Twenty One Pilots officially announced their seventh studio album, Clancy, on February 29, 2024. However, some fans may be questioning, “Who is Clancy?”
Listeners started to suspect something big was happening on the second anniversary of the band’s last album, Scaled and Icy, when red tape suddenly appeared over the cover art of Twenty One Pilots’ previous albums on Apple Music, YouTube, and Spotify. On top of that, some fans began taking to Reddit to share cryptic letters they received from the “Sacred Municipality of Dema,” which is a reference to the lore the musicians have established for their previous albums. One week ago, Twenty One Pilots’ Instagram page posted a video promising a “new era.”
As a result, some viewers may have been unsurprised when Clancy was announced. However, for those who are unversed in the unique lore Twenty One Pilots has woven throughout their albums, the cryptic letters and album name may leave them feeling lost.
So, who is Clancy?
Twenty One Pilots has been building its lore since 2015. The story begins with their album Blurryface. Upon the album’s debut, it was well-known that the titular character Blurryface is the embodiment of mental illness. However, the band soon took things a step further by expanding the world within the album. Three years after the album was released, fans noticed the band hiding the URL dmaorg.info on their store website. The founder of that website is none other than Clancy. Users became acquainted with Clancy for the first time as he provided letters and maps detailing life in the fictional city of Dema, which is located on the continent Trench.
Unfortunately, Dema is a bleak and oppressive place. Clancy has learned that there’s a world outside of the city that he wishes to escape to. Additionally, he has become aware of the Banditos, a group planning the revolution. Soon, the singles “Jumpsuit,” “Nico and the Niners,” and “Levitate” were released to explain what is holding Clancy back. There is a group of nine Bishops, led by Nico, that maintain tight control of the city through religion and mysterious powers. Every time the Banditos try to save Clancy, the Bishops foil their plans. Meanwhile, vocalist Tyler Joseph confirmed that Nico is, indeed, Blurryface, the leader of the Bishops and the representation of insecurity.
Eventually, Clancy is captured and imprisoned by the Bishops while trying to escape. While imprisoned, he is forced to write propaganda for them, which comes in the form of Twenty One Pilots’ album Scaled and Icy. However, Clancy does manage to sneak a secret message into the propaganda as the title is actually an anagram for “Clancy is dead.” Eventually, he managed to escape again and arrived at an island where he was granted the same powers as the Bishops. Now, the album Clancy will wrap up his story as he prepares to return to Dema and free the city once and for all.
So, within the lore, Clancy is a citizen of Dema and an escapee who seeks to topple the oppressive rule of Blurryface. However, some believe that he is meant to symbolize or represent something. One of the theories is that Clancy is Joseph. Nico is a representation of Joseph’s insecurities and functions as his alter-ego, while Clancy is his true identity. Some Redditors have even proposed that Joseph is Clancy’s stage name. Still, some users argue that Clancy cannot be Joseph since Joseph has seemingly been seen and described from Clancy’s point of view in his letters. Clancy could be a representation of someone or something, or he could just be Clancy, a fictional character. Perhaps Clancy will provide more answers on the true identity of the protagonist.
(featured image: Feuled by Ramen)
