- 7 weeks ago
Hours before taking the stage in front of 1500 fans at The Bellwether in Los Angeles for an exclusive performance, Twenty One Pilots joined Klein from KROQ.
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00:00And here we are for K-Rock. It's Kline of Kline Alley's show, but more importantly, we got Josh, we got Tyler, we got 21 pilots in the house for a K-Rock private show.
00:10And you can't tell this because of the room we're in right now, and I don't even know if you guys have looked out the window yet, but I noticed about six miles away from the venue, the line has begun.
00:18The venue only holds 1,500 people, so there's clearly the biggest line I've seen this early. You're not even going on stage for another four hours.
00:25Wow. Does that ever get old for you guys? Or even like your crew was like, this is incredible.
00:30Yeah, I mean, I'm worried about them. Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? Like, what do you need? Did you sleep? Yeah.
00:38Some of them have been here, I think, since yesterday. Some of them hoping to get in. This is the kind of effect you guys have on your fans.
00:43And I always thought I was a 21 pilots fan dating back to 2012, 13, let's call it.
00:48And then I realized after giving away these tickets for this show, I'm nowhere near a 21 pilots fan.
00:54Yeah, you're not even cool. I'm a green belt. And I've talked to like double black belts and brown belts. It's kind of wild.
01:01You've got a lot of work to do.
01:02Yeah, I felt like I've never felt worse. And I was like, I've been to maybe 20 shows. I've bought merch. I've taught you guys a handful of times.
01:08Only 20? Come on. Those are rookie numbers.
01:11And there's people that know like the food allergy is a blurry face. I'm like, how do you know his food allergies? That's crazy.
01:16But it's kind of incredible. And when you started the process, because now you get to almost look back,
01:21now that Breach is out and the story has kind of come to an end, did the story go exactly as planned?
01:27Were there changes along the way that now that you look back, you go, that was the right move?
01:32That's a good question. I do think that we are very proud of how long the story has been around.
01:38And like, even when we start with blurry face, I remember specifically when we were recording
01:42stressed out, the producer we were working with, Mike Elizondo, who we become really close with.
01:47When I started singing, my name's blurry face and I care what you think.
01:51I remember it was like that classic, like he's in the control room, he presses the talk, but he's like,
01:55um, what does that mean? And I was like, listen, it's going to be the name of the record.
02:00It's a character. He's kind of the antagonist of the whole thing. So, and you know, to his credit,
02:05he was like, all right. And I think that the idea was like, well, you know, it's never going to be
02:09like a hit because no one knows what you're talking about. Um, but it was cool that we stuck
02:15with it. And even cooler that enough people cared to find out what we were talking about,
02:22what the story was about. And, um, but it would also kind of be like, we should say that our fans
02:28have also kind of affected the trajectory of the story in a sense as well. So as much as we had the
02:35idea of where we were heading and an idea of how it was going to end the way we got there,
02:39um, we really kind of like pushed off of them as well, um, as things kind of happened. So we give
02:46them credit too. Is there ever been a discussion about, and I know you guys have directed music
02:51videos and, uh, you've been in the theater before, but has there been a discussion about making a TV
02:55show out of the story? Yeah. I mean, we've been, we've been offered a few times, but we just can't,
03:01we just can't agree on who should play us. Right. Smart. And so, uh, Washington. Yeah,
03:07sure. And, uh, you're tough. And then when Farley passed, it was just like, what's the point?
03:14What's the point of even doing this now? I get it for, for, for the Clancy character. So no, we,
03:19I think it's always, you know, uh, it's cool to think about no real plans, but, um, I think it just
03:27goes to show that when you put some time and energy into the backstory, um, it gives, it gives
03:33people more context for the music if they, if they want to, we've always made sure that we didn't
03:38write records that required people to understand that, that's that narrative and that story in order
03:44to just to enjoy the music. Um, but I know for me, I, I just love telling stories. I think it's a
03:49whole art form in itself. Um, and, uh, yeah, it's another way to just express creativity.
03:57You think it's more important to be looked at either by current standards or looking back in
04:02the future that you guys were great musicians, a great band or, or good storytellers?
04:07Uh, good friends. There you go. I wasn't a choice. We're not, we're actually not great musicians.
04:14Yeah. I don't think we just got to learn a few chords and then look where you could end up.
04:17Yeah. I think, I think if you have creativity, then that might get you further. If you don't
04:24have, if you're not a great musician, there's a level of, um, kind of blind confidence that you
04:30need to, to just like, here's a song. It was at one point, nothing. And now it's something.
04:34And, uh, but at the same time, it's not just this individual confidence. You have to find a
04:39collaborator, someone that you trust. And in this case, you know, we found each other and the
04:46confidence came from, well, at least we think it's good or at least we think it's cool. Um,
04:52so you have to adopt that confidence to, to release anything. Uh, but it's nice to have
04:58a collaborator that's kind of like with you going, Hey, if, if this doesn't work, we were going down
05:04together, together. Right. Let's fail together. I just, it's funny cause you have obviously some
05:07big stadium shows coming up while you're here in LA, but tonight it's this, it's a small venue
05:11intimate K rock private show, which we can't thank you for enough for doing this for the fans.
05:15And obviously for K rock, but this is a no phone show. They took my phone and shattered it when I
05:19arrived. Do you guys play differently? That do you feel there's a sense of freedom when you know
05:24that every single person is going to be completely focused on you? Or is this the opportunity for you
05:29to work out head five standup set or something? Cause there's no phone. Yeah, exactly. We're just
05:33working on our, our quick, quick five. Um, I don't, I mean, this is kind of our, I think when the
05:41idea of a no phone thing came about, we always thought, uh, we don't want to, we don't want
05:48to make people do like we, we were always not, we don't want to make people do that. We think
05:52that they should, you know, make their decision on how they want to enjoy their concert as the
05:57idea has. I think people have, we've in no way been pioneers of that. In fact, this might
06:02be like one of our first shows that we do this in. Um, but it does, I think that you realize
06:10how a room changes when everyone is kind of really living in that moment. And, um, you
06:17know, if Josh, maybe I'll, you know, pants, Josh mid show and no one will ever know.
06:22It will just live in people's memories. That's great. Yeah. It's like, no one will believe
06:25them. They'll draw it from memory. You have to get a, uh, well, there's court, a sketch
06:30artist drawing what happens here at the show. So people will actually believe it. Yeah.
06:34There's a stenographer in the back of the room to write down everything. You guys always
06:37think about it. Uh, any while in LA before you, uh, head for the private show to the big
06:42shows, any, any downtime plans, restaurants you must hit while you're here. Josh has got
06:47a place out here and he was like, Hey, do you want to hang out during the off day? And
06:51it was like, Whoa, we haven't really had an off day at near someone's house in a while.
06:56So I don't know, maybe we'll hang out. Swimming.
06:59You know, I will say to just, uh, going back to what you were saying earlier, this whole
07:07lead up to this show is like, uh, and I was thinking about this the other day, it's like
07:10this tiny show, private, intimate, it's like still 1500 people. It's not tiny. And I was
07:16thinking, you know, like it doesn't feel like it was that long ago that we were like planning
07:20for like 30 people. It kind of was at this point. It's been, it's been quite a while,
07:25but I think in our minds, we still look at it like 1500 people is a lot of people still.
07:30So it is, it's, it is kind of wild to think about this underplay, this like small show
07:35that's still like 20 year olds, Tyler and Josh would be like, that'd be amazing to play
07:42that venue. So not to, not to take away from, uh, the amount of people that are here tonight.
07:48Cause it is, it's still cool. The amount of desperation that we heard from fans, uh, that
07:54said that with this, they need, this was everything to them and they needed this to be complete. I
07:59mean, I could show you thousands of messages. We received crazy stories. Some probably made up
08:05some tugged at the heartstrings. People that want to get the amount of people want to get proposed
08:09tonight. Astronomical. I think there may be 97 proposals happening during the show tonight,
08:13which no one will know cause there's no phones to capture it. But, um, so you guys have had an
08:18effect and I've watched it happen. And the cool thing as a guy that, you know, I like to believe
08:23I was in early on you, but I think that a lot of your fans feel that way, which is maybe why they
08:26feel like such ownership kind of of the band. But it's really interesting to watch the passion
08:31that has only grown over the years. You guys have done a great job at not selling out. Uh,
08:36don't see any products available. Uh, you guys are endorsing, uh, you know, uh, you know,
08:41target or bed, bath and beyond.
08:43That really is like such a, you would think that we're not in these situations where you're often
08:48where someone is talking to us about kind of like their perspective of our career. Like you are
08:53now, we actually kind of stick to ourselves and it's really cool for you to hear that because there
08:59has been a lot of deliberate conversation about like, okay, what do we, like when we say yes to
09:05things or we collaborate or we feature, or we, you know, do a, you know, an advertisement or whatever
09:11it may be, we're bringing our fans with us and they, and we're saying yes for them as well.
09:17And so we've always been hesitant to kind of force that them into a collaboration with us. And I know
09:24it's a little cheesy that, you know, bands are always saying things like, you know, we're all
09:29family and our fans are, you know, we even say every night, like we're 21 pilots and so are you.
09:34And, you know, uh, I actually got that from Jack White, even though his was a little different.
09:39He says he's 21 pilots.
09:41No, no.
09:41That's crazy.
09:42No, he's, his is a little different. What'd he say? He is, um, you've been great and I've
09:46been Jack White or something like that. So I'm like, I got to find something. Mine's not as,
09:50not as, uh, not as cool as his, but, but anyway, it does feel like, you know, that sense of ownership
09:56is, um, something that takes several years to, to, to protect.
10:01Yeah. Well, thank you on behalf of every K-Rock listener, everyone at the station for doing
10:06this, for the many years of amazing songs, stories you've given us. Um, and, and to be
10:11completely honest, as a guy that gets to talk to a lot of, you know, artists, I've, I've always
10:16excited. There's a lot of great musicians, terrible interviews, interviews, and you guys
10:21have always been fun, funny, and we appreciate that as well.
10:24Let's do some more stuff.
10:25And I, uh, now let's do that type five on stage side.
10:29Actually, I do have a notes, a note in my phone of like, if I were, come on, pull it out.
10:34Do one. Let me do one of your notes. What is, what is, if you were going to do stand up,
10:39you have like a concept. I have, I literally have a note. This is stand up. You're about
10:42to knock 30 seconds off your, your type five. Hold on. Yeah. Don't blow the, don't blow the
10:47finale. Oh, man. Oh man. I got to work on the time. You know, it's all about the time.
10:54Of course, but let me, what's the concept? This is good. Let's go. Um, my, my wife said
11:01to me one time, uh, I'd have to, I'd have to put it together. Right. But she said, you
11:07know, I think we would have a better relationship if you didn't know English. So I don't know.
11:11I was going to riff on that one. So there's a little piece, you know, that's great. Some wife
11:16jokes. Hey, very relatable. People get it. Uh, yeah. Well, listen, 21 pilots here at the, uh,
11:22the bellwether. It's a, uh, a small, intimate 1500 person show with a line that is crossing
11:27the freeway right now to get in here. Thank you guys for everything. We really appreciate it.
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