“Sometimes quiet is violent,” those words ring into the teeming stadium as thousands of zealous fans sing along. One of those fans happen to be myself, standing in the middle of the pit of people. Two shadowy silhouettes exist on stage; one on the piano and the other on the drums. Then suddenly the lights flash revealing an immense sign labeled Twenty One Pilots. Tyler Joseph on the piano, and Josh Dunn on the drums. Tyler only concentrates on the piano, barely letting the singing crowd impede his focus. Josh is coated in a thick layer of sweat, as he gently strikes the cymbals, just enough to give an ominous feel.
As the middle of their song, “Car Radio” approaches, Josh asks Tyler to sit in a chair. Although we want to cheer, conversely, we watch in anticipation, as Tyler obscured by a white sheet, just barely covering his scrawny body. Abruptly, Josh removes the sheet, and Tyler is gone. All of us are galvanized, and clueless to where he resides. All of the sudden, at the drop of a hat, we hear, “I have these thoughts, so often I ought, to replace that slot with what I once bought, cause someone stole my car radio, and now I just sit in silence. ” The crowd around me, erupted with cheers.
Meanwhile, Tyler reappeared in the upper level of the arena, dressed in his red tuxedo, and a black balaclava. As the song comes to a close, Tyler being known for his daredevil antics, climbs back down to the lower level, and crowd surfs back to the stage. “You all have been awesome tonight,” Tyler exclaims, “but unfortunately we have to leave, we just also want to thank the amazing fans for getting us this far. ” “We love all of you,” Josh says sincerely, “it wasn’t even that long ago, when we were playing shows for our friends, and now we play for a myriad of people.
Above all, the most dedicated fan base, we could ask for. ” At this point, stray tears make their way out of my eye, because of the pure, beautiful words I had just exhibited. They both take one last bow, and Tyler spoke the words that nearly left everyone with soaked eyes. “We are Twenty One Pilots, and so are you. ” The words cut through everyone like a sharp blade. Accordingly, we all applauded one last time, as they both disappear into the misty backstage. After the show had concluded, the after party, since I was fortunate enough to grab last minute backstage passes.
I wasn’t there just for the show, it is a mission to meet my idols, and ask Tyler a question I’ve been pondering lately. The backstage door becomes closer, as I peek in, the room is jam packed. Fans, but mostly crew and close friends occupy the place. Experiencing jitters of excitement, I thrust myself in. Quickly, I spot Tyler and Josh signing autographs on a propped up white table. I make my way towards the table, as if I would die if I didn’t move with swiftness. Suddenly I’m at the table, shaking my idols hands.
The words I wanna say just come out, as I channel in my inner fanboy, “ It is such an honor to meet you guys, this is the best moment of my life, I explain, “It was an advantageous show. ” “Thank you, ”they both say in succession, “We are happy you could make it to our show. ” “May I take a picture with you guys,” I say excitedly. “Sure,” Tyler asserts. I pull my phone out, and they make silly faces as I take the picture. Although, Tyler would often act goofy, I knew he was often emotional; you can tell by the lyrical content. “Thank you,” I say, “Can I ask you both a question? “Ask away,” they both say. “Well I got one question for each of you”, I expressed, “I’ll ask Josh’s first. ” “Okay,” Josh stated.
“How did you and Tyler first meet? ” I ask. Josh goes on and says, “ The first time I actually met Tyler was at a show he was playing. I remember, because I had been playing music for a while, and had a really specific idea of what I wanted to be a part of in my mind, and I never really saw what I had in my mind until I saw Tyler performing. I think it was the very first time that we ever met that I totally knew, I wanted to someday play music with Tyler, and be creative. “That’s incredible,” I say with amazement, “Okay, Tyler now I got one for you. ” “Hit me,” He says with a grin. “I’ve had a couple of questions on my mind lately, mainly what’s my point in life, or do I even serve a purpose? ” I uttered. “Good question, it’s actually difficult to answer that, but I’ll tell you how I found purpose for myself and he begins. Those two issues are really centered around the idea of purpose. All of us have a lot of questions, and we don’t have the answers to those questions; that can really discourage us. I was in college and that’s how I felt.
Consequently, that led to many dismal thoughts, because I assumed that I didn’t serve a purpose. One event in particular gave me an idea, that I could begin the cycle of purpose for myself. Once, I was nonchalantly strolling to my car from class, when I spotted an anomaly in the distance. My car had been burglarized, which made me a mix of complicated emotions. I sprinted to my car, hopefully nothing had been taken. Although, the doors were wide open, only one thing was stolen; my car radio. “Why me,” I screamed at the sky. The cops were called, I was obviously upset. What happened here, sir,” A female police officer asks. “I was walking back from class, and my car doors were open, so I ran to see if anything was stolen,” I explained. “What was stolen,” she asks. “My car radio,” I bellowed. “Okay, anything else? ” she addressed. “No,” I yelped. “Well, sir we will try our best, but unfortunately only one item was stolen, and that could very well be in a pawn shop at this time. ”she murmured. “Okay… well thank you officer,” I cried. “Don’t worry kid, you can buy another one,” she said, as she stepped in her squad car.
Unfortunately, all of my money was going towards college, so a new car radio was not in the cards. I went home that night, very forlorn. “You wanna know what I did,” Tyler exclaims. “What? ” I say. I began to write, at first it was just poetry, but turned out to be very special. I was always interested in music, but never took it seriously. It was my brother Zack, who persuaded me after reading that poem, because I went to my family home, the next day, and brought it with me.
“Wow,” Zack droned. “Yeah, it happened yesterday, and that’s how I felt,” I mouthed. As your brother, I have to tell you this; you need to turn this into something else more than poetry. ” Zack said. “Like what,” I murmured. “That’s for you to figure out,” Zack states. Little did I know, he was right. I went home that night; thinking about what Zack said. Ordinarily, I ignored him because he was younger, but he was very wise for his age. Suddenly, a realization came to my head. “I need to turn this into a song,” I whispered. So I sat at my piano, which felt like an eternity, making the loop for which would of course become, “Car Radio”.
I was ecstatic, when I had the progression down. However, I still felt like something was missing. The next week I went to perform my new song, which was still unnamed. It was to a crowd of about 10 people. I performed it, everyone seemed to like it. In fact, one person liked it so much he came up to me and said , “Hey, my name is Josh. ” “Nice to meet you, my name is Tyler,” I said. “I think your song, is outstanding. I don’t mean to sound critical, but something is missing, that extra flare. ” Josh says. “What do you think needs added to it? ” I ask. Well, maybe just some percussion,” Josh states, “I’m actually a drummer, maybe we could meet up sometime, and jam together. ”
“That would be nice,” I exclaim. Again, little did I know this man would become my best friend, and my partner in music. We ended up jamming together that weekend, and we loved each other’s style so much. I loved how Josh basically abused his drums. Then and there, we decided to start a band. “What should our band name be,” Josh asks. “Twenty One Pilots,” I say with confidence. “Well, that’s weird,” Josh says with confusion. My reasoning behind this was, in college, I was reading Arthur Miller.
I was studying his novel, “All My Sons,” where he sent twenty one pilots defective machine parts during World War II , causing their deaths. I figured the novel, and the name had similarities to the formation of the band. Therefore, sparking the genesis of Twenty One Pilots. Throughout all this, I had learned how I could create the beginning of purpose for myself. I found through art, I could create the beginning of purpose; not all of it because that’s such an enormous undertaking. Nevertheless, create art that is esoteric, something only you, and a select few understand.
That’s the main purpose of our name, and logo. I have an interpretation of it, but I feel like if I told everyone I wouldn’t have any purpose. “Wow! I see now, how I can do it, thank you Tyler,” I announced. “Well, you’re very welcome, it was nice to meet you, I hope you can accomplish your goals of purpose, like I did,” said Tyler. “I’ll try my best,” I say with an enormous grin. As I leave the table, I can’t help but notice the look on Tyler’s face. He has a look of nostalgia, when I leave the room, I look over my shoulder to catch another glance at Tyler. Furthermore, Tyler glances at me, and smiles.
