MC: I understand that you used four producers (in addition to Tyler) for Blurryface. What led to this choice?
Dun: There were a number of options stylistically with our songs. We wanted to match those up with different styles of producers. We had multiple meetings and out of those we realized which producers we connected with, liked and thought that we could work with creatively. We already had demos and the album was written. I recall several conversations with Tyler about which guy could do what. It was cool to stretch ourselves. But part of it was tough because sometimes we had so little time with a producer––we were doing maybe one or two songs with one, for example.
Sometimes it takes three or four songs just to get in the flow with one guy; to begin to understand his work process and for him to understand ours. It can be tricky but in the end we ended up with a good relationship with all of those guys. And we were in a cool creative spot. Then we had [Neal Avron] mix the whole album, which tied it together.
There was also one guy who mastered it [Chris Gehringer of Sterling Sound]. It’s good for us to work with multiple people.
MC: What stands out most for you about recording Blurryface?
Joseph: There are multiple songs on the record where the vocals were kept from the demos. In that moment that I’m writing those lyrics in that particular hotel room, you can hear me holding the microphone up to my face and saying words for the first time. What was great about the producers we worked with was that they were able to remove themselves from the situation to do what was best for the song. Sometimes what was best was to keep a lot of the demo stuff. I’m thinking specifically of songs like “Polarize” and “Lane Boy.” We’re just two guys and we don’t get too crazy [in the studio]. We’re all about getting the songs done.
MC: Blurryface was released two days earlier than originally planned––May 17, a Sunday. Tuesdays were the traditional release day. What influenced that choice?
Joseph: What’s interesting about the music industry is that artists are competitive. When you watch them talk to each other, there’s this sense of community; we’re pulling for each other; there’s no real feeling of competition. You don’t want to be too abrasive when trying to win or beat other people.
But what’s kind of cool is that Josh and I come from an athletic background. It’s hard for us not to want to win; not to realize that we want to be the best. With the release date, there was some back and forth with other artists that were releasing [their albums] the same week. They kind of made the first move and bumped their drop date forward. We were like, “Alright, fine. We’ll bump our release date forward.” It was a playful yet competitively driven back and forth and it was fun.
It’s not every day that you get to release a record to the whole world. That’s one of the more exciting parts of our lives.
For more information, visit twentyonepilots.com.
By Rob Putnam
