilia anywhere within sight, though the walls are covered with signs that say things like JOY and A LOVING FAMILY MINE TO TREASURE BETTER THAN WEALTH OF ANY MEASURE. Dun’s basement bedroom has been stripped of most personal artifacts, but his decent-size DVD collection — which includes movies certain to be approved by CleanFlicks like Finding Nemo and The Truman Show — remains intact.
Dun takes out a bowl of two-day-old chili from the fridge, mixing in sour cream and cheese as the topic turns to his own religious views. “We’re always questioning things,” he says, “but I guess it’s safe to say that we’re both Christians.” Dun’s mother, Laura, a small, cheerful blond woman in her fifties, comes downstairs to say hello; she is a nurse, and his father is a physical therapist. “Hey, Mrs. Dun,” Joseph says. “This is good chili. I promise to not spill any on the couch.”
“Call me Mama Dun,” she says. “I would have fixed you something more if I knew you were coming over.”
Mama Dun appears in the “Stressed Out” video along with all the other members of the combined Joseph and Dun clans, who all chant “Wake up, you need to make money” in unison. “Growing up, money is important,” says Joseph. “And now I have a career where I’m making enough money to live. But I really want to give it to my parents, my family, charities and people around me.” True to form, Joseph still drives around town in a beat-up Chevy Impala. In the coming months, he says that the band plans to start its own charity, something “Columbus-based.”
The rise of Twenty One Pilots also means that the band has stopped apologizing for its unorthodox mix of styles. The follow-up single to “Stressed Out” was “Lane Boy,” a reggae-infused track that is almost a mission statement, with Joseph singing, “They say, ‘Stay in your lane, boy’/But we go where we want to.”
“It is true that if you hear our music described, it sounds unappealing,” says Joseph as he gets ready to leave for his brother’s high school basketball game. “I used to laugh and agree with people when they said it didn’t make any sense.
“I’m going to stop saying that,” he says. “It fits together into one body of work, because we made it.”