Imagine Dragons: line-up, discography and interesting facts

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

An incredibly popular American band that has conquered all kinds of music charts, won the hearts of millions of fans - this is Imagine Dragons. The composition of the group is not sugary boys, which were popular in the 90s, but ordinary guys who just love to write music and do it very high quality and with soul. They are called an indie rock band, because it is quite difficult to fit such diverse and unusual creativity into the framework of a particular genre. The history of the formation of the Imagine Dragons group, by the way, is also not banal.

From religion to music

Dan Reynolds, the future founder and ideological inspirer of the group, was born in a large Mormon family in 1987. He was the seventh son of nine children whose parents were very conservative. This left a strong imprint on the psyche of the young man, and he tried to throw out his experiences in his work. After graduating from school, Dan was sent to Nebraska on a religious mission and also studied at the UniversityBrigham Young (Utah), in a town called Provo. It was there that religion took a backseat, rather than music first, when Reynolds befriended Andrew Tolman. Young people in 2008 founded their own group, which soon became known as Imagine Dragons. The composition of the group changed at first, while the members were looking for themselves, their direction, performing covers, trying to compose original music. An interesting fact known to all fans of the team's work: the name is an anagram, but no one except the participants themselves knows how it stands for, although the fans have already gone through thousands of options. It is quite possible that there is a true one, but the musicians have not confirmed any, and they are unlikely to do so.

Vegas Boys

So, by the beginning of 2009, two very talented and ambitious guys began to assemble a musical group. Soon they were joined by Tolman's school friend, guitarist Wayne Sermon. He brought along his friend from Berkeley, bass player Ben McKee. This was the first composition of Imagine Dragons. Already in September, they released their first mini-album with the same name, and for the next two years they also released one EP (mini-album per year). But in addition to working hard to create their own music, the team fought hard for their own survival and took on any performances, once they even opened a mime concert.

Becoming famous in Utah, the guys moved to Dan's hometown - Las Vegas, where their main concert venues were casinos and stripteaseclubs. There they performed mainly covers, including compositions of their own composition in the program. Soon they started talking about the group, they began to be invited to various festivals. And a little later, one of their mini-albums fell into the hands of the famous producer Alex De Kid (who worked with Eminem himself), who became interested in an unusual team, saw their potential and offered them cooperation.

Staff turnover

During the years of its formation, the composition of the Imagine Dragons group has repeatedly changed. The names of Reynolds and Sermon remained unchanged, but at different times, Andrew Back also visited the band in 2008 (specialization - electric guitar and vocals) and Dave Lamk from 2008 to 2009 (specialized - bass guitar and vocals), and even entire three girls Aurora Florence (2008, keyboards, violin, vocals), Brittany Tolman (2009-2011, keyboards, vocals) and Teresa Flamino (2011-2012, keyboards).

By the way, one of the founders of the "Dragons" (as they are called by the fans), drummer Andrew Tolman, left the project in 2011 with his wife Brittany, and a little later they created their own band. By its heyday, the line-up of Imagine Dragons was Dan Reynolds, Wayne Sermon, Ben McKee, and drummer Dan Platzman, who replaced the departed Tolman. It remains unchanged to this day.

Climbing the musical Olympus

In 2012, the Dragons released two more mini-albums, which finally began to bear financial fruit. The group is verydiligently and carefully prepared for the release of a full-fledged disc. And in September of the same year, this significant event took place. The album "Night Visions" was at the top of all charts in a record line, was in the top for a long time and became double platinum.

Imagine Dragons has been named the hottest star of 2013 and the release of the album is the highlight of the year. All sorts of awards rained down on them like from a cornucopia, including the prestigious Grammy music award itself. The track "Radioactive" became the biggest rock hit of the year according to Rolling Stone magazine. It was a real finest hour in the biography of Imagine Dragons.

Work, work and work again

Not resting on their laurels, the team toured very actively, winning more and more new hearts of fans, filmed clips and prepared material for the new album. The almost three-year break between releases of records was very busy. And in September 2015, the second album in the Imagine Dragons biography appeared. "Smoke+Mirrors" did not go platinum like the "first-born", but received a well-deserved "gold" and its share of great hits and, of course, brought new awards to the team. And less than two years later, the musicians pleased the fans with the third disc called "Evolve", which was presented to the general public in May 2017. In less than four months, the album's main theme, "Believer", has already won the "Best Rock/Alternative Song" award at the Teen Choice Awards.

Dragon Music

This unusual team can safely be considered the record holder for the number of use of their songs as soundtracks. For some Imagine Dragons projects, songs were specially recorded, in others they used the existing ones, but, one way or another, the list of the most popular films and TV shows where the music of Dragons sounds is incredibly impressive. One only "Radioactive" is worth something! It can be heard in the films "Guest", "Continuum", "The Warmth of Our Bodies", the series "Arrow", "The Vampire Diaries", "The 100", "True Blood", as well as in the game "Assassin's Creed 3" and so on.. Before the release of their first full-length album, Imagine Dragons released several soundtracks for large-scale cinema projects in the form of singles. Among them were "Who We Are" from the film "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" and "Battle Cry" from the fourth "Transformers". Also, Dragon songs are used as soundtracks in the series Gossip Girl, Beauty and the Beast, Force Majeure, Riverdale and many others, and among the films you can find in Insurgent, Iron Man 3, Good being quiet, Suicide Squad, Passengers, and even Kung Fu Panda 3, to name but a few.

Interesting facts

This article contains the most important information about Imagine Dragons: biography, composition, discography. But this is not all that fans would like to know about their favorite musicians, because the personal life, habits, favorite pastimes of idols interest fans no less. So, some interesting facts about the band members:

• Reynolds is married and haseldest daughter Arrow Eve and two newborn babies Coco and Gia, and together with his wife AJ Volkman, he is engaged in another musical project called Egyptian. This is their family hobby. The singer has been struggling with depression all his life, but it is in this state that he writes his hits. Claims family is his best cure for a longstanding ailment.
• Sermon is called "The Wing", his wife's name is Alexandra, and he is the proud father of two aged sons: River James and Wolfgang. The musician composes songs at night instead of sleeping (he has insomnia).
• McKee is a hatmaker. Sewing is his hobby.
• The band loves drums, is actively involved in charity work, loves to hang out on social networks and communicate with fans.