Twenty One Pilots drummer Josh Dun joined Audacy host Bru just after the release of the band's brand new, 2024 album Clancy, touching on the origin of the album's story, its close correlation between life and art, and more.
LISTEN NOW: Bru talks with Twenty One Pilots' Josh Dun
“Well, I guess it kind of dates back to really a long time,” Josh says of the story that Twenty One Pilots have continued to tell with 2024’s Clancy. “The story, I think for me, started when Tyler and I met and became friends and the first time we ever hung out,” Josh tells us. “We just had a really long conversation about life and music and thoughts, feelings, vulnerabilities, insecurities.”
“A lot of who we are as people, and a lot of who we are as a band stems from our own personal insecurities about ourselves or about our music, or about how we present ourselves to the world,” he adds. “I think at the core, you know, that plays a big part of the entire story.”
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“There’s a lot to it,” Josh says of the epic story told over multiple albums, culminating with this year’s final chapter, Clancy. “There are some characters, and I think throughout the story we've learned a lot about the antagonists. Throughout this album, it's a lot more about the protagonist, named Clancy… It’s been cool for this thing to unfold and for him to discover what he's capable of, and metaphorically what we're all capable of in terms of our brains and all the inner struggles that we all have on a daily basis.”
Putting out a new release is “always such a nerve-wracking thing,” Josh says, “but exciting at the same time. I mean, some of these songs we've been working on for just so long and they start to feel like they've already been in the world for a decent amount of time, when in reality nobody's heard them. Then we release it and then, all of a sudden, it's kind of this thing again. The insecurity… Maybe people don't like it, but maybe people don't even have a chance to like it or not like it because they might have just tuned out already and not want to listen. There's a lot of thoughts that happen and go through I think both of our minds,” he says of his partner Tyler Joseph, “when we're releasing an album. But one of them definitely is excitement and I feel really proud of this album. These are some of my favorite songs that we've written and recorded and I'm excited to share them with people.”
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“A lot of the learning process happens on the road,” Dun says of how their music is inspired and informed by their fans. “I'm telling you, every night after every show, it’s kind of troubleshooting mode. ‘How did that go? How did that feel? Did this song work, did it go over well -- or the way that we thought it would?’ If not, what would we need in that position where that song was? I think a lot of times that dictates the type of songs or record we write next -- and for this one, it felt like we wanted more kind of Alternative and Rock, some heavier sounds.”
That certainly shouldn’t dissuade any listeners, though. “it's diverse at the same time,” he says. “You got a song like ‘Routines in the Night’ up next to a song like ‘Navigating,’ which are two of my favorites on the album, but they're completely different, sonically.”
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Listen to Bru’s full interview with Twenty One Pilots’ Josh Dun above, and stay tuned for more conversations with your favorite artists right here on Audacy.