Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
The All New, All Sweet BookerEn Striker Podcast. It is Booker and
Striker. They are Josh and Tyler, better known sometimes known as twenty one
Pilots. Thank you for joining us, guys, thanks for having us.
Thank you. So let's jump rightinto Clancy. I mean, god,
if you think about a director orsomebody that was putting together a movie somewhere
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right, they would say, hey, let's grab an artist to do the
soundtrack. You guys cut out themiddleman. You said, screw having a
director, we want to do everything. And that's kind of what this Clancy
journey has been. So in areader's digest version, can you kind of
explain this world Clancy? What isit? Who is it? Why?
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Uh? Clancy. That's a greatquestion. It is going to be the
quick version. But Clancy is kindof our hero, our protagonist of a
story that we've been telling for overten years now. And so you know,
with the record Blurry Face, thatwas kind of the introduction of the
antagonist, kind of the bad guyof this story. He's also known as
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Nico, so he's referenced a fewtimes in other songs. So Blurry Face
is the bad guy, Clancy isthe good guy. This is a story
we've been telling where we haven't reallyrevealed kind of the name or identity of
our hero the whole time, andso for us to finally name the album
Clancy is kind of a I guess, a planning a flag moment for us,
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as in our fans that have beenfollowing the story this whole time.
So this is kind of the firsttime we've been really out front with what
the story has been telling and thecharacters and the world that it lives in
and everything, and we're excited tokind of like kind of give it its
final hurrah on this album. Sothat's the goal. It's Tyler and Josh
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from twenty one Pilots with Booker andStriker. So, Tyler, when you
wrote Blurry Face and you made it, you knew that there would be a
Trench and a scaled, an icyand a Clancy. Back when Blurry Face
came out, you knew what wasgonna happen. Yeah, I guess we
probably could have like tipped our youknow, like tipped our hand a little
better than we did, but yeah, I mean it was I think it's
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interesting how I knew what like forskill and I see the previous record.
I knew that there was gonna besome sort of like record that was dedicated
to kind of isolation and captivity,and it is truly unbelievable that it lined
up and not to you know,there's obviously no positives that come from twenty
twenty and you know, being havingto quarantine and everything, but it is
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pretty eerie how it all lined upthat that was the album that we wanted
to tell and yet at the sametime we were personally living this, you
know, inability to go out andtour and this you know, kind of
fighting the feeling of isolation just likeeveryone else in the whole world was feeling.
So so yeah, no, thecadence of the records, it was
kind of I guess, you know, there are some details you feel in
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on the way, but the overalloutline has been there for a long time.
Over Compensate is sort of the firstpart of this journey. I don't
know if it's the first song inchronological order or if it's quote the single.
It is badass. It's got thislike Prodigy thing going to it.
Did you decide this was a singleor is this like really just the first
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part of this new journey in thatorder. I don't think that we really
saw it as a single as muchas I think we learned the importance of
an opening track on an album.You know. I think that when people
think back on our record Trench,they just say it was so so rock
heavy and so you know, likeso distorted and threatening, and I would
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say, well, you're just describingJumpsuit, which is the first song on
the record. And I realized atthat moment that a lot of people like
the opening track of an album andthe opening song of a concert. Everyone
else is from there on their lensfor the rest of the album or the
rest of the show is filtered throughthat first song. And so we knew
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that the first track on the albumwas going to be very important. We
knew we wanted to be the firstsong that we play live for our shows
moving forward, and so we knewwe had to come out with some attitude
and some energy and try to reallyset the tone. I love hearing that
answer. That is awesome over Commonsay next semester backslide exactly seven songs into
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the album and it's not out yetas we sit here today, but thanks
for sending it over. There isa song the Craving Jenna's version that's exactly
in the middle, so I assumethat's perfectly placed. There is there a
change in tempo or attitude on therecord for the second half as you lead
into that song. I think you'llbe surprised how we pick back up out
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of that middle moment. I guessI describe, you know, I was
talking with our manager about like howhe interprets that song, and he really
feels like it's a moment away fromthe shiny lights. You know, it's
an acoustic song in the middle,SmackDown in the middle of a of a
really otherwise pretty threatening and energetic record, and it's the moment where you get
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outside of the city and you canreally the lights, the light pollution fades
away and you get to you getmore of a visual of the stars and
the natural light that pops through,and that's kind of the idea of what
this song was supposed to be.And then we pretty quickly kind of rush
back into Metropolis world, where there'sa ton of you know, craziness going
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on. So it's it's a bitof a breath of fresh air in the
middle of the record. But no, I don't think that it represents what
you're gonna hear after that. Well, sipping on my Caprice son like it's
Don Parignon and Lavish, which isthe song after that? I just got
to say I appreciate that line.I also like that you got the three
stripes the tracksuit Adida's jacket on.Right now, it's Tyler and Josh and
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Booker. I'll let you ask thenext question, please, Okay, So
the album I delayed one week inthe grand scheme of things, I don't
know if that's a big deal,but I love the reasoning behind it.
It's because you really wanted this thingto be a complete package that's presented to
the world. Are we're getting thatright? And maybe clarify a little bit
about the delay and why it's soimportant to you guys. Yeah, so
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this is something we've never done before. But we have been working on shooting
a music video for every song onthe album, and we've got them.
We've got them all shot now.But then, you know, obviously,
like we realized, to edit togetherfourteen videos takes a little while. So
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yeah, we kind of wanted to. We wanted to get them right and
make sure that we feel really happyand proud of all these because a lot
of times when you're introduced to asong or an album, you kind of
in your mind you visualized the musicvideo that you know that that it corresponded
with. And so I think wewanted to take that really seriously and and
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and presented the way that we thatyou know, we vision and vision doing
it. Striker, I know asone of your numbers. I'm not sure
if he has both of your numbers, but I know at one point he
was like, guys, I'm aI'm available for one of these videos.
It was okay, and the responsewas noted because the greatest moment in Booker
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and Striker history. So I thinkthat he didn't make the cut. Christis
Striker didn't know who to text.Should have texted me. I would have
put you in right away, screwedup, listen, I would have.
I would have got on the castingcouch in a rated G sort of way.
I would have showed you my reeland my past acting performances. I
do have a movie on book Canyou even move on? I think we
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should stay on this for a while. Denied already I had more than that.
I just say no, no,I think we want to frame it
and hang it on the wall inthe office. I really know, Noted,
I think it's exactly looking up haha, for sure. Noted for sure
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meant no way I think and that. Yeah, it's like for sure to
be fair. That's what Tyler textedme back when I asked it. I
could be in the band, gotcha, So just give it some time,
okay, persistent. I have questionsfor my man Josh Dunn, whose name
gets dropped of course, and overcompensate. How many of the videos for all
the songs? I think there's thirteen? Did you direct? I did one
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of them? Which one? Thesong Backslide? And yeah, I guess
directing a video is just it's justlike a long TikTok, you know,
really long. Yeah, it's ait's a really long, thought out,
expensive TikTok. Is really all itboils down to, did you enjoy it?
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Yeah? I did? No,you didn't. It was really stressful.
It was it's when we were wrapping, almost like you think you'd ever
want to do it again? Hesaid, no, no, no,
no, pass no. I thinkyou know. I mean it's like anything
that you have you have to puta lot of like hard, hard work
and effort into is tough. Butthen the you know, the reward is
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the the outcome of that result.And you know, I think we experienced
that when we uh write and recordrecords and then and then you know,
put shows together or tour. It'sa it's a nice payoff and to have
something that you can sit with andenjoy and other people can enjoy is meaningful
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for sure. So yeah, itwas it was It was hard work,
It was stressful, and I think, like you know, I think just
the kind of making sure that allthe time management on the day of shooting,
I all of a sudden got likeultra sensitive of his time while he
you know, he's he's like thestar of the of the music video,
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and normally like we'll go into musicvideos and kind of like you know,
sometimes we're sitting in a room waitingfor most of the day, and other
days where we're doing a lot ofthe stuff on our own, we're just
like packing up drums in a ina you know, polaris and moving into
cross you know, but it isa lot of kind of waiting and being
on the other side of it.Yeah, I got ultra sensitive and I
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was like, I think you shouldbe good for you know, fifteen minutes
if you want to sit down andrest that. Yeah, I don't know.
That's funny. That was like oneof the biggest challenges. A question
about the upcoming tour. There's twoLA dates at the brand new arena slash
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Dome called Striker Huh just text meif you want to go, text me?
Oh kay? Noted, how areyou gonna have a full array of
humans on stage for this tour?How planned out are you for that?
We it is just us two ontour really yep, just the two of
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us on stage now, so forscale and I see, we did a
bit of an experiment adding some otherplayers on stage. It was really awesome,
a lot of fun. It feelslike and not that we will never
do that again, but this tour, I guess we never really officially like
said that, but this tour isjust gonna be Josh and I on stage
for the whole couple hours. SoI'm gonna have to get in shape.
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Everything you guys do is it seemsseemingly incredibly thought out. So when you
look at this tour and the successof the band, you probably can do
a lot more so, are thevisuals gonna be amped up? Are we
going to be a part of astory that's uh, that will play out
much like this whole tale has?What does this look like? You got
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some ideas the striker does? Holdon, Striker, go ahead, listen
as long as Striker's edit. Yes, he has id a couple of trampolines
on the side of the stage.Yes, the round ones like it's an
old exercise video and you just bounceup and down. Yeah, like that,
or you know what we make oureveryone in our crew has to be
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jumping on a small trampoline everywhere thatthey are in the arena, and they
have to show it's it's because Ineed them to promote excitement for what it
is they're doing and belief in whatit is they're doing. So you'll see
our lighting director bouncing around on trampoline. I like that idea, even if
they're backstage. Yeah, the backstage. We've always wanted to try to fit
giraffes in. Isn't that how youmet Josh at the zoo at the giraffe
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exhibit? Was that? Isn't thathow you guys met at the giraffe exhibit
at the Zoo. Yeah, that'sa good point, and that's why we
wanted to do it. It wasa it was an homage. Yeah,
yes, it's very thought out.Hotly Striker remembered that it's well, very
hard to remember all of the differentways that Josh and I met. You've
made up many different ones, I'msure. A question about recording the full
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album, and this goes to JoshDunn. Was your role in the recording
of this did it seem more collaborativeless or exactly how it's been the last
ten plus years. I would sayrelatively close. But I think that the
past couple albums that we've recorded,I was actually living in La which you
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know, we've we've like, we'vereally learned how to collaborate from a distance,
which is nice. But being backin Columbus was also very nice because
just proximity you kind of you kindof can't beat. So yeah, I
think kind of being over there athis studio and then you know, capturing
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drums at my studio at my house, it was you know, it feels
really good to be able to dostuff in our kind of own respective spaces.
And I also think that doing itthat way for me personally kind of
like, lets me feel like Ihave a little bit more time with it
to make it feel like kind ofwhat I wanted to be, rather than
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running out a studio in La orwherever and feel like I'm just I got
to just get it done so thatwe're not paying thousands of dollars for the
space. So yeah, I thinkI guess I would say probably a little
more on this one, just simplyby being around nice. Is this as
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fun as it's always been? Isit more fun? Is it work in
a different way? I mean,you know, these visuals and the things
that you've done. You know,listen to Josh talk about having to make
a video. It sounds a littlegrown up. Have it as much fun
being grown ups at all of this? I was gonna say, I described
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it to some of the other daythat you know when I, uh,
when I had two kids, Ifelt like a musician who had two kids.
But then now that I've had mythird, I feel like a dad
who plays music Like this is justthe cherry on top to everything else in
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life. It really does put inperspective, having been able to do this
for for this long, just howlucky we are to be in this position.
I mean, there's so many,so many bands and artists that that
are probably way more talented and waymore deserving of this than us. And
yet somehow, you know, we'vewe've found this crease with with a group
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of people and a fan fan groupthat just elevates us in a way that
sometimes we don't really deserve. Butwe're just trying to stay appreciative. And
yeah, we're having fun. We'restill having a lot of fun. We
get put it puts it all inperspective too, all the different jobs out
there, all the different things thatpeople do for a living that they you
know, they learn to take pridein how lucky we are that this is
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ours and it's relatively you know,as much as recording a music video is
hard to do, it's I alwayssay it's better than mulching, So I
always say digging ditches. That's funny. Of course, I'm from Blake Wheeling,
West Virginia, so we're probably we'revery close at our thought processes.
Yeah, it has to do withgardening. With all of this, we're
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popping gas one of the other.Yeah, yeah, you know, one
thing that you just mentioned about deservingthis and how has this happened? Listen,
I'm an old dude. You cansee the grays of my hair now.
I remember in twenty twelve, Ididn't even know what you two idiots
look like. And I heard thismusic and I felt an instant connection,
and so I started screaming, thereare these two guys from Ohio, and
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so if that happened to me,that's what has happened with millions of people.
And it's like, we know thework ethic is there, and the
talent is there, and the liveshows and the connection that's a secret sauce.
So we appreciate all the great musicand great times from you guys.
Well, you know, I stillhave one of my uh, one of
the videos. You know how onyour phone you can set it that a
memory kind of like shows up likea photo or a video or whatever.
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Every once in a while, I'llget a memory of a video of Josh
and I in a green room backstageand we're huddled around a computer, and
it's because you were playing holding onto You for the very first time,
and that was such a big momentfor us. So we thank you as
well. Man. Yeah, yeah, you guys, it's cool. Maybe
maybe maybe maybe we'll put you ina music video. Okay, Holly,
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once it is again noted noted.It all comes back to noted twenty one
Pilots. It's so great to hearyou, guys. It's wild to talk
to hear you guys talk about youknow, you feel so lucky. But
it's I don't think bands sometimes understandthat are so different than everybody else because
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you are. There's no band thatsounds like you. Like every time you
could put most bands and say,well, they kind of sound like this,
twenty one Pilots sounds like twenty onePilots. That's like an achievement.
That's an accomplishment like bands don't getto do that, you know. So
congratulations on just being so unique andyou know, giving us such great music
along the way. So it's beena privilege for us to talk to you
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again. And best good luck withClancy. We can't wait to see you
guys, all right you Yeah,welcome back to Trench, Clancys and escape
me Trench. That's a song justkilled Man Goldie Station. It feels like
I'm watching mad Men, the oldTV show for part of it. For
some reason, I don't know why, but that's kind of what I feel.
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I don't know why we're supposed toend the interview, so sorry,
go ahead, Booker was over.Now we're asking what we were Hey,
last time we talked, we weretalking about TV shows that you're not allowed
to watch without your wife, Tyler, and what do you guys watching together
now? Like what's the new hotthing? Because I think we talked about
this last time, so we're tryingto start. We started watching a show
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Fallout on Amazon, and uh,and then she was leaning over on me
as we were watching. We weretrying to be cuddly for a second,
and then I realized that she shewas she was leaking on me. She's
breastfeeding currently, and we got it. We got it. I guess what
I'm trying to say is like,we don't really have time to watch shows
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right now, bro, gotcha enough? All right? Leaking? Yes,
yeah, I'm leaking right now.Thank you both so much. I know
we only had like twenty minutes,but man, we got a lot.
We can't wait to see you live. Congratulations on everything, the full album
of course, draw May twenty fourth, Clancy and it's amazing. See you
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guys later. Thank you, guys, okay bye, all right, see
you, thank you awesome bye alright, just coming next Noted Dodd The
all new All Afternoons with Booker andStriker podcast