Twenty One Pilots’ Josh Dun & Tyler Joseph – HuffPost 11.25.13
Mike Ragogna: What advice do you have for new artists?
Josh Dun: There’s a lot. From the very beginning, if you’re a new artist… We didn’t know what we were doing and I don’t think there’s any true formula for any specific band. But what I will say is that the very simplistic approach that we took is “let’s save as much money as much as we can.” So as a result, we both had full time jobs during the week and on the weekends we would go throughout our home state instead of touring and spending a bunch of money on hotels and gas. We would do that and then as far as recording we would record on a computer in Tyler’s basement. So that’s the advice that I would give, to try and save as much money as possible and try and make your live shows as unforgettable as possible so that people do leave and talk about it and bring their friends back in the future. That word of mouth is the most organic and true form of marketing and if you can get people to do that, that’s your best bet.
MR: Tyler, what advice do you have for new artists…?
Tyler Joseph: There are different types of new artists. There are the new artists that just got signed, which I’m learning about what to do, and then there are the new artists just starting a band. For artists just getting signed, I would say that as much as a label is going to try to provide everything you need, try to stay one step ahead of them and kind of pull them along to what you want to do creatively instead of just sitting back and letting them pull you. The trick is, the labels aren’t bad people. They want the artist to take the initiative and say, “This is what I want my ads to look like. This is what I want my promos to look like.” A lot of times, musicians and artists kind of sit back and let these decisions be made for them, and I’m a big advocate for taking the reins. Now, for a band that is just starting out, you get yourself in front of five people and you make sure that those five people won’t forget your show. It’s all about the live show. Throw in a freakin’ cover every once in a while so they can kind of understand what’s going on, but you better figure out something that’s going to get their attention. Do a backflip off stage, you know? Get the room singing this one particular part and break something on it. You’ve got to get their attention. There are so many bands out there that no one has time for you to just sit up there and play your songs like we know them. So, that’s my advice.