Watch: twenty one pilots spectacularly reimagine their songs for MTV Unplugged
See Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun completely change up twenty one pilots’ biggest hits for their incredibly special MTV Unplugged performance.
Last night (June 9), twenty one pilots were the latest band to join the prestigious list of MTV Unplugged performers – and they pulled out all the stops for their stunning set.
Rather than completely stripping things down as most artists tend to do, Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun instead totally reimagined the likes of Stressed Out, Heathens, Shy Away and Car Radio (plus many more) for fans in attendance, with Tyler telling the crowd beforehand that they would be building out their songs in real time.
twenty one pilots opened up with Stressed Out, before running through Tear In My Heart, House Of Gold, Lane Boy, Shy Away, Ride, Nico And The Niners, Car Radio and Heathens, giving each track its time to shine and making them all feel completely unique – and yet totally cohesive at the same time.
Speaking to Forbes about the set, the frontman explained of twenty one pilots' approach: "When we were tapped to do this I did my deep dive into MTV Unplugged's of the past and realised that, 'Yes, the concept is that it's stripped down, you grab an acoustic guitar and you sing your song.' But I think more than more than that it turned into an opportunity to see an artist or a band in a different way than they traditionally present themselves.
"So I kind of took that and came up with a concept where we're actually not very unplugged at all. We're very plugged in. But it is very different than anything we've ever done before. Usually Josh and I performed at prerecorded tracks so that we can focus on our performance and all that. And we're proud of our tracks we made them ourselves, but still prerecorded nonetheless.
"What we're doing for MTV Unplugged, though, is we're actually gonna be building out those tracks and looping and playing every sound that you hear and watching what chemistry is required in order to make those backing tracks. Where in the past we would be playing to prerecorded ones, we're actually gonna be building them out. So it's kind of a looping function. And then by the end of each song, you'll have really a different version of the song than, than anyone's heard before."
Check it out below: