1) Biography/Personal History (10)
Tyler Joseph had fallen in love with music ever since he received a small piano as a Christmas gift from his mother. So, in 2008 at the age of 18 he created a self-entitled album called No Phun Intended in his basement with the help of his best friend Nick Thomas. Nick grew up in Columbus Ohio, playing little league baseball with Tyler. Like Tyler, Nick was also into music, and learned how to play guitar at an early age. He contributed to Tyler’s first ever album by playing guitar on some of the tracks. The album was a fusion of rock, poetry, rap and electronic music. He presented his album to some of his closest friends while in high school and he received a positive response. After high school concluded Tyler and Nick attended The Ohio State University. While attending a college party Tyler bumped into a student named Chris Salih. Chris was born in Texas and came from a musical background, so he instantly connected with Tyler when he found out about Tyler’s musical interests. Chris offered to form a band with Tyler. At first Tyler, was a bit skeptical about creating a band with Chris because he didn’t really know him. However, once Tyler saw the sound studio Chris had created in his basement he decided to join, but only if his best friend Nick could also be in the band. In 2009, a small band was created in Columbus Ohio named Twenty-One Pilots.
After, officially forming a band, the three members decided to all move into Chris’s house. They began to share their music idea’s and started to work on their first album. Tyler Joseph was the main song writer. While working on their first album, the band began to play for a wide variety of audiences in clubs and other venues in the Columbus area. Performing at metal, hardcore, and electronic venues influenced Joseph to experiment with these disparate styles with his songwriting. On December 29th, 2009 the trio released their first album, which was self-titled “Twenty-One Pilots”.
Tyler was the head writer of the band, vocalist, and piano player. Nick played bass, even though he had no prior experience with bass instruments. Chris played the drums and would occasionally also help with the vocals. In 2010 the band started there first ever album “tour”, where they would play songs from their brand new self-titled album. The band started doing outside concerts in fields to promote their new album, and Tyler’s mother would stand outside of Ohio State University and hand out free tickets to the students, to bring in new fans. As they were touring Tyler wanted to catch the attention of unfamiliar or disinterested attendees, so he started to experiment with costumes and on-stage acrobatics.
A big changing moment in the band was when they entered themselves into a battle of the bands contest at the Alrosa Villa. They did not win the contest, but they did help grow their fan base. The band began to slowly build up an even bigger fanbase by posting their music to a music sharing site called SoundCloud. This website allowed the group to reach a much larger audience, who would be able to listen to the bands new album for free.
The largest change to the band came in 2011 with the departure of Chris and Nick. Chris Salih left the band on May 8th 2011, to pursue his passion of wood working and now works for the carpentry business Elmwood Custom Goods. Located in Columbus Ohio, where he currently lives with his wife Krista and their young son Anderson Mack. Nick Thomas left the band on June 3rd 2011 because he wanted to focus more on his schooling and attended college in North Carolina, then he moved to Georgia, where he helps distribute merchandise for Twenty-One Pilots.
Right before he
