Twenty One Pilots (stylized as twenty one pilots or twenty øne piløts) is an American musical duo from Columbus, Ohio. The band was formed in 2009 by lead vocalist Tyler Joseph along with Nick Thomas and Chris Salih, both of whom left in 2011. Since their departure, the line-up has consisted of Joseph and drummer Josh Dun. The group received a Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards.
The band independently released two albums, Twenty One Pilots (2009) and Regional at Best (2011), before being signed by record label Fueled By Ramen in 2012. Their label debut, Vessel, was released in 2013. The duo achieved breakthrough success with their fourth album, Blurryface (2015). The release of the single "Heathens", recorded for the soundtrack of the film Suicide Squad, made the group the first alternative artist to have two concurrent top ten singles in the United States. The duo's fifth studio album, Trench, was released on October 5, 2018.
Tyler Joseph first met future bandmate Nicholas "Nick" Thomas at a young age while playing youth basketball in ColumbusJoseph began playing music after finding an old keyboard in his closet, a Christmas gift from his mother, and started mimicking radio melodies.
While attending Ohio State University, Joseph met Texas-born future bandmate Christopher "Chris" Salih. Noting the songwriter's talent and creative energy, Salih consulted Joseph about starting a band. Just before their first performance, Joseph invited Thomas to join the unnamed band as a bassist. Going by "Twenty One Pilots", the group released their debut, self-titled album, Twenty One Pilots, on December 29, 2009, and began touring the rest of Ohio. Joseph, Dun, and Salih participated in musical efforts of a Columbus, Ohio church called Five14. They contributed to four of fourteen tracks for their album Clear, with Travis Whittaker and the gospel band "New Albany Music." In 2011, Joseph appeared in a 3-part video called "The Longboard Rodeo Tango", and sang "O come, O come, Emmanuel" in another video, Christmas With the Stars.
Salih left on May 8, 2011 and Thomas left the next month on June 3, 2011 to focus on schooling, both posting farewell notes on the band's official Facebook page. Before departing 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.
On March 16, 2015, the band announced that a new album, Blurryface, was to be released on May. They released the first single, "Fairly Local", on March 17.Their second single of the album, "Tear in My Heart", and its music video were released on April 5, 2015. On April 28, "Stressed Out", the third single from the album, was released along with a music video. "Stressed Out" became the group's highest selling single, peaking at No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and No. 1 on both Alternative Songsand Hot Rock Songs charts, while also surpassing one billion views on YouTube.
Blurryface was released 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".
On July 11, 2018, the band released two new songs, "Jumpsuit" and "Nico and the Niners", as well as the music video for "Jumpsuit". They also made the announcement of their fifth studio album, Trench, scheduled to be released on October 5, 2018, and a new world tour, titled "The Bandito Tour", starting October 16. The song "Levitate" was subsequently released as the album's third single via Zane Lowe's Beats 1 show as the day's "World Record". The music video was also released, concluding the trilogy series.
Twenty One Pilots released their fifth album, Trench, on October 5, 2018. On the same day, they released the music video for their single "My Blood" on their YouTube channel. Trench debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Rock Albums and Alternative Albums charts. All 14 tracks from the album charted in the top 25 of the Hot Rock Songs chart, where five tracks were in the top 10.