2009–2011: Formation and self-titled album Tyler Joseph first met future bandmate Nick Thomas at a young age while playing youth basketball in Columbus, Ohio. Thomas later transferred to Joseph's middle school, and the two would remain friends throughout high school. Joseph began playing music after finding an old keyboard inside his closet, a Christmas gift he received from his mother, and began mimicking radio melodies. In 2007, Joseph released a solo EP,
No Phun Intended, in his parents' basement. Thomas contributed guitar to several songs on the album, The band initially played for a wide variety of audiences at clubs and venues around the Columbus area. Playing at metal, hardcore, and electronic venues influenced Joseph to incorporate these disparate styles into his songwriting. To catch the attention of unfamiliar or uninterested attendees and promoters, the band began to experiment with costumes and on-stage
acrobatics. During this time, the band participated in various "Battle of the Band" contests at The Alrosa Villa and The Basement, important Columbus music venues. In 2010, the band posted two tracks to their
SoundCloud account, a cover of "
Jar of Hearts" by
Christina Perri and "
Time to Say Goodbye", an original song that samples "
Con te partirò" by
Andrea Bocelli and
Sarah Brightman. The latter track would become the first song that local drummer
Josh Dun heard from the group. Joseph, Dun, and Salih participated in the musical efforts of the Columbus church Five14. They contributed to four of fourteen tracks for their album
Clear, with Travis Whittaker and the
gospel rock band New Albany Music. In 2011, Joseph appeared in a three-part video called "The (Moderately Inspiring Tale of the) Longboard Rodeo Tango", and sang "
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" in another video, "Christmas with the Stars".
2011–2012: Lineup changes and Regional at Best Salih left the band on May 8, 2011, to focus on work, and Thomas left the following month on June 3 to focus on schooling, both posting farewell notes on the band's official Facebook page. Before departing from the project, Salih invited
Guitar Center co-worker and friend of the group Josh Dun (former touring drummer for
House of Heroes), to take his place in the band. Impressed by the band's potential and Joseph's creative vision, Dun abandoned plans to pursue drumming in Nashville and joined the project only a few weeks before Thomas left the group. Both Salih and Thomas remained involved with the band's production for some time after their departure. Thomas briefly attended school in
North Carolina, but moved back into Joseph and Dun's house in Columbus a year later and began to manage their
merchandise. Thomas remained a part of the merchandise distribution crew throughout the production of
Blurryface and continues to stay actively involved in the band's tour cycle. With a new lineup consisting of only Joseph and Dun, Twenty One Pilots self-released their second album,
Regional at Best, on July 8, 2011. The album was accompanied by a free CD release show on the grounds of
New Albany High School. While Salih and Thomas were involved with the conceptualization of the album, neither they nor Dun claim to have had much involvement with its production, which was handled nearly exclusively by Joseph. In November 2011, after months of cultivating a fan base in the Columbus area via social media interaction and constant touring, the band played a sold-out concert at Columbus'
Newport Music Hall. This caught the attention of several record labels interested in seeing if the band's appeal could stretch outside of Ohio. That same year, the duo put out two free songs via their email
newsletter: the original version of "
House of Gold" and "Two". documenting it in a series of videos uploaded to the Twenty One Pilots YouTube channel.
2012–2014: Major-label signing and Vessel In April 2012, the band announced their signing to
Atlantic Records subsidiary
Fueled by Ramen during a show at the
Lifestyle Communities Pavilion. On July 17, 2012, they released their debut Fueled by Ramen recording, an EP entitled
Three Songs. The next month, the band embarked on a short tour with
Neon Trees and
Walk the Moon.
Regional at Best tracks "Slowtown", "Anathema", "Ruby", "Be Concerned", and "Clear" have since been made commercially unavailable. On November 12, 2012, the music video for "
Holding On to You", directed by Jordan Bahat, was released on YouTube. On January 7 and April 19, 2013, the band released music videos for "
Guns for Hands" and "
Car Radio", respectively, both directed by Mark Eshleman of Reel Bear Media. In an interview with the
Huffington Post, Joseph described
Regional at Best as a "glorified mixtape" and confirmed that songs from that project would reappear on their major-label debut album. Ultimately, five tracks from
Regional at Best – "
Guns for Hands", "Holding On to You", "
Ode to Sleep", "
Car Radio", and "Trees" – were re-recorded and released for their third album. "
Lovely" was also re-recorded and released as a single in Japan on April 17, 2013. "Glowing Eyes", "Kitchen Sink", and "Forest" appeared unchanged as bonus tracks on the UK version of
Vessel.
Vessel was released on January 8, 2013, and later reached No. 21 on the
Billboard 200, No. 9 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 band's first charting single, "Holding On to You", reached No. 10 on the
Billboard US Rock Airplay chart. Additionally, "Guns for Hands" and "
Lovely" reached No. 21 and No. 67, respectively, on the
Japan Hot 100.
Vessel became the second album in history to have every track receive at least a gold certification, making Twenty One Pilots the first and only band to see every song on two albums earn gold or platinum awards. In 2013, Twenty One Pilots (along with
Panic! at the Disco) were one of the opening acts for
Fall Out Boy on their
Save Rock and Roll Arena Tour. On August 8, 2013, Twenty One Pilots performed "House of Gold" on
Conan in their late night debut. On October 2, the music video for the song was uploaded onto YouTube. On March 17, 2014, Twenty One Pilots performed a set at the
MTVU Woodie Awards during
SXSW. On April 13, Twenty One Pilots performed "Car Radio" at the
2014 MTV Movie Awards. On April 28, the band performed "Car Radio" on
Late Night with Seth Meyers. In 2014, Twenty One Pilots played a number of music festivals and other events around the United States, such as
Lollapalooza,
Bonnaroo,
Boston Calling, and
Firefly. Requests from many of these cities were incorporated into the band's first headlining tour, the
Quiet Is Violent World Tour, which began in September 2014 and ended in November of the same year. On December 31, 2014, the band released a music video for "Ode to Sleep". Composed of footage captured by the band's creative director Mark Eshleman from three concerts over the preceding three years, the video depicted the band's growth from their origins as a small local band to a nationally popular alternative act.
2015–2017: Blurryface and commercial success On March 16, 2015, the band announced that a new album,
Blurryface, was to be released on May 19. They released the first single, "
Fairly Local", on March 17. On April 28, "
Stressed Out", the third song released from the album, was released along with a music video. "Stressed Out" became the group's best-selling single, having been certified 13× Platinum, and peaking at No. 2 on the U.S.
Billboard Hot 100, and No. 1 on both the
Alternative Songs and
Hot Rock Songs charts, while also surpassing over 3 billion views on YouTube.
Blurryface was released two days early on May 17, 2015, and sold 134,000 copies in the first week in the U.S. which made it the band's first No. 1 album on the
Billboard 200. On May 22, 2016,
Blurryface won in the category of "Top Rock Album" at the
Billboard Music Awards, while the band won the category of "Top Rock Artist".
Blurryface became the first album on which every track received at least a
gold certification from the
Recording Industry Association of America. in late 2015 The band began the Blurryface Tour on May 11, 2015, in
Glasgow, Scotland. Their headline route spanned the United States, England, and Canada. The U.S. leg featured
Echosmith and
Finish Ticket as openers. Twenty One Pilots performed "Stressed Out" on
Late Night with Seth Meyers on September 14, 2015. The band announced a London show in February 2016, and later announced a run of UK dates, with a second London date added. The band
Transviolet served as openers. A second tour for the
Blurryface album, the
Emotional Roadshow World Tour, started in Cincinnati on May 31, 2016. The tour covered the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Australia.
Chef'Special and
Mutemath opened for the American leg. Irish singer
Bry joined the tour for its European leg. On June 16, 2016, the band released the song "
Heathens" as the first single from the
Suicide Squad soundtrack, earlier than the expected release date of June 24, after the song leaked onto the internet on June 15. A music video for the song was released on June 21, 2016. "Heathens" plays during the ending credits of the film. The track became their second No. 2 song on the U.S.
Billboard Hot 100, and second to become certified Diamond. The fifth single from
Blurryface, "
Ride," peaked at No. 5 on the charts and earned their third Diamond certification. Alongside "Heathens," which reached No. 4 the same week, the band became the third rock act in the 58-year history of the Hot 100 to have two singles simultaneously in the top five, joining the ranks of the Beatles and Elvis Presley, making them the first act in 47 years to achieve this milestone. In September 2016, the band contributed a cover of the piano ballad "
Cancer" by
My Chemical Romance to the tribute album
Rock Sound Presents: The Black Parade. An animated lyric video followed the release of the song. Twenty One Pilots featured as the musical guest on
Saturday Night Live on October 8, 2016, performing orchestra-accompanied versions of "Heathens" and "Ride". The band later performed a medley of "Heathens" and "Stressed Out" on the
American Music Awards of 2016, where they also accepted their first awards on American television for Favorite Pop/Rock Duo and Favorite Alternative Rock Artist. On November 25, 2016, the band released a limited-edition live vinyl album documenting two performances at
Fox Oakland Theatre, on the duo's 2015 Blurryface Tour under the name
Blurryface Live. Joseph and Dun collaborated with
Mutemath again for a five-song EP,
TOPxMM, composed of remixes and re-imaginings of four tracks from
Blurryface as well as "Heathens". The EP was uploaded onto the band's official website free of charge on December 19; a 25-minute long video of the bands recording the songs live in studio was also released on the band's YouTube channel. On February 12, 2017, Twenty One Pilots won a
Grammy Award for "Stressed Out" in the
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category. The band stripped to their underwear before taking the stage, with Joseph claiming in their acceptance speech that this was a fulfillment of a promise the duo had made to each other in their early days as a local Columbus band. On March 27, 2017, the band began selling tickets for Tour De Columbus, a five-date hometown tour taking place in June 2017. The duo performed at several small venues they first played as a local band including The Basement,
Newport Music Hall, and
Express Live!, before ending their tour cycle with arena shows at
Nationwide Arena and
Value City Arena. In an interview with
Alternative Press in November 2016, Twenty One Pilots stated that after their last show for
Blurryface, they will be "going dark" to focus on new music. Joseph stated that he would like to focus on lyrical content of the music, and bring the music back to the "authenticity, lyrics, delivery, and fearlessness of songwriting" similar to that of their self-titled debut album. The band's last activity came in July 2017 in the form of posts on social media depicting an eye closing over lyrics from several of their songs. In March 2018, their song "
Hometown" received a
gold certification from the
RIAA, making
Blurryface the first full-length album to have every track achieve at least gold certification.
2018–2020: Trench In April 2018, a cryptic message was uncovered on the band's web store, which revealed a website known as
dmaorg.info. Fans began using clues and found other sections of this site, hinting at the possibility of the band's return. There were multiple images uploaded to the website, including letters from a character named "Clancy". In July 2018, Twenty One Pilots broke their year-long silence, first sending a cryptic email to fans and later posting a video to all social media platforms and updating their logo and branding. Tyler Joseph made his first media appearance in over a year for an interview with
Zane Lowe of
Apple Music 1 (formerly Beats 1) from his home studio in Columbus, Ohio, in which he spoke about the band's year-long hiatus, creating the new album, and battling against personal demons and insecurities. On July 11, 2018, the band released two new songs, "
Jumpsuit" and "
Nico and the Niners", as well as the music video for "Jumpsuit". Later, on July 26, 2018, the music video for "Nico and the Niners" was released. The song "
Levitate" was subsequently released as the album's third single along with a music video on August 8, 2018. On August 20, 2018, at the
MTV VMAs, a ten-second long snippet of the song "
My Blood" was played at the end of a commercial promoting the album. On August 27, 2018, the band made "My Blood" available on streaming services as the album's fourth official single. The band released their fifth album,
Trench, on October 5, 2018. On the same day, they released the music video for their single "My Blood".
Trench debuted at No. 2 on the
Billboard 200, and No. 1 on the Top Rock Albums and Alternative Albums charts. All fourteen tracks from the album charted in the top 25 of the Hot Rock Songs chart, where five tracks were in the top 10. On September 12, 2018, Twenty One Pilots played their first live show in over a year, titled
A Complete Diversion, at
O2 Brixton Academy in London. They performed the four released songs from
Trench, as well as some songs from their previous albums, to promote the album and the upcoming
Bandito Tour. Twenty One Pilots performed their single "Jumpsuit" at the
2018 American Music Awards on October 9, at the
Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles. On November 1, the band performed stripped-down versions of "My Blood" and "Ride", as well as covering
Damien Rice's "9 Crimes", in BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge. Radio 1 visited the band in their hometown and filmed the session at the Newport Music Hall in Columbus, Ohio, for the kickoff of the Live Lounge Month, a month-long series of performances from different artists. On October 16, the band embarked on their worldwide Bandito Tour, starting in the U.S. and continuing with legs in Oceania and Europe. They also announced additional 2019 tour dates for shows in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. The band's stunts during the set included leaping, backflipping, vertical crowd-surfing, suspended bridge walking, and scaffolding scaling. , Birmingham in 2019 On January 22, 2019, the music video for "
Chlorine" was unveiled upon the song's release as a single and was directed by Mark Eshleman of Reel Bear Media, featuring an alien-like creature named "Ned". The band headlined a number of festivals in the summer of 2019, including
Reading and Leeds and Lollapalooza. On March 4, 2019, the band confirmed that they were working on their next studio album. About the possible theme, Joseph said, "there's a character that hasn't been talked about on any record yet that plays a huge role in the narrative that obviously will need to be talked about and it's probably where we're going next". On June 19, 2019, a re-imagined version of "Chlorine", titled "Chlorine (19.4326° N, 99.1332° W)", was released. It was the first song to be released from the
Location Sessions extended play. Other songs in the series include "Cut My Lip (Brooklyn)" and "The Hype (Berlin)". In 2019, Nationwide Boulevard in Columbus, Ohio was temporarily renamed to Twenty One Pilots Boulevard to celebrate two hometown shows at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, where the band also opened up a pop-up shop named "Ned's Bayou", with both the name of the shop and the merch being based on the character that appeared in the music video for "Chlorine". On July 16, 2019, "
The Hype" was sent to US alternative radio as the sixth and final single from
Trench. On April 9, 2020, the duo released the song "
Level of Concern", which marked the first musical output by the duo since the release of
Trench. "Level of Concern" references
COVID-19 pandemic-induced anxiety, and its accompanying music video was filmed in Joseph and Dun's homes while they were under
lockdown due to the pandemic. The duo made a separate music video for the song was released in the form of a continuous stream. It was a "never-ending music video" and ran for 178 days, from June 22 to December 18, 2020.
Guinness World Records certified it as the longest music video in history. The duo later posted a video in June, as well as a photo with the code "LOC-491-555-09JKL", which could be typed into the band's website to unlock the first of 20 "USB drives" which were later revealed to be part of a scavenger hunt based around "Level of Concern." The ultimate reward for the scavenger hunt was exclusive digital content featured in all 20 zip drives, a video of Joseph congratulating fans for completing the scavenger hunt, and a spot in their cryptic "Never-Ending" music video for "Level of Concern", which earned a Guinness World Record for the longest run for a music video, having streamed from June 21 to December 16 (177 days), beating the previous record set by producer
Pharrell Williams (24 hours). In November 2020, Dun revealed that the duo were still working "remotely" on their next album, with both members being in different locations due to the lockdown. He described the recording process: "we both have our own studios, which is really nice, so he comes up with a lot of stuff at his studio, sends it over to me, and then I come up with some stuff here at my studio and then send it back". On December 8, 2020, the band released a Christmas single, "
Christmas Saves the Year", following a
Twitch stream by Joseph.
2021–2023: Scaled and Icy in September 2021 The duo's sixth studio album,
Scaled and Icy, was released on May 21, 2021. The album's name is an
anagram, which spells out "Clancy is dead", and is a play on the phrase "scaled back and isolated", due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The album was first teased on April 6, 2021, through
dmaorg.info via a poster that included the text "New Album
and Livestream Experience". The album was officially announced by the band the following day, alongside the release of its lead single, "
Shy Away". The second single from the album, "
Choker", was released on April 30, 2021. The third single from the album, "
Saturday", was released on May 18, 2021; its music video followed on July 8. Two days before the release of "Shy Away", the band announced a livestream concert to take place on May 21, 2021, coinciding with the album's release. The livestream, described as being "career-spanning", was held at
Value City Arena and included live performances of songs from
Scaled and Icy, as well as previous records. The show also introduced a new live touring band that would join the duo for future shows. On May 19, 2022, an extended cut of the concert with behind-the-scenes footage was released in over 1,000 theaters worldwide. 2022 in Germany On June 16, 2021, the duo announced the
Takeover Tour, during which they would spend a week in each city they visited, performing at small clubs as well as large venues. The tour began in
Denver, Colorado in September 2021, and concluded in London on June 25, 2022. On July 23, 2021,
Half Alive and Arrested Youth were announced as openers for the U.S. leg of the tour. On September 17, 2021, the duo held a virtual concert for the online video game
Roblox. On November 19, 2021, the duo released
Scaled and Icy (Livestream Version), which features all of the songs from the livestream concert as well as "Level of Concern". A music video for "Christmas Saves the Year" was released on December 8, 2021 "
The Outside" was issued as the album's fourth and final single on November 24, 2021, followed by a music video on March 18, 2022. On June 9, 2022, the duo performed new versions of several songs, both old and new, on
MTV Unplugged. On July 22, 2022, the duo released a live performance video in collaboration with the
Netflix series
Stranger Things, in which they performed a mashup of the show's theme song and "Heathens".
The Icy Tour, a re-branded second leg of the Takeover Tour focusing on arena shows, commenced in August 2022 and concluded that September. On May 9, 2022,
Peter McPoland was announced as the opener for this leg of the tour. On January 8, 2023,
Vessel was re-released as a limited-edition vinyl box set, accompanied by a YouTube stream celebrating the tenth anniversary of its release; the livestream was a partnership and fundraiser for the
Make-A-Wish Foundation. The box set was released on February 3, 2023. Several people posted on social media that they had received mail from the band, and a new logo was revealed through billboards and posters in multiple locations worldwide over the following days, hinting at a forthcoming album. On February 22, a narrated video, titled "I Am Clancy", was released on the band's social media platforms, where details about the lore of the previous three albums were confirmed. On February 29, the duo's seventh studio album,
Clancy, was announced for release on May 17; its lead single "
Overcompensate" was released on the same day. The second single of the album, "
Next Semester", was released on March 27. The third single, "
Backslide", was released on April 25, with its video directed by Dun. "
The Craving" was released as the fourth single on May 22, and a second version of the song, subtitled "(Jenna's Version)", is included in the album. Each song on the album, as well as the single version of "The Craving", was accompanied by a music video; the album's release was delayed by a week due to the timeframe required to complete them. The music videos were released alongside the album, with the exception of "
Paladin Strait", whose video was released on June 21. A concert tour in support of the album,
the Clancy World Tour, began in August 2024 in Denver, Colorado, and concluded in May 2025 in London. they also opened for the Australia & New Zealand, Latin American, and European tour legs. Performances of "Overcompensate", "Next Semester", "Backslide", and "The Craving" from the May concerts were included in an exclusive digital-only limited-edition version of
Clancy titled
Clancy: Digital Remains, released on May 30, before being taken down the next day.
Digital Remains also included a 121-page booklet featuring alternate artwork, handwritten lyrics, photographs, and artifacts from when the band was formed. After posting a cryptic image to their social media platforms, it was confirmed on September 12, 2024, that the duo would feature on the
soundtrack for the second season of the
Netflix series
Arcane, with the song "The Line". The song was released on November 22, with an accompanying music video following three days later which includes relevant clips from the series, alongside new animations featuring Joseph. On September 19, the band appeared on
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, performing "Routines in the Night". On October 4, while performing in Columbus, the band had announced that said show would be recorded for an upcoming live album. On December 12, 2024, the band performed "The Line" at
The Game Awards 2024, alongside an orchestra. On April 9, 2025, while on stage in
Łódź, Poland, the duo performed a demo of the
Blurryface song "Doubt", which was released on streaming platforms following the show.
Breach, the duo's eighth studio album, was announced on May 21, 2025, and released on September 12. Its lead single, "
The Contract", was released on June 12, followed by "
Drum Show" as the second on August 18, and "
City Walls" as the third on the day of the album's release. An additional leg of North American shows in support of
Clancy as well as
Breach, titled The Clancy Tour: Breach, ran from September 18 to October 26, with
Dayglow as openers. At the 2025
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on November 8, the duo performed a cover of "
Seven Nation Army", originally sung by
the White Stripes.
Twenty One Pilots: More Than We Ever Imagined, a
concert film documenting the
Mexico City show of the Clancy World Tour on February 20, 2025, was theatrically released on February 26, 2026. On February 17, 2026, the duo officially released "
Drag Path", a single formerly limited to those who had purchased it as part of
Breach: Digital Remains which had since gained virality on social media. They are set to headline festivals across North America and Europe from January to September 2026. ==Artistry==