Lyric Analysis - twenty øne piløts

Twenty One Pilots is an alternative band that made their fame in 2009, consisting of the duo Josh Dun, the drummer, and Tyler Joseph, the singer. They have since gained much fame and renown in the world of music, and most teenagers have heard of them or at least one of their songs.

Today I'm here to analyze some lyrics from some popular songs, and some not-so-popular songs. The group has a tendency to hide some really deep lyrics behind a catchy tune; I want to dig deep and really see those messages.

(Gonna be diving into the real heavy stuff right off the bat)

My first example is the song Guns for Hands, from their album Vessel (my personal favorite album). There's a lot of speculation behind the meaning of this song, but it's a pretty clear consensus that it is Tyler Joseph speaking directly to his fans, especially those who are thinking of self harm or suicide. For example, take these lines:

And you swear to your parents,
That it will never happen again,
I know, I know what that means, I know.

I read these lines as him saying that he knows that kids promise their parents that they won't cut again, or they won't attempt suicide again, etc, and he knows that they don't really mean it. He is trying to empathize with the listener. He understands. Later in the song, we see these lines: 

The solution is, I see a whole room of these mutant kids,
Fused at the wrist, I simply tell them they should shoot at this,
Simply suggest my chest and this confused music,
It's obviously best for them to turn their guns to a fist.

This is him trying to help those listeners. He sees them and acknowledges their plights, and suggests that they outlet their feelings to him and through his music. He is kind of implicitly stating that he makes his music for his listeners, to help them. He wants them to take those dark thoughts and change them into determination for something. 

There's a line from the song Holding on to You that I would like to highlight very quickly. The whole song is very good, and it's also from the album Vessel. But that one specific set of lines is this: 

Fight it,
Take the pain, ignite it,
Tie a noose around your mind
Loose enough to breathe fine and tie it
To a tree. Tell it, "You belong to me.
This ain't a noose, this is a leash.
And I have news for you: you must obey me."

He is telling his listeners and fans that they should, in a sense, "trick" their mind. "Tie a noose" is used, because pain gives way to ending the suffering; but then he quickly turns it around. It is not a noose at all, but a leash, and there gives the listener a way to take control of their mind. I'm not putting this into the words in exactly the way I want to, but this lyric really speaks to me whenever I listen to this song.

As I look through this list of songs I have to analyze, I realize that the lyrics I want to talk about just get longer and longer. My next, and nearly final example, is another Vessel song: Migraine.

I am not as fine as I seem, pardon,
Me for yelling, I'm telling you green gardens,
Are not what's growing in my psyche, it's a different me,
A difficult beast feasting on burnt down trees,
Freeze frame please, let me paint a mental picture portrait,
Something you won't forget, it's all about my forehead,
And how it is a door that holds back contents,
That make Pandora's Box's contents look non-violent,
Behind my eyelids are islands of violence,
My mind's ship-wrecked, this is the only land my mind could,
Find, I did not know it was such a violent island,
Full of tidal waves, suicidal crazed lions,
They're trying to eat me, blood running down their chin,
And I know that I can fight or I can let the lion win,
I begin to assemble what weapons I can find,
'Cause sometimes to stay alive you gotta kill your mind.

This is a long one, I know. But I honestly think it's the best. It's very fast paced in the song, and really fun to sing along to; so it's easy to see how the meaning could be lost. But just reading through it line by line, can't you see it? It's someone - Tyler, maybe even - explaining what his mind is like. Maybe even, as some might speculate, what depression or anxiety is like. It's not all romanticized, all sad songs and unrequited love poems. It is dark, and it is terrible. He tries to literally "paint a mental picture portrait" for you to see, for you to understand, what it's like. The words quickly escalate and become more dark and twisted, accurately reflecting (one could argue) the downward spiral that many often suffer. At the very end of this stanza, he brings in a little hope, with that powerful like: "Cause sometimes to stay alive, you gotta kill your mind." What he is saying is that you cannot listen to your thoughts, or to your mind; it is literally ill. You have to try and fight your way through it, to find your hope for living, because you can make it through. Interestingly, you could tie this with the lyrics I mentioned from Holding on to You; if you put the two together, the message is that you need to not only not listen to your mind, but fight to take control of it and effectively take back your life.

For my final lyric analysis, I was torn between two. So honestly, I'm going to do neither. I'm going to link the two songs, Car Radio and Kitchen Sink. If you'd like, you could give the songs a listen - even one playthrough will do - and write in the comments what you think the meaning is. Both are fantastic songs, so even if you don't comment, I highly encourage you to give them a listen and immerse yourself in the tone of them.

 I hope you enjoy these songs as much as I do!

More to report.
-M