Twenty One Pilots

Hello :)

Today I'm here with a great blog post about an amazing band called Twenty One Pilots, now I must admit at first I was a little sceptical of their music, rap or hip hop isn't what I listen to very often and the first few songs that I heard from them had more of a rap sound, however, actually the variety of music that they offer is huge, I couldn't describe exactly what it sounds like, since it can be different to every person listening to it, they offer something for every ear and as Kai made me listen more and more to them I realised just how amazing they truly are.

So let's get into a bit of a backround of Twenty One Pilots. The band was formed in 2009 and is active to this day. The genres that their songs are usually categorised under are alternative hip hop, electropop, indie pop and rock, but quite obvioulsy there are many more that could describe them. The band has had three members in it at most at a time, at the moment there are Tyler Joseph (lead vocals, piano, keyboards, synthesizers, ukulele, bass, drums, percussion) and Josh Dun (drums, percussion, backing vocals), but two of the former mebers of the band were Nick Thomas and Chris Salih, who left the bad in 2011. So far they've given out four albums and one of their songs was also used as the soundtrack of Suicide Squad.

Tyler came up with the name of the band while studying Arthur Miller's All My Sons, a play about a man who has to decide what is best for his family after causing the death of twenty-one-pilots during World War II because he knowingly sent them faulty parts for the good of his business. I think that already gives an idea of the depth and meaning of the band.

Anyway I think that's enough of general information, let's get into some songs that we love most from them, I must say the album Vessels was both of our favourite out of the four albums that they've released so far, however there are great songs on all of the albums and there's something for every possible mood. I like the general sound and depth to their music, the lyrics are very thought through and often they create an atmosphere that you don't get while usually listening to music, it makes you really think about the lyrics and what they might mean or translate to for you, at least that's what I feel. None of their songs are boring or generic, they've got an attitude and soul to them. The songs that truly stand out to me, as a newborn fan, I obviously haven't listened to absolutely all of their songs, are Cancer, Car Radio, Heathens, Migrene some songs that Kai also mentioned that I love are Ode To Sleep, Holding On To You, Semi-automatic, Fake You Out, Messageman, Ruby, Stressed Out, Polarise and Heavy Dirty Soul, Tear In My Heart, there are actually many more, but these are the ones we could think of from the top of our heads.

The band has also a logo and I really love the meaning behind it, so I'm just going to quote Tyler here: "It means Twenty One Pilots, the logo does. Why it means Twenty One Pilots, is it really goes along with one of our songs called "Kitchen Sink". The whole concept of that song is that I feel that humans are always struggling all the time when it comes to purpose, trying to figure out their purpose is, what purpose even is, what's the point, justifying your own existence. A lot of kids and people my age struggle with "what's the point," and with the logo, what it really means is it's an encouragement. When someone asks me what the logo means to me, the logo means something to me because I made it mean something to me. That's the point. The point is that I created something that only I understand and whether or not I decide to disclose the meaning of it, that's the beginning of purpose for me. The meaning of purpose for me, is by creating something, if it be by writing lyrics, painting a picture, by expressing yourself through art if it's photography or music or theater, or whatever it is. It doesn't have to be artistic, but if you create something and only you know the meaning of it, that's the beginning of purpose for you. When you're in the room by yourself trying to decide whether to stay alive, you can tell yourself "I should probably stay alive because I'm the only one who knows the meaning of that thing," so the logo is an encouragement for people to create. That's what it means."

That's all for now, but I'm sure you'll all be hearing more of Twenty One Pilots in our blog.

Kaiela :)