The band doesn't fit into any pigeonhole, and that is precisely what is special about the two musicians from Columbus in the US state of Ohio. Rock, pop, hip-hop, electro, rap and lyrics that pack a punch: Twenty One Pilots offer all that and more.
The result? An incomparable and harmonious musical experience. The genre mix is unique and extraordinary. That's why the Twenty One Pilots CDs offer many a pleasant surprise.
How did it all begin?
It all started with a piano. The instrument, a gift from his mother, caught the interest of little Tyler Joseph. The boy decided to compose his own songs while still in high school and went in search of other musicians to join him on the stages of Columbus.
He even sacrificed his career as a basketball player for his musical goals, because from then on he wanted to do nothing but create melodies. The young Tyler Joseph barricaded himself in his room and began to create idiosyncratic songs.
He used many different elements of pop music to do so. In his works, pop, rock, hip-hop and electro, among others, merged into a symbiosis that had never been seen before.
Tyler had an urgent need to delight the world with his home-grown crossover. However, the first delicate stage attempts were rather slow, the audience still showed too little enthusiasm. In 2009, Tyler Joseph hired drummer Chris Salih and bassist, pianist and backup vocalist Nick Thomas.
As a result, the music project took concrete shape. The band toured the city's clubs and made a name for themselves through their live performances. After only a short time, the band was known throughout Columbus.
When did it really take off?
As the project was not as successful as initially hoped, despite the rising profile, the three musicians split up after two years. Tyler Joseph, however, was still convinced of the quality of his music. When Tyler Joseph finally brought the "House of Heroes" drummer Josh Dun on board, things suddenly took a steep upward turn.
In the months that followed, the two musicians thrilled more and more fans in their hometown of Columbus with their unprecedented electro-pop crossover.
With "Vessel" to the breakthrough
The duo soon caught the attention of the music industry. The label Fueled By Ramen got the nod and signed the musicians. In 2010, the band released "Three Songs". The band's big breakthrough finally came with the album "Vessel", about half a year after the release of "Three Songs", in early 2003.
The electro-pop crossover drilled deep into the ear, as the subsequent album "Blurryface" in 2015 also proved. The duo stormed the Swiss, German, British and Austrian charts. In the US album charts, the band reached first place with around 150,000 Twenty One Pilots CDs sold.
The song "Heathens", which was introduced in 2016 and used in the film "Suicide Squad", also became commercially very successful. One of the biggest successes on Twenty One Pilots albums remains the hit song "Stressed Out", which won the 2017 Grammy Awards for Best Pop Performance by a Two-Person Music Group.
Fan merch and recordings at Twenty One Pilots Online Shop
In addition to the Twenty One Pilots albums, EMP's online shop also offers various fan articles of the US duo, for example clothing for men and women, accessories and jewellery. Characteristic of the Twenty One Pilots merch is the group's striking logo.
According to the two musicians, it simply means "Twenty One Pilots" - symbolising humanity's desire to find meaning and purpose for everything. For Tyler Joseph, the logo has a meaning all of its own and thus a purpose that is known only to him.
In addition to the band logo, there is also the so-called Skeleton Clique logo of the fans. It is made up of two abstract figures. Both figures consist of a long line with three horizontal lines in the middle.
The right figure is white and wears a skeleton-like head, the left figure is red and reminds us of an alien with its large stylised eyes.
The duo's fans are known as the "Skeleton Clique". The range in the EMP online shop is adapted from time to time, so there is always new Twenty One Pilots merch on offer.
So if you don't want to miss out on anything, check out the Twenty One Pilots Online Shop at EMP regularly.
What you also should know about Twenty One Pilots
If two’s company and three’s a crowd, god knows what twenty one pilots make.
Fortunately, for those who would lose sleep wondering how the band all fit inside a tour bus, twenty one pilots are not a flight of aviation-aficionados. They are, in fact, a genre-bending musical duo who have matched the chart records for the likes of the Beatles and Elvis Presley – so it’s no surprise we’ve got plenty of twenty one pilots merch to laud over.
twenty one pilots – always stylised in lower caps, because they’re artistes and can decide to do things like that – is currently made up of lead vocalist Tyler Joseph and drummer Josh Dun. Tyler came up with the band's name while studying "All My Sons" by Arthur Miller; a play about a man who commits suicide 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. Inspiration really does strike in the unlikeliest of moments.
The general public will most likely know the band as a duo as this has been the set-up for most of their success, but earlier on, there were four of them. Two members – Nick Thomas and Chris Salih – left in 2011 after a couple years of independent releases. Two years later, the newly-cemented duo would find their mainstream success with 2013 album "Vessel".
"Vessel" was big business for the band as it became the second album in history on which every track received at least a gold certification. Not content with writing themselves into music history, the band’s success skyrocketed with the next release, "Blurryface". Every track – again – received a gold or platinum certification, making twenty one pilots the only band in history to have two albums accomplish such a feat.
They had found their niche by now – an ear-catching blend of alternative rock, hip-hop and pop – and these pilots really took flight. What followed 2015’s "Blurryface" was Grammy Awards, eight number-one singles on the Alternative Charts and behemoth-sized songs for blockbuster movies, like "Heathens" for the film "Suicide Squad".
Whether you’ve been riding high with twenty one pilots from the beginning or you’ve recently hopped on board, it’s time to get your hands on some twenty one pilots merch. Celebrate a band that’s defied genres and labels to pave their own sound and success with merch including twenty one pilots t-shirts, jumpers and other clothing. EMP are the exclusive sellers of select twenty one pilots hoodies, trainers and more. Also included in our twenty one pilots merch is the band’s discography, available in sleekly-designed LPs and digipacks.
Twenty One Pilots are one band that are never going to crash land.
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