Twenty One Pilots reached a significant “Level of Concern” with the alternative duo’s quarantine hit, but Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun want fans to catch up with their new cryptic interactive game.
On Wednesday (June 10), the group posted a short clip on Instagram that played “Level of Concern” in the background while revealing a cryptic code: LOC-061-220-2012P. In the comments, fans theorized the two were releasing something tied to the single (abbreviated “LOC”) on 06-12-2020 at 12 p.m. At 12 p.m. ET today (June 12), Twenty One Pilots started a YouTube livestream with a mysterious phone number in the title that also flashed throughout the hours-long video on the static, vintage TV screen: 1-877-LVL-CNRN.
At the 13:00-minute mark of the ongoing livestream video, a voice recited this greeting message: “Welcome to Level of Concern… want to play a game? Anxiety, confusion, excitement, anxiety, anxiety, confusion, excitement, anxiety, confusion, excitement, anxiety, confusion, excitement. You are most likely experiencing Level of Concern. We thank you for your participation and interest.”
But something slightly different greeted fans who called the highlighted number, according to Rock Sound: “If you are receiving this message, you are most likely currently receiving a level of concern. We thank you for your participation and interest. We have hidden codes all around the Internet for you to unlock new levels. Each level contains elements that could contain clues to help you move to the next level, that is only if you are savvy enough. We guarantee that this game is certainly madness, happiness, paranoia and fun. Good luck. That concludes our session. Thank you. Have a pleasant day.”
In the maddening rabbit hole Twenty One Pilots lured their fans down, the two dropped the link of a mysterious website in the YouTube video description. Once a user entered the site, they’re prompted to enter the first code revealed from the group’s Instagram clip while later urged them to download a .zip file to fully access the first “level of concern,” containing behind-the-scenes pictures of Joseph and Dun in the recording studio as well as an audio clip that simply states “Level 1.”
Nineteen more encoded USB drives remain lingering for those committed to concluding the scavenger hunt, which could hint at the new songs featured on the group’s upcoming album.
In an Apple Music interview back in May, Joseph told Zane Lowe said he and Dun are preparing to release a new record sooner than expected. “I’m writing a record right now. I’m not sure when it’ll be released, but it’s definitely going to be really sooner than we were planning on releasing a record. I don’t know if it’s this in-between record or if it’s a continuation of the narrative and where we left off,” the Twenty One Pilots frontman said at the time. “It’s kind of hard for me to tap into the story of Trench and what we’ve been building on up until that point without being out there, without touring, without having those live shows, without interacting with our fans.”
Check out how Twenty One Pilots put its own spin on interacting with fans via the cryptic YouTube livestream below.
