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[lyouna]

The story of Josh Dun

Joshua William “Josh” Dun is an American musician. Best known for being the drummer for the band Twenty One Pilots. He was born in Columbus, Ohio, on June 18, 1988. His star sign is Gemini. He has two sisters named Ashley and Abigail and a brother named Jordan.

Since his childhood, he was always terrified by talking in front of people even if it was a small group of it. However, when he is playing drums he does not feel that way, he is not as vulnerable as that when it comes to talking.

He self-taught when he was around 12 how to play drums, and worked at the Guitar Center for 3 years. He also worked with former Twenty One Pilots drummer Chris Salih, through whom he would eventually meet Tyler Joseph.

Dun's first foray into the music industry was with an alternative/Christian rock band House of Heroes. He joined the band through their drummer, Colin Rigsby, who was taking a break to spend time with his family. Dun played alongside the band on tour from March to October 2010 when Rigsby returned to his role. 

"I would lay in my bed every night with sticks and hit my knees trying to figure out what they were doing, like, 'Okay, now they're hitting the ride cymbal, and now it's the snare and now the crash.' I would dissect everything that I watched or listened to. Every day I would walk to the local music store and play their electronic drums until one of the workers would be like, 'Hey, we have people in here that actually want to buy stuff so you've gotta go.' I did that for about a year and that's essentially how I learned to play some basic beats."

Throughout both middle school and high school, he didn't have a lot of money and it helps him to be more creative. He even thought about finding pieces of wood and figure it out how to make them in a drum. Figure out how they would sound with different holes in it, with different types of wood... Nevertheless, at this end, he said that the best drum set he had was one of SJC Drums.

He likes nothing more to do than to play drums; in fact, he plays the exact same way when he is in a dark room by himself and when he is in front of thousands of people. He said that he wants to be creative and just to get outside of the box even if that sounds weird.

He said that although his inspiration comes from some drummers, his greatest inspiration is his parents. Indeed, he starts playing drums in a sort of rebellious state again them and that turns into them being more than supportive.

In 2011, upon the invite of co-worker and the band's drummer Chris Salih, Dun attended a Twenty One Pilots show after listening to their original demo CD.  Josh first saw Twenty One Pilots at a club on the Ohio State campus. “I loved everything about the show except for one thing: I wasn’t onstage playing also,” he says. After the show, he met lead singer and future bandmate Tyler Joseph, and a couple of days later began to build a friendship with him. It would be another year before Joseph’s original drummer quit and Dun got the job, but they had become best friends in the meantime.

By 2012, Joseph had grown into a ferocious performer, climbing the scaffolding and diving into audiences. The duo became the biggest band in central Ohio, putting every spare penny into the band and focusing intensely on their local fans. They filmed much of the “Stressed Out” video at Dun’s childhood home, so it has become a destination for Twenty One Pilots fans.

 The highest point of his sort of musical journey was (according to his words) when he played for a college show at Ohio University. It was full of drunken kids, one of them even tried to pee on his drums and then on their merch. They eventually played one song and after it, the police shut them down. However, he said that it was the first show that he played with Tyler Joseph. He realized during this one song that he was playing with his best friend and he will never forget that.

The duo then released the band’s second studio album, Regional at Best. It was self-released on July 8, 2011. Regional at Best is a discontinued album. It is the last album released by the band prior to signing a record deal with Fueled by Ramen, and it is the first album to feature the talents of Josh Dun.

Josh Dun was raised in conservative, religious households. Video games and most rocks or hip-hop albums were banned. "I’d hide albums like Green Day’s Dookie under my bed," Dun says. "Sometimes they’d find them and get real mad. They’d find a Christian alternative, like Relient K, and make me listen to that."

For a while, the only movies allowed in the house came from CleanFlicks, a Christian company that took Hollywood movies and edited out all the profanity, sexuality and violence. For a young Dun, it made watching movies like The Terminator quite confusing. "Some scenes they’d remove entirely," he says. "Watching those movies was an absolutely awful experience."

By the time he was a teenager, Josh was rebelling hard. "I just had this aggression," he says, noting that his parents nearly kicked him out when he was 14. "They almost sent me to a military school. They did not know what to do with me, and I was always in detention. I never got into drugs or alcohol, but I would yell at my parents and just treat them terribly. Everything was an argument. Looking back, they were trying their best."

When his parents fell asleep, he would break out his punk-pop CDs; eventually, they softened up on rock music, allowing him to assemble a drum kit in his basement piece by piece with his own money. After he said this to some interviewers, he called his parents to explain himself.

"I actually called my parents after some articles came out – I never wanted for them to be painted in a bad light.

‘I’m so thankful for the way that I was raised. Ultimately, the idea of parents being strict or having rules, looking back, I did have a really rebellious phase and did whatever I could to do the opposite of what they wanted.

‘That’s all on me. For them, I think they were trying to do their best to raise me as best they could. They were trying to make the best decisions for me, and looking back, I can see they were the right decisions.

‘As I look at the rules I had, I wasn’t allowed to play video games or watch TV, so I went outside and made up games with my neighbourhood friends or built dirt ramps and rode our bikes over them.

‘I would be out from morning to night. I look at that, and I can’t imagine it if my parents had let me sit in and watch TV all day – I’d be a different person to who I am today, it’s thanks to them saying ‘‘get out and go do something"

He did not go to college, moving in with a bunch of buddies instead and playing in local bands while scraping by working in the drum department of Guitar Center. "I was going nowhere," he says. "One day I said to my dad, ‘Are you disappointed that I’m working a minimum-wage job and I didn’t go to college?’ I’ll never forget his response. He said, ‘It’s not about how much money you make or what your job is, but it’s more about your character. For that, I’m proud of you.’ It gave me motivation."

During an interview, Josh said “We’re always questioning things,” he says, “but I guess it’s safe to say that we’re both Christians.”

Although Columbus is still very much the Pilots’ base, Josh actually moved out to L.A a couple of years ago in pursuit of more sunshine while Tyler remained there. However, he says it has not made them working together any more difficult. “I’m equally in Columbus as much as I am there. We discussed this a lot before I moved out there. I always feared talking about us being in different places because I think that can be confusing to people from an outside standpoint - like are you guys still friends? Are you still in the band? We had so many conversations about logistics, but first of all, we’re together more than we’re not together over the course of a year. We’re on the phone every day and with technology, it’s so easy to get things done.”

On January 8, 2013, Vessel was born, it was their first album after signing with Fueled By Ramen and it received mainstream exposure. On May 17, 2015, Blurryface was released and the band received international success.

In July 2017, Twenty One Pilots went on hiatus for a year whilst they worked on their next album. On October 5, 2018, Trench was released, it was also a commercial success, reaching number one in six countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Spain, and the Netherlands and number two in several countries, notably the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as selling more than a million copies worldwide.

Therefore, he needed to learn how to deals with notoriety, he had the help of Tyler Joseph (of course), his family, and Debby Ryan. Indeed, from May 2013 to September 2014, he had a relationship with her. They got back together a few years later and in December 2018, Josh posted on Instagram his engagement to Debby in New Zealand during the second leg of The Bandito Tour. He wrote, «I found a tree house in the woods in New Zealand and proposed to my girl. She my dude for life. I love you Debby".

She also posts about it «My dude asked me on a date. I said yeah because I always want to go on dates with him. Then he asked me to be his forever dude. He does things well, and right. His timing has pressed us and never failed us. He's sincere and fun and disciplined and strong as heck and a nerd and a rockstar and a good midwestern man and a silly shirtless boy, and his family is endlessly warm and delightful and are such champions. I have two parents and a brother; they're superheroes and they're my home. They've been the only thing that moves my needle with the fierceness of deep empathy. I have never that out in the world. I guess I figured it wasn't a connection you could stumble upon, only something you could only be born into. Falling in love with joshua was discovering it in the wild. Building it with him, building in certainty, infinite in wonder. Our own lil family. Feels like growing up and moving through life is just evolving through different types of complicated. He is where all the voices narrow into one sound. My only simplicity, where the important things are clear and the other things aren't that important. He's my heart outside my body. He's a cold water awakening a warm bed; he's the place I can rest. Dudes for life. It was a really good date."

Josh has many tattoos and every single one have a strong signification. Firstly, John Graefe tattooed his right arm and then tell the story of it. “I was tattooing in Hollywood and he came in with bandmate, Tyler. They weren’t half as big as they are today and I had no idea at first. I just asked him the whole meaning behind his tattoo and he asked me to come up with the vision.”

 The tattoo on his right arm had a blue geometric-like image or something that looks like a galaxy. Below is the image of nature. The musician mentioned that he would share this if it’s personally asked, but he did not want it spreading all over the Internet.

Both he and Tyler have an "X" tattoo on their body symbolizing their dedication to their hometown fans in Columbus, Ohio. They received it on stage during their hometown show at the Lifestyle Communities Pavilion on April 26, 2013. Dun's is located on his neck behind his right ear.

In October 2015, Tyler and Josh asked their fans to choose one of them among themselves via a vote on Twitter. The winner should have his name on the loser on stage. For 24 hours, the two boys shot several videos parodying the presidential debates on topics such as Christmas music or their favorite drink, the Red bull. The results of the vote were equal. Therefore, Dun sports the name "Tyler" above his left knee.

Josh has a tattoo on the inside of his left arm dedicated to his mom. A heart with "mom" written inside of it.  Which she answers on Instagram by “These past few months have been exciting seeing how far Josh and Tyler have gone. But it’s been a little hard for me as a mother to feel like I have to share my son with the world. Josh, you getting this tattoo means so much to me. I love you and now your stuck with Mom forever! <3”

He has a drum tattoo on his left arm.

Chantelle Thong made his last tattoo during the Bandito Tour, on December 2018. It represents an astronaut/spaceman flipping, while simultaneously being abducted or levitating into a spaceship. It might be a reference to March to the sea. Fans assumed that the spaceman is Josh Dun.

[lyouna]

Dema

The bishops are the rulers and controllers of Dema – which is an evil city surrounded by a wall. There are 9 bishops and all have a name :

Andre

Nico

Lisden

Nills

Listo

Keons

Reisdro

Vetomo

Sacarver

As you can see here:

As a group, the 9 bishops are called Niners. Each of the rulers above has one sole motive

– to prevent the inhabitants of Dema from fleeing the city. Keons is most likely the bishop in charge of Clancy and some others since it’s not a bishop per person but a bishop per group.

To understand the meaning of that map, we need to connect it with “Twenty One Pilots” last album: Blurryface. The cover of that album is very similar to the center of the map: nine circles, each one representing one of its songs.

Each bishop name is found in one of those songs’ lyrics, like “Keons” for “choke on smoke” in Heavydirtysoul and “Sacarver” for “she’s a carver“ in Tear in my heart.

The only one that doesn’t connect with lyrics is “Nico”.

In the famous song Stressed Out, we heard for the first time the name Blurryface.

Blurryface is a character that represents, in it’s eponymous album, the embodiment of the singer’s demons and anxieties. He sometimes interferes in the music videos in the form of Tyler with red eyes in Fairly Local and Stressed Out for example. If you’ve listened Stressed Out, you know the line “My name’s Blurryface and I care what you think“.

We can readily deduct that Nico and the bishops are, like Blurryface, the embodiment of people’s anxieties and demons.

Clancy, who no one knows the actual identity of, once felt admiration for Keons. In fact, he said ” I wasn’t scared. I was relieved. After all that he taught me, his presence was the most conforting moment that I had in days, and I couldn’t help but be happy to see him. ” further ” Keons had always seemed gentle and warm “.

In Dema, the people in the town have a job, which no ones really mentioned what it is. Though it’s probably everyday tasks. Like let the Niners control Dema and never think about another life, and without any rebellion.

But we can be convinced that it doesn’t work, since a revolutionary group who assuredly already escaped from Dema come back to this evil town to give a hand to the prisonners. This group are called the “Banditos” and they are recognized by the fact that they wear yellow clothes.

In NATN, the Banditos lead by Josh, help Tyler escape the city by putting on his shoulders a yellow jumpsuit, because bishops can’t detect anything colored in yellow.

The song’s story is purely a metaphor for the struggle with mental illness (depression, anxiety, etc). The evil city of Dema refers to personality disorder. The bishops that prevent the inhabitants from running and going away from Dema represent the internal struggles of a person suffering from mental illness. In Tyler case, depression and anxiety.

In the letter’s story, Clancy doesn’t want to be controlled by the Niners anymore (and we can assume that he feels the same way that Tyler does in NATN).

This sort of refusal to be controlled can also be found in the line, “when the bishops come together they will know that, Dema don’t control us. Dema don’t control us” in NATN.

In Clancy’s letter by ” gEt out. the compAss lies. they don’t control you. get out. the compaSs lies. They don’t control you. get out. the compass lIeS. they don’t control yoU.get out. the comPass lies. they don’t control you “

Finally, Clancy joins the banditos. We can hope that the same thing happens to Tyler and that Blurryface doesn’t come to take him again.

Stay Alive frens ||-//

[lyouna]

Tyler and his love for his fans

On the Thank You Note of Trench album, he said ” To our fans, thank you for letting me disappear and come back when I need to. You guys mean so much to me on a level that is difficult to explain.”

Tyler is surely one of the most talented and nice people I’ve known. He always seems to care about each one of us and make sure we all doing great.

On May 2013 he posted a picture of him held by tens of fans on Instagram with this description “|My-clique/> yours”

In February 2014 he thanks his clique if feel local everywhere “Feeling like a løcal band in Europe. Favorite kind of shows. Still missing home. UK up next. Stay løcal.”

In April he posted a picture of him kneeling in front of little a girl and taking a piece of paper that she was tending him “she drew me a picture.”

On July, 8 of 2014 he posted of him and the beautiful Jenna Black (at that time) “:.:She said yes:.: I want to share ans celebrate this with all of you right now. How public or private should this be? Well, you guys deserve to see where you have taken me and I like sharing with you who I am. Who we are. We’ve always felt an overwhelming support from all of you and we can’t wait to take this next step together…and yes, that was the most nervous I had never been.”

On October 2014 he posted a picture of 24 clikkies “:.:mutant•kids:.:

On December 2014, a photo of a clikkies tag”:.:clique•art:..i seewhatyou create” 

On April 2015, he tweeted about Blurryface Album telling them to “wait until your hear everything”. Few minutes later, he tweeted ” phone corrected ‘until’ to ‘unlit’ for a second, and now i’ll use that word to describe things that are great. twitter game unlit right now”.

And after that, he starts using his new word in a lot of his tweets.

He started by using that word towards one of the person he loves the most on earth, “josh is unlit“, and after that, he used that word to qualifies a lot of his shows and by it giving love to his fans.

He also posts on Insatagram “clique••art:. stay unlit, keep creating” And he posted a lot of clikkies’ art.

He always seems very thankful for everything and thanking everyone for it. ” thank you, my friends. all of you.” Later he addressed to his fans” couldn’t survive without you, friends. will you still be here on the 19th? need to lean on you that day, friends.”

I try to make everyone sure that they get noticed by him “i see you all; in one fashion or another; so thank you, my friends; my peers;” / “it breaks my heart to see that Not posting would lead some of you to believe that i do not Love and Support you. that is simply not true. any day when love defeat hate, you can know i am celebrating, just maybe not on twitter. as for the silence: through personal experience, i want to create and influence something that might help others navigate through the battlefield that is the brain. and for those who understand that terminology, you know what battle i am talking about. but while at this mental ground zero, i have found that any other influence added on, no matter how noble, becomes to heavy for me to carry. i am not strong enough. be patient with me as i grow, that some day i might be able to carry more weight. but for now, i write what i know. both josh and i mean this, with Love and Support, .tyler”

On July 2015, he said ” you all have become so important to us. thank you. now go on, git. you gon make me cry now.”

On August of that same year, he continued “my frens i appreciate you all so much. i use music. you use music. thank you for letting me be a part of that with you.” On Instagram “:newfrens:__|__:øldfens: cometogethernow”

On September, he said “gangsters don’t let their gangster frens cry but my frens and i cry all the time. bye.”

On November, he thanked his fans for making a video for his anniversary “saw the video some of you guys put together for my day of birth. got me all misty. thank you for making me feel. all you, i like all you.::” ” thank you all for the bday weesh’s my frens. now go create.” On Instagram “the German clique always puts on amazing shows. hate that i can’t be with them these next few nights. we’ll be back very soon, i promise. dang, this photo makes me all emotional roadshow.” / ” love getting clique:art at shows, especially when it creeps me out a little. took a close up of this one on my phone. sorry I didn’t catch who to credit.”

On December he posted a clique art on Instagram “i see what you guys create and it convinces me i should keep creating too. you have no idea.”

On the last day of 2015, he thanks his fans to made what he hope for possible “2thousand5teen the year i fell asleep and had one long dream. thank you |-/ “

He also said, “i wish i could have a real conversation with all of you individually.“

“and if you or someone near you needs out of the pit for an emergency, hold up your hand and point down at them. i’ll stop the show for you.“

” just drove slowly past the entire line for our show today. i’ve fallen for you guys. each one of you.“

On February 2016, he posted a photo of him “shows in europe:.:can’t wait to see you frens”

On August “i will never forget this tour. the first installment of the emøtiønal røadshow will forever be a part of who i am as an artist, a friend, a performer, a fan. you guys know how to put on a show. so if you watched from a distance, checked in online or helped hold us up in the pit: thank you. because we are “famous” now we have to do all kinds of interviews with random people but the thing that those people always ask us about is you guys. it’s my favorite type of question because i love to brag about you. i know i may have been distant online recently but i can only take that kind of break to focus on doing shows because i know you guys always hold it down, keep the fire burning, keep tending to that flame. if you guys continue to look out for each other, support each other’s art, and stay together you’ll be unstoppable. and the distance is just a season. more shows to come, more songs to write. only for you guys. |-/“

The clikkies did again a video for his birthday in 2016 and he replied” if you hurt any of these people i will hurt you. thank you frens. so much. |-/”

” . you deserve more than a :thank:you: my frens. the ones who hold this thing up. i brace for the fall but you keep on holding. . “

On February,14 of 2017 he posted 3 times, one for Jenna, one for Josh and one for us” and to you. Happy Valentine’s Day. lets all date.“

On October 2018 he said ” ok im out. i should get on here more. first show of the bandito tour tomorrow in nashville. i like you guys.” / “TRENCH ||-// out now:: tell some people you know, if you can. and if you already spread the news, thank you my fren:: josh was up all night calling everyone in his contacts” In November “hit me hard last night, where we came from, how this started. playing last night in phoenix was a perfect representation of that. thank you, frens. |-/ “

On December “you all are so weird” “and i love every bit of it thank you for making this birthday great/weird and, you know what, happy birthday to all of you, whenever that may be. because when that day truly comes around, i won’t really care that much”

“the bandito tour is very special to me, including any of you who made it to the show this year. thank you. things get quiet around this time, and i’m reminded why i write so much about the lack of sound. it’s deafening. all of the questions. is what i’m doing any good. this last album, was it good enough, what’s the point. i hate typing them out, which might be why i refuse to grant them any punctuation. but then i’m reminded of the show and the people who come. this odd theatrical convention we have landed on as a species, a concert, is somehow healing and protecting, boosting the immune system of the psyche. maybe it’s the ethereal sensation of hearing you all singing in unison, or its the natural warmth of the collective body heat from the pit billowing toward me. whatever t is, i’ve learned it can be harnessed and preserved so that the echoes of its effects can be tapped in to when needed. kneeling down in front of you during the show, i’m collecting. and now as i type this out i’m unpacking, to combat those questions that show up in the quietest of places. feels silly just saying”thank you for coming to the show” so i thought i’d explain it a little. see you at the next one |-“

I hope I made you believe that Tyler loves you because he truly does. He isn’t a singer who doesn’t care about his fans, he does love us. He wants us to stay alive, it’s not some jokes that people told because they think it would make you feel better, it’s the reality. If he learns you didn’t stay alive, it would devastate him.

Stay Alive frens ||-//