Twenty One Pilots appear to be teasing the next era with red tape and letters in the mail

Twenty One Pilots have been leaving a trail of breadcrumbs to what may be their next era.

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Each of the Twenty One Pilots albums have turned into a kind of chapter or era for the band overall. An album invigorates new aesthetics, musical focus, colors, band logos, and more. Now, eagle-eyed fans are spotting hints of the next coming era in their everyday lives.

Following a tradition the band set with their Trench and Blurryface albums, some fans are receiving letters in the mail with red and black writing. While the letters mostly play into the band’s fictional lore, fans noticed that each letter was numbered out of 1,500. Others pointed out that the letters seem to feature numbers 2, 2 and 9, leading to their hope that this 2/29 Leap Day will bring a big announcement.

Another hint comes digitally through the band’s albums. Streaming sites Spotify, Apple Music and Youtube have updated all their albums' artwork to show a piece of red tape placed across the eyes of each character or logo. “Red tape” is typically used to describe rules or procedures that are overly complicated and excessive, like in the common phrase “cutting through the red tape”. A new album concept, perhaps?

The band’s eras are also symbolized by the change of band logos, which has seemingly been teased as well. As seen in a fan-found poster displayed in Barcelona, Twenty One Pilots may be returning to their classic circle, dash and line logo. The logo was originally created in 2011, but seemingly abandoned for their last album release, 2021’s Scaled and Icy . Now it’s back in full black, with a bright orange and red tie-dye background.

Billboards of the logo have been popping up as well, everywhere from Toronto to Warsaw. They too, only show red and orange colors, a border of nonsense text, and the band’s revamped symbol. Interesting indeed…

No official announcement had been made by Twenty One Pilots just yet, but lead singer and frontman Tyler Joseph did confirm the end of their previous album cycle back in January. “ scaled and icy was created and born in a time of uncertainty,” he wrote in an Instagram post about their COVID-created album. “As the songs took shape, and we released them, and sat at home, we felt proud. proud of our fans, mostly. it felt good to release music. but something was off.”

Joseph explained that the band creatively thrived off their performances, and with the return of live music, felt reinvigorated. He went on to thank their touring crew and fans, before ending the post with the line, “And that concludes ψ”. The greek letter ψ was used as the band’s last logo for the Scaled and Icy cycle, and thus, he signified the end of another era.

Finally, on Thursday February 22, the band posted a new video to their social channels, titled 'I Am Clancy' (a reference to a character from their 2018 album, Trench ) with the caption, "Next week, a new chapter begins. But today, we take a look back on how we got here."

The four-minute video features Tyler Joseph explaining the lore behind Trench and their 2021 follow-up, Scaled and Icy , ending with his declaration, "I am a citizen. I am an escapee. I am an exception. I am returning to Trench. I am Clancy." Check out the clip above.

As to what comes next, all we have for now is some red tape and fandom lore. Whatever it all means, something is surely on its way. Listen in to Audacy’s Twenty One Pilots Radio to hear any changes, and try not to get too “Stressed Out”!