Twenty One Pilots are an Ohio-born duo, boasting a light indie/electronic sound and clever lyrics. It’s no surprise then that the band (Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun), which was only formed in 2009 has already been signed by Fueled by Ramen. The duo are enjoying considerable success over the pond with their debut full-length record Vessel, but this week they were playing exclusively for the enthusiastic audience at Leeds Festival – and they even found some time to talk to ContactMusic about the experience.

Twenty One Pilots
Fresh off their US tour, the duo still have a packed year ahead of them.

Josh Dun had nothing but good memories of the experience to share: “It was our first time ever at Leeds Festival and we were just talking about how, gosh, we’ve both, separately and together, watched so many videos online of performances at Leeds and we’ve never even been here before in our lives.” “To get to play was a good experience for us.”

At this point, the band are still on the brink of international fame, but they are just fresh off their first US tour – playing to both intimate gatherings in dimly lit venues and the kind of loud and receptive crowd that’s especially typical for the British festival circuit. They’ve also gone through the good, the bad and the ugly experiences of their very own tour and so far they aren’t daunted. They still have several gigs left to do in the UK, but the lads already have some experience with cultural differences.

“There’s a difference between American festivals and European festivals and we’re starting to learn that this year,” Joseph pitched in. “So we’ve kind of gone through a crash course of just different cultures – how people dress, how they respond to different things onstage. Crowds of people they all think together, so it’s almost like talking to a completely different person, playing to a different country or a different culture.”

As for what’s next for Twenty One Pilots, there’s no rest for the wicked apparently. The lads’ next album is due out this September and they’re in full-on promotional mode, but they’re doing it in their own way.

“People don’t interact as much anymore,” says Joseph. “People don’t interact as much anymore, so their word of mouth is on the internet. That’s good for us, my word of mouth to someone else can be seen by other people.”

“The way we wanted to do it was we wanted to create music, we wanted to create a live show, we wanted to create something fresh, show people that we were gonna work for them and then we wanted them to have the tools to promote it.”

That’s exactly what they’ve done, with the band’s YouTube page already boasting lots of music videos, live recordings and behind-the-scenes peeks for fans who want to keep up with their latest material. It looks like embracing social media as a promotional tool is working for them as well. If you’re on the lookout for some new music, Twenty One Pilots are just a Google/YouTube/Twitter search away.

Watch the full interview below.