From self-releasing albums to being named one of the “2013 Artists to Watch” by MTV, the two members of the alternative pop rock band Twenty One Pilots are making a name for themselves as a dynamic music force to be reckoned with this year.

Tyler Joseph formed the band Twenty One Pilots in 2009 with a couple of his college buddies, putting out two self-released albums. Joseph later met drummer Josh Dun through a mutual friend and the two ended up forming a duo.

“The first time we hung out, we stayed up until maybe 5 a.m. and talked about our visions and dreams of what we wanted to accomplish musically,” said Dun. “... We felt like we just wanted to take on the world of bands and music and performing by ourselves. Just two of us.” 

After garnering a large local fan base in the boys’ hometown of Columbus, Ohio, where they played sold-out shows, the two grabbed the attention of numerous record labels and eventually signed with Fueled by Ramen and released the full-length album “Vessel” on Jan. 8.

The meaning of the band name Twenty One Pilots actually stems from Arthur Miller’s play “All My Sons,” which Joseph had studied in college.

“The story was that the main character was building airplane parts for the current war. He learned that some of those parts were faulty, and he had a decision to make: ‘Do I send them out because I need to make the money to feed my family or do I recall the parts because they could be dangerous?’” Joseph explained. “Well, he ended up sending the parts out, which is the wrong decision, and twenty-one pilots died because of that.”

“A lot of times, the right decision takes more work, and that band name is a constant reminder for us as individuals and as a band. So, that’s where Twenty One Pilots comes from,” he said.

The boys’ sound is an eclectic and funky combination of electronic beats along with some alternative rock, punk and rap, all fused together into a genre that even the members have difficulty describing.

“A question we’ve always had a hard time answering is ‘What genre is your music?’” said Joseph. “We never really knew how to answer this. A writer in our hometown coined the phrase ‘schizoid pop,’ and we really liked that.”

“If you look at your friends’ iPod, it’s probably filled with a whole bunch of different styles of music; a rap album right next to a pop album,” he said. “There’s a line between too weird, and too safe. We like to try and balance on that line and mess with that line as much as possible.”

The members of Twenty One Pilots, who are known for throwing together very thrilling and electrifying live performances back home, will be showing off why they have been deemed as one of this year’s artists to watch out for in their first solo concert in Korea with a live performance at the Walkerhill Hotel’s Walkerhill Theater in Seoul on March 1.

“A lot of times our songs are written with a live show in mind,” said Joseph. “Envisioning how we can involve a crowd’s participation can make a song that much cooler.”

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)