half•alive is Like Twenty One Pilots But Better

We have to thank YouTube for providing us with the opportunity to discover beautiful music when you least expect it! But there’s just something about half•alive that’s quite similar to the style of Twenty One Pilots yet it stands out as a funky artistic self of its own. To date, they only have four music videos of their singles on YouTube and don’t have any official albums as of yet. The themes explored in the song lyrics are as depressing as we know in Twenty One Pilots yet they offer a more hopeful rhythm in their unique composition of music and soulful lyrics. Moreover, the artistic cinematography of the music videos means we see some beautiful dance complementing the catchy music.

More about half•alive

Half Alive, though it’s unique in the way it’s written half•alive, is an American band. It reigns from Long Beach in California comprising of band members lead singer Josh Taylor, Brett Kramer the drummer and J Tyler Johnson. Their first Extended play was released in 2017. The band’s music is influenced by philosophical notations about religion and high consciousness, giving them that extra touch of depth.

Philosophical Lyrics

Whilst Twenty One Pilots have often delved into mental problems such as depression and anxiety, they craft stories surrounding them. Yet majority of their songs just stick to that image and not come to any hopeful conclusions. It’s here where half•alive showcases why it’s better. Because the song lyrics give a profound sense of hope which you can’t receive from any other source.

In their song Still Feel, garnering more than 12 million views on YouTube, we see this:

I still feel alive
When it is hopeless, I start to notice
And I still feel alive
Falling forward, back into orbit
And I still feel alive
It is hopeless, I start to notice
And I still feel alive
Falling forward, back into orbit

The song “Still Feel” by half•alive, elaborates on how we often feel rootless and confused as we go in our day to day lives. The lead singer Josh Taylor expressed how he felt like lost himself. It was after he had broken up with his previous band, and his life seemed to be going in an uncertain direction. But then during his spiritual expedition in Nepal, he found something helping him find reason to come back. This divine intervention allowed the song to have a meaningful hope inside it.

Josh Taylor himself stated in the video explaining the lyrics behind the song,

There’s always a place to choose anxiety or choose hope and choose life in that. For myself, that is a continual story for myself, of always choosing life. Not diving into anxiety, though it’s so easy to choose that, choosing the opposite.

Twenty One Pilots give us a safe haven whilst explaining our deepest and darkest thoughts to us in rythmic melodies, but Half Alive does so by also giving us a ray of light.

Artistic Choreography in Music Videos

This is something that’s been largely absent from Twenty One Pilots music videos but something half•alive possesses proudly. The interesting dance moves we see the lead singer do give more life to the music that’s blessing our ears. In “Still Feel“, the incredibly complicated dance choreography was all shot in one take! The neon lighting set brilliantly accompanies the flawless dance moves of the band members in the music video.

Furthermore, in their “Awake At Night” music video, we see the singer bringing the deep lyrics of the song come to reality with his lithe and smooth dance moves that illustrate what it feels like being stuck in your own body and searching for something new.

“i’ve wrestled with the truth for quite some time
but i’ve been drowning in this restless mind
i’m sick of being so unsatisfied. tell me that the answer’s right
god are you awake at night”

Not to throw shade to Twenty One Pilots who are musical geniuses in their own right! But half•alive just gives something a little more hopeful.

Though, their song Tip Toes has been hugely compared to Twenty One Pilots.

Even though these lyrics matched the darkness we’ve seen in Twenty One Pilots, the lyrics still offer something different and more interesting.

I’m on my tip toes trying to see past my ego
Reaching for something more than this feeling
Of being important