Imagine Dragons are a Las Vegas four-piece who have made waves on the indie-rock scene since their formation in 2008. Launched during lead singer, Dan Reynolds’ studies at Brigham Young University, the band released three EPs before signing a record deal.
The band earned a small grass-roots following with their independent releases: self-titled, ‘Imagine Dragons’ and ‘Hell and Silence’ in 2010 and ‘Its Time’ in 2011. By November 2011 Imagine Dragons were signed to Interscope Records and were working on their first major release. ‘Continued Silence’ was launched on Valentines’ Day 2012 and reached number 40 in the Billboard 200 chart. Soon after the band released ‘It’s Time’ as a single which reached number five in the Alternative Top Ten Charts and was covered on TV show, Glee.
Their long-awaited debut album, ‘Night Vision’ peaked at number two in the US Billboard Chart in September 2012, it made history as the highest debut rock back charting since 2006. Album single, ‘Radioactive’ has gone Gold in the US, Canada and Norway after reaching number one in the Billboard Alternative Songs chart. The band enjoyed a sell-out tour of North America in 2012.
In February 2015, Imagine Dragons released their second album, Smoke + Mirrors. The album received mixed reviews but jumped to number one on the Billboard 200 chart in the US.
Imagine Dragons is made up of Dan Reynolds, bass-player Ben McKee, drummer Dan Platzman and guitarist Wayne Sermon. All of the band members have attended the prestigious Berklee College of Music apart from Reynolds. The band started out by performing at Las Vegas casinos and say that they learnt to stand out from the crowd in order to draw attention away from the roulette tables.
Speaking about their idiosyncratic sound, Wayne Sermon said: “We like making raw natural noises and keeping them raw and natural but transforming them into synthetic noises.”
