In its purest form music acts as a conduit of self-expression that is free from the conventions of society and that spirit of fearlessness lies at the core of twenty one pilots, a group whose musical vision is completely their own. Over the past few years the duo of frontman Tyler Joseph and drummer Josh Dun have built a hardcore following that seems primed to reach a fever pitch with the release of their Fueled By Ramen debut Vessel.

"The first song I ever played on the piano was my own. I never took any lessons," Joseph responds when asked about his musical background. "I looked at the piano and realized that music was a way of being able to say something; the phrase I always use is that 'music is a vessel' and that's where the album title comes from." Before long Joseph was writing and recording his own demos in his basement and twenty one pilots was born.

The Columbus, Ohio-based band started out like most acts but instead of aimlessly touring they concentrated on their hometown base and before long they were selling out huge local venues like Newport Music Hall despite the fact they only had two self-recorded releases available. "Every show we play our hearts out because where we come from you have to grab people's attention and make sure that they never forget you," Joseph says. "In our case we were able to build up a fan base - one that walked with us to grab the attention of the music industry outside of our hometown eventually opening up the doors that have led to so many opportunities to take our music around the world on what is an amazing journey."

The duo's ability to build up this local base was confirmed when the band sold out the 2,300-capacity LC Pavilion last April to announce that they were signing to Fueled By Ramen, after being courted by over a dozen labels. That is right, there was no fancy marketing or gimmickry that lead to twenty one pilots' rise, it was based solely on the organic relationship they cultivated with their fans via their music, live performances and online content. "To our fans we say we never got our big break, you created our big break. Thank you," Joseph says.

For Vessel the band entered a real studio for the first time ever with Grammy nominated producer Greg Wells (Weezer, Adele) to craft an album which merges elements of hip hop, indie rock and punk in a way that is so seamless that you will be rapping along one minute and caught up in a lush orchestral line on a song like "Car Radio " in the next minute. "We're not trying to consciously do something different but we've just never emulated any other bands" Joseph explains. "We've never fit into any particular scene so we figured we would just make our own."

From the impossibly catchy groove of "Semi-Automatic" to the high-energy hip-hop of "Holding On To You" and the ambient electronic experimentation of "Trees," Vessel is a complex collection of songs that shows why twenty one pilots are the latest addition to Fueled By Ramen's extremely selective roster. "'Ode To Sleep' is a song I'm really proud of because it's really odd when it comes to structure; it challenges the listener," Joseph explains. "Ultimately I think those are the types of moments that make our fans really connect to our music."

Sounding so unique was never an obstacle for twenty one pilots early on, in fact it has been a trait that has endeared them to their fans. "I don't think there are a lot of bands that can play a hardcore show one night or a hip-hop show the next night and know that it will work," Dun explains, adding that the band's live performances have always been integral to the act. "We want our fans to leave all of their problems at the door and immerse themselves in the music, the moment, when we perform live," he adds. "In the end it's a giant release for everybody."

"We went from not having a glimmer of hope to all of the sudden having the opportunity to leave Columbus and make a record and that's something that we're never going to take for granted," Joseph summarizes. "The songs on Vessel represent who we are and now we get to take this collection of songs, this body of work, to the world," he continues. "It is not a short term thing for us, we're planning on being around for a long time."

In today’s instantly downloadable and quickly consumed culture, bands like Anberlin are a dying breed. Over the course of six years and four full-lengths (including last year’s B-side compilation Lost Songs), the band have established themselves as one of alternative rock’s most exciting acts and as a band who refuse to limit themselves to one specific scene or sound... and it’s paid off. If the band reinvented themselves with last year’s sprawling album Cities—which debuted in the Billboard Top 20 and sold 34,000 copies its first week of release—they’ve transcended that sound with New Surrender. In fact, their latest album that shows the band reconciling all of their seemingly disparate moods into a cohesive blend of music that will lull you to sleep with gentle harmonies one minute and shake you to the core via raw, distortion-drenched rock riffage the next.

This control of dynamics has embodied Anberlin’s music since their 2003 debut Blueprints For The Black Market which instantly caught on with fans of emotional music who didn’t want to be fed the same musical clichés—oh, and touring alongside acts like Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance to support that album didn’t hurt either. After playing literally hundreds of shows and growing as both musicians and people the band released their sophomore album Never Take Friendship Personal in 2005. Markedly more mature both musically and lyrically, that album established Anberlin as more than another underground sensation and showed that there was no limit to what the band could achieve. This same trend was evident with last year’s mainstream breakthrough Cities, which showed the band progressing even more and expanding their musical vision exponentially.

All this brings us to New Surrender. Although the album retains the Anberlin sound that fans have grown to love, in many ways it’s also an album of firsts that marks the next chapter in the band’s illustrious history. For example, after working for years exclusively with longtime producer/friend Aaron Sprinkle this time around the band decided to enlist legendary producer Neal Avron (Fall Out Boy, Yellowcard, New Found Glory) to capture their sound. Additionally, after selling 435,000 albums on the well-respected indie label Tooth And Nail, with New Surrender the band decided it was finally time for them to step up to a major label—and although they had been courted by various majors for years, the band decided to go with Universal Republic. “At Tooth And Nail there was a glass ceiling and there was no way to get our music out to all the people we wanted to reach,” Christian explains when asked about the band’s decision to change labels. “To us, Universal Republic represents a sense of stability in this turbulent era for music: The staff is going nowhere, the label is here to stay and they have proven time and time again that they can take bands to the people—and that is where we belong... among the people.”

“The whole album is conceptualized around the theme of a new surrender in the sense that everyone in their lives has something they know they have to give up,” responds Christian when asked about the title of the band’s latest opus. “There’s something that’s holding each of us back from who we could become, so I think each song kind of tackles that theme of surrendering parts of life whether it’s a person or a vice.” In order to capture this idea, the band—which also features guitarist Joseph Milligan, bassist Deon Rexroat, drummer Nathan Young and new addition and former Acceptance guitarist Christian McAlhaney—spent three months in the studio with Avron carefully crafting their most fully realized effort to date.

In fact, from the equally cathartic and melodic track “Bittersweet Memory” to the soon-to-be summertime anthem “Haight Street” and acoustic ballad “Younglife,” New Surrender is the most varied album of the band’s career—something they credit largely to the new addition of McAlhaney, who has solidified the band’s lineup and become an integral part of the songwriting process. “I think it just felt right,” McAlhaney responds when asked when it was like to be thrown into a songwriting team of Christian and Milligan, who have been writing together for nearly thirteen years. “There was no trial period, we just went for it,” he continues. “It definitely helped having someone else to bounce ideas off of,” Milligan concurs, adding that he’s confident that New Surrender is undoubtedly the band’s strongest album to date.

Although both of the band’s guitarists have completely different styles, they perfectly complement each both rhythmically and melodically on New Surrender—and this sonic interaction has added a new level of depth to Anberlin’s already powerful sound. Additionally, this renewed sense of enthusiasm doesn’t just apply to the guitars but also carries over to Stephen’s vocals, which manage to achieve almost religious levels of grandeur on the falsetto-fueled “Still Counting Backwards” or soaring, operatic ballad “The Life Torn War.” “Neal [Avron] did not let me get away with anything,” Christian explains, noting that every vocal part on the album is sung individually without relying on studio trickery such as auto-tuning. While this unorthodox approach required additional work on the band’s part, the result is a vocal performance that shows Christian extending his already impressive range and solidifying him as one of the strongest frontman in the genre.

New Surrender is also the first Anberlin album to work the band’s well-documented humanitarian efforts into the lyrics, which have included going to Kenya to teach about AIDS prevention or traveling to Calcutta, India, to educate the masses about the danger of human trafficking. “I live in Los Angeles now, so I wrote a song about homelessness because that’s something that’s so prevalent in my life,” Christian elaborates. “There’s also about another song about living unselfishly and the lyrics say, “’I want to live and die for someone else / the more I live, I see life isn’t about me,’” he adds. “I’m really excited that we’ve got to the level lyrically where our fans don’t listen to Anberlin for just the basic, ‘Oh girl, I want to hold your hand,” he says, noting that the supportive nature of Anberlin’s fans gave him artistic license to challenge himself and take his own writing to the next level this time around.

However, the band are quick to stress the fact that New Surrender is ultimately an album that’s made to be listened to instead of analyzed—and songs like “Feel Good Drag” are so infectious that it’s likely that listeners will be too wrapped up in the majesty of the music to waste their time worrying about how to pigeonhole Anberlin’s sound. “In some ways I don’t think we have that much emotional attachment to music nowadays,” Christian says, noting that music seems to be such a ubiquitous part of our daily lives that it’s easy to forget the passion that initially drew most of us to it the first place. “I want people to feel like they belong to this record; it’s their record and I want them to treat it like that,” he explains. “Hopefully New Surrender doesn’t just have one single that everyone attaches himself or herself to,” he summarizes, “I really want all twelve songs to be a part of their lives.”

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