Tyler Joseph: "I Don’t Necessarily Want That External Reward To Solve Some Sort Of Internal Issue…"

This week, we welcome the mighty twenty one pilots back to the cover of Kerrang!, ahead of the release of their incredible new album Trench this Friday.

In our exclusive eight-page feature with Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun, the duo go into great detail about the extremes of the creative process behind their new record, and the fascinating year-long period between ending the touring cycle for previous LP Blurryface, and launching their new era.

The pair also discuss what it feels like to constantly battle their insecurities and doubts, and how those feelings sit alongside millions of fans looking up to them.

Here's an exclusive snippet of the interview for you guys:

“There’s certain things that you work through, as a human,” explains Tyler. “Obviously, there’s things where it’s like, ‘Are we good enough to play music for a living? Are we good enough to write songs and show people what we’re made of?’ As things got bigger, there was some confidence instilled in us – like, ‘You know what? Actually we can do this…’ But there are also a lot of aspects of doubt and insecurity that the level of success doesn’t even affect. And, partially, I’m glad, because I don’t necessarily want that external reward to solve some sort of internal issue. I think that Josh and I will take every stage with a bit of needing to overcome something, and wanting to work through something. We never want to feel completely comfortable; we want people to see us working through something, and for us to struggle, and see a bit of turmoil and chaos.”

Have you ever been at risk of going through the motions onstage?

“Hmm…” Tyler pauses. “I would say that there was an aspect towards the end of the touring cycle for Blurryface where we started to feel like we knew what to expect at each show. And we didn’t like that. We don’t want to take the stage going, ‘I know exactly what’s going to happen tonight.’ As that started to sink in, it really started to make sense that we should wrap it up, and dive into creating this new music.”

That's all we're going to give you for now – be sure to pick up this week's issue of Kerrang! now to read the rest of our chat with Tyler and Josh.

The magazine looks like this:

And it also comes with this exclusive Clique art print!

Catch twenty one pilots live at the following:

October

16 Bridgestone Arena – Nashville, TN
17 United Center – Chicago, IL
19 Enterprise Center – St Louis, MO
20 Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center – Milwaukee, WI
21 Xcel Energy Center – St Paul, MN
23 Quicken Loans Arena – Cleveland, OH
24 Little Caesars Arena – Detroit, MI
26 TD Garden – Boston, MA
27 NYCB Live – Uniondale, NY
28 Wells Fargo Center – Philadelphia, PA
30 Madison Square Garden – New York, NY
31 Capital One Arena – Washington, DC

November

2 Philips Arena – Atlanta, GA
3 Amalie Arena – Tampa, FL
4 BB&T Center – Sunrise, FL
6 Toyota Center – Houston, TX
7 American Airlines Center – Dallas, TX
9 Talking Stick Resort Arena – Phoenix, AZ
10 The Forum – Inglewood, CA
11 Oracle Arena – Oakland, CA
13 Vivint Smart Home Arena – Salt Lake City, UT
15 Moda Center – Portland, OR
16 Tacoma Dome – Tacoma, WA
17 Taco Bell Arena – Boise, ID
19 Pepsi Center – Denver, CO
20 Pinnacle Bank Arena ­– Lincoln, NE
21 Sprint Center – Kansas City, MO

December

7 Perth Arena – Perth, Australia
10 Adelaide Entertainment Centre – Adelaide, Australia
13 Rod Laver Arena – Melbourne, Australia
16 Qudos Bank Arena – Sydney, Australia
18 Brisbane Entertainment Centre – Brisbane, Australia
21 Spark Arena – Auckland, New Zealand

January 2019

30 Palace of Sports – Kiev, Ukraine

February 2019

2 VTB Arena – Moscow, Russia
4 Ice Palace – St. Petersburg, Russia
6 Ice Hall – Helsinki, Finland
8 Ericsson Globe Arena – Stockholm, Sweden
9 Telenor Arena – Oslo, Norway
11 Royal Arena – Copenhagen, Denmark
12 Barclaycard Arena – Hamburg, Germany
14 Mercedes-Benz Arena – Berlin, Germany
15 Atlas Arena – Lodz, Poland
16 The O2 Arena – Prague, Czech Republic
17 Wiener Stadthalle – Vienna, Austria
21 Unipol Arena – Bologna, Italy
23 Hallenstadion Zurich – Zurich, Switzerland
24 Hanns-Martin-Schleyerhalle – Stuttgart, Germany
25 Lanxess Arena – Cologne, Germany
27 Genting Arena – Birmingham, United Kingdom

March 2019

1 3Arena – Dublin, Ireland
2 SSE Arena Belfast – Belfast, UK
4 The SSE Hydro Arena – Glasgow, UK
5 Manchester Arena – Manchester, UK
7 The SSE Arena, Wembley – London, UK
8 The SSE Arena, Wembley – London, UK
9 The SSE Arena, Wembley – London, UK
11 Accorhotels Arena – Paris, France
12 Ziggo Dome – Amsterdam, Netherlands
13 Palais 12 – Brussels, Belgium
15 Bizkaia Arena (BEC!) – Bilbao, Spain
16 WiZink Center – Madrid, Spain
17 Altice Arena – Lisbon, Portugal