[6] Tyler Joseph first met future bandmate Nick Thomas at a young age while playing youth basketball in Columbus, Ohio.

[14][15] In 2010, the band posted two tracks to their SoundCloud account, a cover of "Jar of Hearts" by Christina Perri and "Time to Say Goodbye", an original song that samples "Con te partirò" by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman.

[26][27] Before departing from the project, Salih invited Guitar Center co-worker and friend of the group Josh Dun (former touring drummer for House of Heroes),[9][28] to take his place in the band.

Impressed by the band's potential and Joseph's creative vision, Dun abandoned plans to pursue drumming in Nashville and joined the project only a few weeks before Thomas left the group.

[30] Thomas briefly attended school in North Carolina, but moved back into Joseph and Dun's house in Columbus a year later and began to manage their merchandise.

Thomas remained a part of the merchandise distribution crew throughout the production of Blurryface and continues to stay actively involved in the band's tour cycle.

[35][1] Joseph and Dun embarked on the Regional at Best Tour with rock band Challenger!,[36][37] documenting it in a series of videos uploaded to the Twenty One Pilots YouTube channel.

[43] On January 7 and April 19, 2013, the band released music videos for "Guns for Hands" and "Car Radio", respectively, both directed by Mark Eshleman of Reel Bear Media.

[44][45][46] In an interview with the Huffington Post, Joseph described Regional at Best as a "glorified mixtape" and confirmed that songs from that project would reappear on their major-label debut studio album.

[47] Ultimately, five tracks from Regional at Best – "Guns for Hands", "Holding On to You", "Ode to Sleep", "Car Radio", and "Trees" – were re-recorded and released for their third album.

[64] In 2014, Twenty One Pilots played a number of music festivals and other events around the United States, such as Lollapalooza,[65] Bonnaroo,[66] Boston Calling, and Firefly.

[97][98] In September 2016, the band contributed a cover of the piano ballad "Cancer" by My Chemical Romance to the tribute album Rock Sound Presents: The Black Parade.

[101] Twenty One Pilots featured as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on October 8, 2016, performing orchestra-accompanied versions of "Heathens" and "Ride".

[104] Joseph and Dun collaborated with alternative rock band Mutemath, for a five-song EP, TOPxMM, composed of remixes and re-imaginings of four tracks from Blurryface as well as "Heathens".

[118] In July 2018, Twenty One Pilots broke their year-long silence, first sending a cryptic email to fans and later posting a video to all social media platforms and updating their logo and branding.

[119][120] Tyler Joseph made his first media appearance in over a year for an interview with Zane Lowe of Apple Music 1 (formerly Beats 1) from his home studio in Columbus, Ohio, in which he spoke about the band's year-long hiatus, creating the new album, and battling against personal demons and insecurities.

[137] On November 1, the band performed stripped-down versions of "My Blood"[138] and "Ride",[139] as well as covering Damien Rice's "9 Crimes",[140] in BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge.

Radio 1 visited the band in their hometown and filmed the session at the Newport Music Hall in Columbus, Ohio, for the kickoff of the Live Lounge Month, a month-long series of performances from different artists.

[143] They also announced additional 2019 tour dates for shows in Canada, Mexico and the U.S.[144] The band's stunts during the set included leaping, backflipping, vertical crowd-surfing, suspended bridge walking, and scaffolding scaling.

[145] On January 22, 2019, the music video for "Chlorine" was unveiled upon the song's release as a single and was directed by Mark Eshleman of Reel Bear Media, featuring an alien-like creature named "Ned".

[155][156] "Level of Concern" references COVID-19 pandemic-induced anxiety, and its accompanying music video was filmed in Joseph and Dun's homes while they were under lockdown due to the pandemic.

The livestream, described as being "career-spanning", was held at Value City Arena and included live performances of songs from Scaled and Icy, as well as previous records.

[181] On January 8, 2023, Vessel was re-released as a limited edition vinyl boxset, accompanied by a YouTube stream celebrating the tenth anniversary of its release; the livestream was a partnership and fundraiser for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

[184] Several people posted on social media that they had received mail from the band, and a new logo was revealed through billboards and posters in multiple locations worldwide over the following days, hinting at a forthcoming album.

[185][186] On February 22, a narrated video, titled "I Am Clancy", was released on the band's social media platforms, where details about the lore of the previous three albums were confirmed.

[204] After posting a cryptic image to their social media platforms,[205] it was confirmed on September 12, 2024 that the band would feature on the soundtrack for season 2 of the Netflix series Arcane, with the song "The Line".

[206] The song was released on November 22, with an accompanying music video following three days later which includes relevant clips from the show, alongside new animations featuring Joseph.

[212] The duo grew up in strict Christian households where they had to either conceal their pop punk and hip hop albums from the censure of their parents, or find faith-friendly counterparts.

[255] Early material is considered post-emo, following bands such as My Chemical Romance and Dashboard Confessional, with show tune or glam rock aesthetics.

[253] Though he wants to do what's right, Keller is afraid to lose money and needs to support his family, so he decides to send the parts anyway, to Europe during World War II.