January 28, 2018 • 46 mins
Known for their spectacular live performances and energetic drum beats, GRAMMY® winners Imagine Dragons have drawn national attention since their debut album, Night Visions, went multiplatinum in 2012. In this premiere episode, host Scott Goldman sits with the four-piece group for an intimate conversation about music and their journey to GRAMMY® gold.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to required Listener. I'm your host, Scott Goldman, Executive
director of the Grammy Museum. Every week, we talked to artists,
songwriters and producers at every level, from emerging to legendary,
across every gen in front of a live audience in
the Clive Davis Theater at the Grammy Museum. The discussions
are intimate, personal, and completely unscripted. These conversations never failed
(00:23):
to surprise me, and I think you'll feel the same way.
For our inaugural episode, I want you to hear a
discussion I had recently with the band Imagined Dragons, just
after they had released their most recent album, Evolved. The band,
songwriter and vocalist Dan Reynolds, guitarist Wayne Sermon, bass player
(00:43):
Ben McKee, and drummer Daniel Plattsman formed in Utah and
ultimately moved to Dan reynolds hometown of Las Vegas. They
broke through in two thousand twelve with their debut album
Night Visions. Their album hit number two on the Billboard chart,
and the Grammy winning single Radioactive became a worldwide smash.
They toured relentlessly, as most young bands do, and they
(01:05):
built a passionate fan base for this emotional combination of
introspection married to this very hook filled layered sound. I'm
always interested in the conversations that artists have between themselves.
How do they interact? Do they offer advice creative or practical?
The answers are sometimes consistent and sometimes surprising. And I
(01:28):
think you'll find with Imagined Dragons all of that and more.
And all I can say is beware of the Kenny
g shout out. So let's go to the Clyde Davis
Theater and listen to my talk with Imagined Dragons. Give
it up for Imagine Dragons. I have seen you guys. Hello, Hello,
(01:56):
thank you for being here where it's so pleased? I
know these folks are please so um you know the
title of the new record, at least for you know,
for those inquiring minds. Evolve. Perhaps that's a hint as
to where the band has been, where it's going? How
has the band evolved since? Since since two tho since
(02:19):
two thousand? Yeah? Would we would we recognize ourselves from
two thousand twelves? Would you? Guys? I don't know. Would
My hair was shorter? I think so was mine? Okay,
I just started growing it out. Um, what else, Yeah,
tell me more about your hair. We uh, we've all
changed our hair styles. Good good, good to know. Musically,
(02:45):
how have things evolved? Oh, I'd say this record, we
really try to take a different approach. We tried to
be more minimalistic and selective. Um. A lot of times
we've self produced the majority of our music, which as
a musician some times can be great and sometimes can
be to your detriment. Uh, And I think we we
witnessed a little bit of both of those things the
(03:05):
music that we created. You know you you can easily
say we need more, more and more and more violence,
more string sections, more counter melodies. And so we brought
in producers on this record to say no, you know
this is good, or slap your hand and say no,
you don't need cello on this song. So that more
cowbell cut thee. We never did cow bow. We didn't
(03:27):
go that low. But actually we did. We put cow boo.
There's a good amount of cowbell on this record. We did.
There's one song on the rocket already. Already we're having
an argument. You know why we put cow You know
why there's cow bell? Our manager it is actually it's
the one artistic decision yeah, on the record that we
had two mixes, this is the true story of this song,
whatever it takes. And one of them had no cow
(03:50):
bell on the chorus and one had cow bell and
he he would not give it up. He was like,
you know, yeah, more cowbell only part he you know
your stage. Years years ago, years ago, Neil Young on
his ranch used to record in this barn and he
(04:11):
had all this set up in this amps and speakers
or whatever, and he would record and then he would
go out in the lake literally on a boat, and
he would listen back and he would say, and he
would say, if he didn't like it, he's here more barns,
more barnes. You know this big massive speakers and you
sit at an exact spot in the lake. You get
(04:33):
the perfect stereo image. Right. Neil Young is a genius
and he's he's a madman too. Yes, yeah, Well, and
we're gonna we're gonna get to that because because I
want to talk to you about artists that that that
you've kind of idolized over the years. But in terms
of evolve um, I've heard, you know, words like minimalist,
more colorful, um um and and the fact that you
(04:56):
guys worked with producers. Um, you were. It's almost like
you were willing to be kind of reined in. You
you were willing to say, you know what, we've done
the thing with you know, fifty tracks of you know,
horns and harmonicas and whatever it is. You know, we
needed to fill out the sound. Now we're going to
(05:16):
kind of get back to who we are. Is that
how you felt? It was kind of like as producers
we decided we wanted to be produced. You got, you
fired your In fact, you fired yourself. We didn't fire ourselves.
We were still very much hands onto the process, but
we sort of recognized that. Um, you know, when we're producing,
we try to say yes to everything. We really try
(05:38):
to get into the studio and if there's an idea
that guns turn out, we try it and we record
it before we throw it away. And oftentimes, you know,
it's just it's hard to stay focused. So many different
ideas come from so many different angles, especially with us,
from all the different backgrounds that we have musically. Um,
having somebody from the outside that's sort of as a
(06:00):
vision a direction for the song to go and can
kind of tell you what's fitting and what isn't, And
when to step away when you have enough, when you're
no longer adding more to the song by adding more parts,
when you're you know, more is becoming less. You know
you have somebody to help you find that. And I'm
wondering if if in that process you found the recording,
(06:21):
you know, the whole process of recording more concise, that
you could do it without necessarily laboring. Yeah, you know,
I think that's actually really interesting, because if I are
to be honest with you, I typically hate the studio process.
Throughout these years, UM, most of our songs would start
with either one of the guys sending me something that
(06:42):
they had recorded on their own, and then I'd plug
it in at home and i'd kind of work on
it and sing melodies and lyrics. Or I would start
it at home and sing melody and lyric and it'd
be a skeletal thing, and it'd be this beautiful just
moment of just creation, a spark, and it'd be dirty,
but I love like I would get very attached to it,
and I enjoyed that process, And then going into the
studio felt like this laborious task of you know, having
(07:05):
to amplify everything and create it live and sometimes I
really hated it. But on this record, it actually was
a very enjoyable process because we learned that sometimes those
those ways that you recorded things on the demo were correct,
and we used them, whether it was me singing into
my laptop and we said it sounds good, keep it UM,
or just not not spending, you know, ten days trying
(07:29):
all different sorts of things on a song. You have
someone to reel it in and say no, you know,
because I would imagine with anything that UM requires attention
and focus. If you do it too long, you start
to hate it. And you know, I have to believe
if you're if you're more concise about it, if you're
more focused on it, and you're kind of more quick
(07:50):
about it, you get a better result. And I've noticed
it's sort of a common theme that I've sort of learned,
and I finally getting it because I'm a little slow.
But UM limitations are actually really good. Boundaries are amazing
without any boundaries, Like I don't know, like the Beatles
recorded most of their stuff on a two track or
(08:12):
a four track to two tracks taped together basically, and
the things they were able to do with that are
amazing because they had it wouldn't have been as good
in my opinion, if they had a thousand tracks. I
don't know. I don't want to bore people, but these
days you basically have an unlimited amount of layers you
can put on a song. But back in the day
that was not true. You can record one thing and
(08:34):
then another thing. They have to bounce that to something
and then you can record something else, bounce that to
record something else. So it was very limiting. But like
in that limitation, there was freedom and there was creativity,
and so we finally had to learn, like, okay, just
because we can do two or fifty six tracks of cowbell,
we didn't do that. We didn't do that. We didn't
(08:54):
do that. But they're all layered, just on the quarter notes,
just that tone. And especially I want to I want
to shout out to Matt Man Robin, especially because there
are two producers that were probably the most Swedish producers.
They're incredible and they were they were very much laser
focused in their eyes. They wouldn't even they had actually
never said no. They would just look at you in
(09:15):
silence like we're like, hey, at that point, you knew, yeah,
I can't tell you how many times would be like,
we have this great idea, like this keyboard countermelody like
and they were just looking and be like, you know,
it's really bad when they wouldn't make eye contact. And
that was most of the time. That's so, but that's
actually perfect for us because that's how we work and
that's how we like to be because I would just
(09:36):
play a guitar for an hour and then they'd be like, Okay,
that's cool. Yeah. The other word that I read that
you guys have used about this record is cohesion. That
there is a more cohesive sound. Is that a result
of all of this being more focused not necessarily putting
every single sound that you possibly could on a track. Yeah,
(09:56):
I think that definitely has something to do with it.
It's uh, you know, we used the word clean a lot,
like a clean aesthetic, but um yeah, when you use
you know, not ten different snare tracks and just a
couple and you really are pickier with the audio that
you're using, I think you end up with a more
cohesive sound. That's what we found. When you guys are
are writing, um are you are you demoing stuff and
(10:19):
bringing it in? Is it something that you do collectively
in the studio. What's the process? Like, it's all It
starts as a journal entry for me, Like we all
kind of contribute to me basically lamenting about my my
inngsty fourteen year old self that I've been stuck in forever.
(10:40):
And um, so we end up right like, I know
this sounds so strange, and we tell this to people
and they don't believe it, but this is the honest truth.
For each record, we've written over a hundred and fifties
songs and for each for each record, so we have
how many songs do you think we've written six early days,
(11:01):
I'd say we could be a lot, a lot, It's
really a lot. Now how many of the now, how
many of those songs are complete, good ideas? Very few?
Most of them are terrible. But that process is I
would wake up every day and part of my process
was to create. So the guys would send me something
or I would create something, and then I would sing
(11:23):
and the lyrics were my journal entry for the day.
And so at the end of the year, we compile
all of that and we look through them and we
choose the ones that tell the most cohesive story of
the last year and then also have a sonic kind
of cohesion too. But and and Dan in particular, you know,
you're you're talking about your journal entries. You've been very
open about the challenges that you experienced during the last
(11:44):
tour depression. Um, you know, real, real emotional difficulties. And
I'm wondering how how that has played into evolve, How
how has that experience it's informed what you did on
this record. You know, I uh, I dealt with depression.
(12:06):
I was younger, but it really came to a serious
head where I finally had to go see a professional
and sit down with a therapist and go through things
that I didn't want to go through that I've been
putting off for a long time in my life. And
that kind of came to a head really during smoking. Mirrors,
I mean night vision started, but smoking just the whole
I don't know if it was Anybody who deals with
depression knows that you have triggers. Certain things can trigger it,
(12:27):
and then you can go into a state of depression.
It could be a long period, It could be a
short period. It could be a year of your life,
it could be six months. It could be an ongoing
process for five years. For me, I would go in
these cycles. Sometimes it'll be a month, sometimes it'd be
six months, sometimes of a year for Smoking Mirrors. It
really was the whole process. I was pretty miserable person,
and and even creating the record. So it's really a
(12:48):
dark record, every single song, even the song as it
sounded light like imagine Dragon's can it Sometimes if you
dive into the lyrics, it really I was really in
a really dark place. But for me it was, you know,
as part of my journey. And I'm and I'm proud
of the record and I listened back to It's hard
for me to listen to some parts of it because
I know where I was and where I am now,
which is I'm in a great place. But you know,
(13:08):
I took time off the road and I met with
a therapist for a long time and really dove through
things that I didn't want to and then I now
I talk about it, and for me, it's actually really
I enjoy talking about it because I know there's this
stigma in the world of a therapist and oh, you
know you're depressed, and some people hold those things back
because we live in this world of Instagram where everybody
(13:30):
wants to show their beautiful moments, and that's fine and
cool whatever, but I think it's so important to also
talk about a hard moments and what we struggle with
and to make it more normalized because a lot of
people deal with depression and hide it, and so for
me to talk about it, it's been freeing. And I've
had so many people who have reached out and said,
you know what, thank you for talking about it, because
this needs to stop being stigmatized. Like depression is such
(13:52):
an awful word. I wish there was another word for it,
like uniquely emotional. Yeah, we can all sign up to that. Yeah,
And and and I know that, Um, you know, in
the course of of being more public about that, you've
gotten feedback from audiences and fans, And it tell us
(14:15):
a little bit about the kind of feedback you You've
received as a result of being more public about your struggle. Oh,
it's been beautiful. We have the most I I can't
even begin to tell you how many incredible stories I've
read from fans, whether it's letters or in person, from
people who have expressed there are sensitive, emotional, vulnerable parts
(14:38):
to us, and to me, I hold that is sacred
and It's one of the reasons that our concerts are emotional,
wonderful experiences because I look out and I feel like
I know these people on some level because of their
words and because of something that we share. And so
I love what Imagined Dragon stands for because I think
it stands for emotion and maybe some to some people
(14:58):
who seems like it's over the top for two angsty,
and that's okay, and I understand that. But for me,
it's real and that's who I am, and that's who
I've always been. And I think our fans get that,
you know. And and thinking about the Smoke and Mirror Store,
and I pulled some statistics here, and you guys got
to check me on this. So the Smoking Busted the
Smoke and Mirror Store a hundred and ten dates, forty
(15:21):
two countries, five continents. Is that relatively accurate? It sounds low.
That sounds low, It feels feels low. We were very
upset one time. There was a list that went out
and it was like the top touring acts in the world,
and we got number two, and we were so pissed.
I mean, but as you look as you look back
at that, is that a good idea. No, Dave Girl,
(15:47):
this is a true story. Dave grol Um. We're playing
a festival during the Smoking Mirrors, like the end of
the tour, and he came up to us and he said,
I have been looking at you guys. Tour dates over
the last few years have been kind of watch what
you've done. Stop, he said, I have never with any
of my bands towards to that extent. You're gonna kill yourselves.
(16:09):
You need to stop, you know. Chris Martin said the
same thing to us about like our pace of recording
and releasing stuff. It's like just take a break. Yeah,
and and and then they're talking about who are those guys?
I don't remember. Did Chris Martin really say that? Yeah,
when we met him, you know at that the Austin
Uh oh yeah, he was like a word of advice.
He said, take time off after this record. And then
(16:30):
we're like, okay, in the studio, bank a record, let's
let's do it again. But you know, before we get
to the part where you guys do decide to you know,
kind of step away for a minute. Um, how has
the band and it sound in terms of doing all
those shows and and you know, becoming this unit on stage.
(16:52):
Tell me about how the band has changed over time. Well, Uh,
I think it's probably different for all of us. Um,
for me, I think I'm a little more comfortable. I
think there was some serious growing pains from me as
as I was. I was just a kid that wore
pajamas to school. And uh, even in the band you
(17:16):
can attest literally he was in pajamas. I don't know,
I was. You know, I was just a normal kid
that loved music and I love to play for people
and that's all I wanted to do. And uh, this
band has been, you know, obviously amazing, and uh, the
success we've had has been unbelievable. And so I think
just a normal kid from from American Fork, Utah to
(17:39):
be kind of thrust from the spotlight like that and
be out of his element and for things to change
as much as they did, it was weird for me.
It was hard. It was you know, people like people
like that you knew for years was sort of treat
you different, differently and you don't you don't know why,
or like you wish they wouldn't have, you know, And
uh that's just one example. But you know, the smallest
(17:59):
violin is playing for me right now? Yeah, I know, right, um,
But nevertheless that it is what it is, and uh,
you don't know until you do it. It is all
I would say to defend myself. And and you did
make a decision, you know, after after that long dred
and ten shows, however many countries and continents to to
(18:21):
step away. It's like, you know what, we need to break,
take a break hard to do that. I think it
was necessary to do that. I think we were at
a point where we realized that we were approaching the
point where we weren't appreciating some of the blessings that
we were getting in our lives from the opportunities the
(18:42):
music was giving us. And I think when we stepped back,
although we didn't, you know, completely stop making music because
music is a part of all of our lives every day,
it gave us the ability to get to a place
where I think we got back to that mindset where
we realized that we really needed music. You know, you
step away from a little bit and you fall in love.
(19:02):
You fall back in love with a part of you
that really compelled you to get into music and explore
music when you're a kid and you could fall in
love with that process, the process of writing and performing
music all over again. And I think that spending that
time apart gave us the ability to rekindle that fire
when we came back together and approach it from a
more optimistic and maybe a truer place. And you you
(19:26):
released a track early on in February. I think around
the Super Bowl, Believer, and you know, I'm wondering, you
know what part of you guys became Believers? You know,
in the process, did that bring you back around to
a certain degree? I mean, I think, Um, I think
(19:48):
Believer is a very vulnerable song in a lot of
ways for me as a lyricist, and I think it's
one of the first songs that we've written as a
band that we all collectively felt this is imagine dragons,
this is what personifies us in a lot a lot
of ways. It's angsty um, but there's a tinge of
redemption to it. And yeah, I think that it came
(20:09):
out and you never know what to expect when a
song is going to come out. Your fans could hate it,
the world could hate it. But at the end of
the day, you know, the four of us loved it,
and we played it and we felt something, you know,
and as long as you can get behind it, then
it all works out, okay, because then if the world
hates it, you at least can the four of you
can say, okay, we loved it. Though. I think the
(20:29):
problem is when artists put out a song because they're
trying to make other people love it or something, and
then if the world hates it, then you hated it
and the world hated and you're like great, you know,
not a good combination. Tell me a little bit about
you know, Danny Wayne in particular in terms of the songwriting.
What is it about you guys that that sort of works?
Why do you compliment each other so well? Um? I
(20:53):
think everyone's bands has a very clear idea of what
the final product needs to be, and it doesn't really
matter how we get there, because I don't think there's
ever been any song that's been written that was the
same as the one before. We don't there's not like
some process, some formula where you know, we do some
ritual and then we write a song and then we
go home have dinner, you know, and it's never been
(21:15):
like that, you know, so much stuff happened to me
sending a guitar, really simple guitar part to Dan and
he works with it or the whole track, or maybe
it's something he just came up with on his own.
We at our instrumentation is necessary. So if it was
the same every time, that would that would that would
spell doom, I think for us, because then then would
literally become a formula and our music could be formulaic.
(21:36):
And amen to that band. And and I know that. Um,
you know we've been talking about, you know, kind of
the different approach to this record, and and now as
you get ready to go on tour, I'm wondering if
the approach to playing the songs live changes. Doesn't absolutely Um,
(21:58):
we we definitely have a clear idea of what we
want the songs to sound like live. But um, there's
something magical that happens with any piece of music when
a group plays it, you know, fifty plus times, Uh,
it starts to change. Happy accidents happen on stage, something happens. Uh,
Wayne will play some tasty lick that everyone will be like,
you have to do that every time. I mean, if
(22:18):
you listen to the way a song sounds at the
beginning of a tour, in the end of a tour.
I think for any band it's going to sound different,
but we we especially love that part of the process.
I think playing bringing the music to life live is
all of our favorite parts of this. And if it wasn't,
there's no reason we would though that's terrible. And you
played every time, and I know you, I know all
(22:39):
of you know what. Look I'm talking about right now. No,
I know, I have no idea. I don't don't sing it.
That's copyrighted. There's this lick. I'm gonna tell you a secret,
a dirty secret. Wayne. One day was like, I have this.
I have this. If I were like a McDonald's jingle writer,
I know this perfect jingle for McDonald and it goes
dip it in my dip. So here's the deal, and
(23:03):
you play it every time on Radioactive Act every time
you guys do it. Imagine you have a mean Donald's
chicken nugget meal, right, and instead of just having your
chick and you choose with sauce. Right, Oh, I want barbecue.
I want ranch. No, okay, so chicken nuggets in the
middle around it is honey mustard ranch barbecue like flavor mode.
(23:24):
I don't think that the jingle writers get to decide
the whole marketing process for McDonald's. And so anyway, I
saw this guy, you know, he's show him dip it
him I dipping sauce and you have all eachment kinds
of dips to do. I mean, how does that they
play it every time? Right? No, No, is there anyone
for McDonald's here. No, do not clap for this, you know,
(23:46):
justin Termber, like it's got so much money for that,
I tell you no. Let me just say, I can't
tell you how many times that song is a heavy
song for me emotionally. It's a heavy song. It's a
song about depression. It's like it's heavy song. I can't
tell you how many times I've gone on stage and
I'm in the moment and I'm like in this song
and it's like there's this one part of the song
(24:06):
every time where it's like the end of the song
is like going into the climax, and all three of
them do this. It's like done, a man happened in
my mind. The radioactive lyrics are all about chicken nuggets.
Now I want some chicken, that crispy chick. The worst part,
the worst part is now that I told you this,
(24:27):
they will do it for they do as a posted before,
where we were just going to play it every sing
every time that we could possibly to keep that song,
you know, happening for us. You know it's a great
you know, we love it, but it's we gotta keep
it like that doesn't keep it happening for and He's
and gentlemen, jingle writers in here, the imagine Dragons ad agency.
(24:47):
You know, you can hire a problem think about it,
but it does. It does bring to mind, whether whether
it whether it's songs from Evolved or Smoking mirror Is
or night Vision, you know whatever. Over time, the songs
reveal different things about them, about themselves, and you know,
(25:10):
and I'm wondering kind of what you've learned about songwriting
and performing, you know what the songs, how they change
and how they reveal different things about themselves. Yeah, I
think if I had to choose a representation for each
song we ever wrote, I'd probably most of them probably
(25:30):
be live because I feel like that's, um, that's what
we are. We we're live, man. That's how we started
doing the crummy casinos and they're not so crummy casinos,
but pretty much anything we could do, you know we'd
be playing live. We have a lot of hours locked
on stage. You know, love hate us. That's one thing
you can't take away from us, is those those hours
we put in. And so we're proud of those hours,
(25:51):
and we think it shows the live show. Um, and
so yeah, I feel like the live shows at this
kind of the final evolution, if you will, of the
of songs and and you know, let it be said that, Um,
you guys did not spring to the top of the
billboard chart, you know, for lack of a better term, overnight.
I mean, there were years of playing on the strip
(26:15):
in Las Vegas. God knows how many sets a night. Um,
you know, how do you think that experience benefited you?
I think that every band needs to go through that,
because I in our time period that we've been a band,
we've seen other bands that I'm not gonna blast, but
we've seen bands that came up at the same time
of us as us that are now like not on
(26:36):
the scene anymore. And some of the reasons that I
attribute that is because if you get success and you
get it overnight, you you genuinely get it overnight, it'll
ruin you. It absolutely ruins you. Because things happen. Um,
egos happen. Uh. You you think that you're entitled to
where you were because you're doing something incredible, and you're
(26:57):
entitled to now have a tour bus. And for us,
you know, in a lot of ways, when we did
break we did break fast, But before that happened, we
had four years of broke, living together in a house,
getting each other out of jail, um getting robbed together,
being you know, just at a really low point in
(27:21):
grinding the road. And I don't know if that happens
that much anymore with bands. Maybe it does, but the
bands that that doesn't happen to, I can tell you
I've watched them break up because there's egos and they
fight and then it's over, and it's sad because a
lot of them were great acts and and and I
know when you guys finally got together, and and I
found this fascinating when I was reading about it. You
(27:41):
were very serious about this. This This was not YEA,
let's get a band together because we can go score
some you know, free beer at a KEG party somewhere.
Tell me a little bit about kind of the early
discussions when you first got together. I mean, the first
time we really got together to rehearse, and last Vegas,
we had already agreed to a six day a week,
(28:03):
eight hour a day rehearsal regiment. And you know, then
after that first week we managed to get gigs. We learned,
you know, fifty cover songs or so uh, and added
to that, and we would go and take the cover
gigs on the strip in order to support ourselves and
then spend eight hours a day playing those songs and
(28:24):
also writing songs, writing our own original music to play
on the weekends. So I mean we were really devoting
more time than you would devote to a conventional full
time job to our music. Um. We were never treating
it casually. It was very deliberately something we wanted to
do as a career, something we had devoted our lives
up to that point to studying. And UM yeah, I
(28:47):
think that approaching it from that really technical and very
deliberate standpoint did so much for us to to learn
where we were all coming from musically. Actually learning those
fifty covers, we all went out and we each picked
ten cover songs that we love from popular music for
the last forty years. We all had different backgrounds, so
getting to learn, you know, the history of our own
(29:09):
experiences through music, and getting to learn the way popular
music has been written over the last fifty years was
absolutely invaluable for us in every everywhere. I'd be interested
to know. Tell me each of you tell me one
cover song that you guys wanted to play. I remember
I brought a Santa Ria by Sublime was one of
(29:30):
the songs I've brought. Awesome, Awesome Wayne. Maybe if I'm wrong,
if someone else suggested, I think cars was me. I
think it was just where I needed. Um. Awesome song,
awesome band. The guitar player for that band is incredible,
Ellia Easton. I made them play Third Eyed Blinds, Semi
(29:50):
Trump kind of life with Me Dan. That was such
a hard lyrical one to memorize dirty, Uh, I'm like
picking back on that. That's still to this day. I
don't know if I know all the words. Nobody does
like you. You give me as you give them stage
she needs then a motive age, energy going down. I mean, hey, man,
(30:12):
you want to do coming over you and do you
like going to the freak show? Taking stage? Give anyway?
So thank you? Yeah? That was really good. Yeah, and
actually one of our one of our first festivals, I
got invited on stage to sing that to sing um
(30:34):
motorcycle Jumper, No No, No Jumper with Stephen Jenkins of
the Third Eyeline, which was amazing. But anyway screen in Milwaukee, Yeah,
oh yeah, that's what it was. I would say sound
no satisfaction by the Rolling Stones. I love Mike shag
I think he'll do that'll do? Was there was there?
Just just just going back and you know, in terms
of your your very earliest years and the kinds of
(30:56):
things that you were hearing growing up, was there an
artist or who was that artist or band that kind
of perked up your ears and made you, guys say, yep,
that's what I want to do. I don't like this question.
Nothing is you. But it's because my it's because my
answer is so cliche and boring. It's the Beatles, and
it's and it's a good one and we've heard it before.
(31:18):
But I can't lie and say, you know, it's it
is my core of who I am. That was That
is what music is. I mean it's hard to be
it's hard to beat the Beatles. And I would be
the first to tell you that, Um, you know what
we could schedule a program here at the Grammy Museum
with me and any member of this audience talking about
(31:40):
any Beatles record, and people would come to hear about it,
because that's how much impact that band had. I mean,
there was never a point in time where I didn't
know what a Beatles song was. I don't remember not
knowing what the Beatles. That's what my My dad was
obsessed every single record on vinyl. That's all that was
my life. So, um, thank you for that. I guess
what what about what about you guys? What? What? What
(32:02):
artist was it? I'd say Harry Nelson for me was
the one that uh, and so I'm pretty much as
generic because Mary Nelson the Beatles are like. But but
I have to ask you, because I've read that about
you in terms of in terms of Nilson, what is it?
What is it about Nielsen that that attracted He did
whatever the hell he wanted to do. He didn't care
what anybody thought. He sang Lime in the Coconut, but
then he's sang everybody's talking, and then he he had him.
(32:25):
He's saying the saddest emotional songs. His heart was in
every song. He's saying his vocal. He could do so
many things with his vocals and um, and he just
I love Harry and he never got his do ever,
he never got his do. The Beatles even said this
is our favorite artists, and people like cool, yeah, Beatles whatever.
But to me, Harry was just a great documentary films man.
(32:48):
I cry every time I watched that, and and and
the point he did this incredible animation video at the
point with Ringo. He's just I love Harry. Yeah, what
about you guys? You know, if I'm really being honest
about the first time when I was a young, young child,
and that's something musically really connected with me. Britney spears
(33:10):
Kenny G. As as a little seven year old kid,
I just loved those melodies. I would put on Kenny
G music and this this album I got it was
electronic orchestral strings that I heard at a whale show
that I watched at the Mystic Seaport Aquarium in Connecticut's
(33:32):
two thousand. He's one of the kind guy that mean
that may be the first KENNYG reference. Um, you know
here on the stage of the ground, play play Kenny G.
For some kids, They're gonna light up and just get
to it. It's like there's something universally relatable to the
quality of those melodies. Fantastic, can't deny. My older brother
gave me a gentle giant c D one year and
(33:54):
that changed everything for me and I fell in love
with prog rock. Go Go King Crimson, So you know,
and you know, in the course of you know, releasing
night Visions and smoking mirrors, and the band gets bigger,
and you guys are starting to go out and play
bigger halls and and all of a sudden it's stadiums.
Tell me a little bit about how you kind of
(34:15):
had to change your mindset to stay connected to your
audience as you're playing these giant arenas. Yeah, I think
um as an artist, I always when I perform. I'm honestly,
I'm quite an introverted person, but when I get on stage,
it's my moment of just freedom. And I always try
to look out and my immediate surroundings and see the
(34:37):
people around me and and really see them. You know,
there is one thing to look at a person, but
it's another thing to look at them and connect with them.
And for me, even if it goes back, you know,
however far it goes back or however close it is
that I always have that and I really feel there's
this magic kinetic energy in the concert. If you all
(34:58):
really connect, it just feeds back and it just goes back.
So long story short, whatever whatever room it is, it's
always the same for me. Yeah, Um, you you had
UM and I remember this remarkable experience on the two
thousand fourteen Grammy Award telecasts where you did a performance
(35:20):
with Kendrick Lamar and and you know, I'm wondering, first
of all, what what the initial rehearsals were like, how
did you know? How did you guys connect? What did
you find? Where were the intersection for you? And there
were there? It was way deeper than we thought that
it would be. Because how it how it went down
(35:41):
is um. Grammy's reached out to us, they said, we
want you to perform, and Kendrick mars performing. We asked
him if you would like to do a collaboration with someone,
and he said that he wanted to collaborate with you. Guys,
would you want to collaborate with Kendrick? I said, well,
of course, we love Kendrick and so that from the
start we knew that we had a mutual respect for
each other, and so when we got in the room,
we already had that to build upon, so there wasn't
(36:03):
some weird awkward thing of I know that I've heard
people say the Grammy's like, you know, put these artists together,
and maybe sometimes they do, maybe time sometimes they don't.
But I can tell you in our case, that's how
it went down. We chose each other to perform with,
and I think that's why it was a magical performance.
First we got in the same room, we geeked down
on each other's music, and then we said, let's jam together.
And we we sat down and we said, how do
(36:24):
we want it to look aesthetically? And we talked about
different things, and then I remember us all saying, well,
we should be all white. Everything should be all white,
and then we should just mess it up. It should
just get destroyed. Um, because the energy. We talked about
the energy and what each song meant, his song and
our song, and the explosiveness of it. But it's starting
it restrained, and then it havn't just bubbling and getting
larger until it couldn't be contained and then exploding and
(36:46):
becoming just this red dye and and um, yeah, I
get excited even talking about it because that there was
so much energy in that room. And then it came
through on stage and it was a really emotional, magical moment.
And I remember looking at Kendrick when it was done
and both of us just saying to each other, this
is the beginning of something great for both of us.
And and and it did that, it really opened up
(37:08):
disguise for both of us, and clearly it was I mean,
that was, you know, a remarkable moment. But one of
the things and Dan, you and I talked about this briefly. Um,
none of you have shied away from taking a stand
about social issues that that you think are important. And
recently just the other day, Uh, you guys participated in
(37:30):
something called Loved Loud. Um this remarkable, remarkable concert. And
and Dan tell us tell us a little bit about
the intention of the show and how it turned out.
I was raised Mormon and a very conservative Mormon family
in Las Vegas. I still am Mormon, uh, and I'm
(37:50):
a unique Mormon, is how I say it. Um, I
have kind of my own spiritual identity and belief system.
But UM, I learned I saw from a very young
age a few of my friends who were gay and
they were Mormon, and the path for them was so
incredibly hard and devastating. You're set up for disaster when
your parents tell you that, or your church tells you
(38:11):
that your most innate sense of being is broken or
flawed or sinful. It sets a child up for a
devastating life because then your choices to be lonely your
entire life. What's all that to anybody? And see what
kind of life it creates for them. So I saw
this from a young age, and I was conflicted because
my faith taught me that, you know, you were marriage
(38:34):
was between a man and a woman. As I grew up, Um,
it didn't. It didn't affect me enough that it was like,
you know, I was as activist when I was a
young kid, but I was very conflicted about my faith.
And I was conflicted by my faith in a lot
of other ways too. I was always like the black
sheep of my family. All my brothers, eight boys won't
grow in my family, all served missions, all lawyers, doctors,
and here I was wanted to be a musician and
(38:55):
very conflicted by my faith and singing about it, but
very metaphorically. So none of my family would know that
I was dealing with us. And so then flash forward,
I got married to beautiful woman from Eugene, Oregon, who
grew up with no religion at all, astrology. When I
first met her parents, they were like, sit down, we're
doing your tarot cards like that. And I'm just saying,
(39:15):
but I thought these are like Satan's cards. I was
pretty sure, like you know, but it was amazing and
I loved it, and we fell so deeply in love
and we just were like, you know what, you take
these things from your life, I'm gonna take these from
mine and let's go start our own life. And at
the time, she was living with her two best friends
who were gay, and they were all the activists they
were they were. They were, you know, marching at pride
(39:36):
parades and stuff. And because I was Mormon, they were
deeply hurt when we fell in love and they never
wanted to meet me um just because of what Mormonism represented.
This was during prop eights. It was very heated at
the time, and everybody was looking at Mormons is just
basically the enemy of the LGBTQ community. So neither of
them came to our wedding, which was devastating to my wife,
who was there two best friends. But I understand now
(39:58):
at the time I didn't. At the time, I was
upset and I was like, why aren't your two best
friends coming to our weddy. Even I I support them,
but it was marrying into Mormonism for them, and it
broke their hearts. And so I get it now, But
so I kept seeing this divide between the LGBTQ community
and Mormonism or religion, and I just I'm tired of it.
I'm so just burnt out on it, and and so
(40:18):
many of my friends. Now I've lost a suicide throughout
the last few years. UM Utah, the number one reason
for death among teenagers is suicide. Sorry I'm talking so long,
but I say that the number one reason for death
among teenagers in Utah is suicide. Um According to the
Family Acceptance Project, if an lgbt Q child isn't accepted
(40:39):
in their home or community, they're eight times more likely
to commit suicide, three times more likely for risky drug use.
The statistics are devastating, and nothing is being done. It's
just a blind eye is being turned to this. And
so you know, I just I've talked with my wife
about a lot and we and we decided, let's do something.
So we created a festival called Love Loud. Just three
(41:00):
months ago. We said we're gonna throw a festival. We're
gonna end and um, and it's going to be about
bringing everyone together. It's inclusive. We have to have the
Mormons there, we have to have religious people there. We
need the far left, we need the far right, we
need all different faiths, non face, everybody to come out
and say we can drop all everything at the door.
We can all agree this needs to change. We need
to love our youth. What does it mean to truly
(41:21):
love and accept the LGBTQ youth. So that was the
mission and we announced it and it was very scary
because we decided to do it right in next to
b y U in Utah, which is the heartland of Mormonism.
It's not a place for a gay pride, a gay
like festival. So it was it was definitely shocking and
there were a lot of people that were upset. And
then I did this interview with Billboard and the title
(41:42):
was like bigotry and Mormonisms and Mormons were like, I'm
not going to his bride, forget this. You know. But
then UM, the church endorsed. The LDS Church came out
and endorsed, which was a historical moment in a huge way. Fantastic, UM.
And the festival sold out twenty plus people and all
(42:04):
coming out Mormons with their families, and we had transgender
youth come on stage and tell about how hard their
story was, people from every different community in the LGBTQ
community saying did different things and and spoke about how
we as a community could be better. And it was beautiful.
It was so incredible. UM. And you know, my family
came out. We're a very conservative Mormon. It was amazing.
(42:26):
And it speaks to the people in Utah who have
been waiting to say, hey, hear us and and know
that we actually we have our faith, we have these things,
but something needs to be done and so we're gonna
walk into a place that might be out of our
comfort zone. And they came and it was beautiful, and
we're gonna do it every single year. Good for you.
Good for you. That's fantastic. So alright, So so last question,
(42:51):
and and I I read about this, and I have
no idea if this track actually ended up on Evolve,
but I read something, don't ad so can we say scared? Whatever?
Go ahead. I believe you're going to ask us about
a traybe he won't. Maybe he won't those, so don't
say it. Maybe it's something else. It had something to
do with a specific percussive sound. Let's just say that
(43:13):
track is still in the can. Oh, fair enough, nobody
knows that we're talking about. We will. We will leave
it at that. So here's what we're here. You know,
oh you know, I'm just keep it to yourselves. Don't
tell anybody the word. Some of these people know. But
I found that. I found that hysterically funny. Nonetheless, it
(43:34):
had great tone, sounded great. I have no doubt. I
have no doubt, and we'll wait for when when it comes,
it sounds like it's a fart or something. Now I
need to clear it up. Let me just say we
there was We were looking for a slap noise on
one of our songs. It didn't make the record. We
slapped Ben's ask and we recorded it and it sounded.
It did actually sound. Honestly, the acoustical value of it
dead serious was incredible. You did you ever in like
(43:59):
and elementary school? You know, in elementary school. That one
thing where you like open it up and then you're
like wrap. You know, I'm talking what is that called?
It's like the crap, it's like two boards, it's like
a clop machine whatever. Yeah, it sounded like that but better,
and we wanted that, but we didn't have that in
the studio and they were like, let's just like slap
Ben's ass and then and then we did it and
we were like, that sounds really good. That's good. But
(44:21):
we didn't want to tell people that because now every
time you hear it, any time you here like that,
you'll be like, you'll see him nake it into this.
And we didn't put it on the record door all right,
so we'll leave the visual images out. But um, guys,
we couldn't feel like I'm being body shamed. Never not
not here at the Grandy Museum. Um, we could not
(44:41):
be more pleased that you guys took the time to
come by and and chat. This has been fantastic. I
know you're about to leave and and go on tour
and we wish you all the best. So ladies and gentlemen,
give it up for Imagine day. Thank you. That was
(45:01):
my conversation with Imagine Dragons in the Clive Davis Theater
at the Grammy Museum in downtown Los Angeles. I love
Dan's description of their music as emotion. That's such a
great way to describe what the band does. And what
marked this for me is the band's willingness to take
a different path on the new album. That's a brave
thing to do and they embraced it. So that's your
(45:27):
required listening for today. Will be here twice a week
every week. Find us wherever fine podcasts are heard. Also,
if you plan to be in Los Angeles, I hope
you'll come visit us at the Grammy Museum. You can
go to our website at Grammy Museum dot org for
all the information on our activities, are exhibits, and our programs. Now,
I'd love to keep the conversation going, so feel free
(45:49):
to hit us up on all the social platforms at
Grammy Museum. Finally, thanks to the team that makes required
listening happen. Jason James, Justin, Joseph Lynn Sheridan, Jim Knock,
Atrick Kern's, Miranda Moore, Jason Hope, Nick Stump, and the
entire team at how Stuff Works. Thanks for listening until
next time. I'm Scott Goldman,
Welcome to required Listener. I'm your host, Scott Goldman, Executive
director of the Grammy Museum. Every week, we talked to artists,
songwriters and producers at every level, from emerging to legendary,
across every gen in front of a live audience in
the Clive Davis Theater at the Grammy Museum. The discussions
are intimate, personal, and completely unscripted. These conversations never failed
(00:23):
to surprise me, and I think you'll feel the same way.
For our inaugural episode, I want you to hear a
discussion I had recently with the band Imagined Dragons, just
after they had released their most recent album, Evolved. The band,
songwriter and vocalist Dan Reynolds, guitarist Wayne Sermon, bass player
(00:43):
Ben McKee, and drummer Daniel Plattsman formed in Utah and
ultimately moved to Dan reynolds hometown of Las Vegas. They
broke through in two thousand twelve with their debut album
Night Visions. Their album hit number two on the Billboard chart,
and the Grammy winning single Radioactive became a worldwide smash.
They toured relentlessly, as most young bands do, and they
(01:05):
built a passionate fan base for this emotional combination of
introspection married to this very hook filled layered sound. I'm
always interested in the conversations that artists have between themselves.
How do they interact? Do they offer advice creative or practical?
The answers are sometimes consistent and sometimes surprising. And I
(01:28):
think you'll find with Imagined Dragons all of that and more.
And all I can say is beware of the Kenny
g shout out. So let's go to the Clyde Davis
Theater and listen to my talk with Imagined Dragons. Give
it up for Imagine Dragons. I have seen you guys. Hello, Hello,
(01:56):
thank you for being here where it's so pleased? I
know these folks are please so um you know the
title of the new record, at least for you know,
for those inquiring minds. Evolve. Perhaps that's a hint as
to where the band has been, where it's going? How
has the band evolved since? Since since two tho since
(02:19):
two thousand? Yeah? Would we would we recognize ourselves from
two thousand twelves? Would you? Guys? I don't know. Would
My hair was shorter? I think so was mine? Okay,
I just started growing it out. Um, what else, Yeah,
tell me more about your hair. We uh, we've all
changed our hair styles. Good good, good to know. Musically,
(02:45):
how have things evolved? Oh, I'd say this record, we
really try to take a different approach. We tried to
be more minimalistic and selective. Um. A lot of times
we've self produced the majority of our music, which as
a musician some times can be great and sometimes can
be to your detriment. Uh, And I think we we
witnessed a little bit of both of those things the
(03:05):
music that we created. You know you you can easily
say we need more, more and more and more violence,
more string sections, more counter melodies. And so we brought
in producers on this record to say no, you know
this is good, or slap your hand and say no,
you don't need cello on this song. So that more
cowbell cut thee. We never did cow bow. We didn't
(03:27):
go that low. But actually we did. We put cow boo.
There's a good amount of cowbell on this record. We did.
There's one song on the rocket already. Already we're having
an argument. You know why we put cow You know
why there's cow bell? Our manager it is actually it's
the one artistic decision yeah, on the record that we
had two mixes, this is the true story of this song,
whatever it takes. And one of them had no cow
(03:50):
bell on the chorus and one had cow bell and
he he would not give it up. He was like,
you know, yeah, more cowbell only part he you know
your stage. Years years ago, years ago, Neil Young on
his ranch used to record in this barn and he
(04:11):
had all this set up in this amps and speakers
or whatever, and he would record and then he would
go out in the lake literally on a boat, and
he would listen back and he would say, and he
would say, if he didn't like it, he's here more barns,
more barnes. You know this big massive speakers and you
sit at an exact spot in the lake. You get
(04:33):
the perfect stereo image. Right. Neil Young is a genius
and he's he's a madman too. Yes, yeah, Well, and
we're gonna we're gonna get to that because because I
want to talk to you about artists that that that
you've kind of idolized over the years. But in terms
of evolve um, I've heard, you know, words like minimalist,
more colorful, um um and and the fact that you
(04:56):
guys worked with producers. Um, you were. It's almost like
you were willing to be kind of reined in. You
you were willing to say, you know what, we've done
the thing with you know, fifty tracks of you know,
horns and harmonicas and whatever it is. You know, we
needed to fill out the sound. Now we're going to
(05:16):
kind of get back to who we are. Is that
how you felt? It was kind of like as producers
we decided we wanted to be produced. You got, you
fired your In fact, you fired yourself. We didn't fire ourselves.
We were still very much hands onto the process, but
we sort of recognized that. Um, you know, when we're producing,
we try to say yes to everything. We really try
(05:38):
to get into the studio and if there's an idea
that guns turn out, we try it and we record
it before we throw it away. And oftentimes, you know,
it's just it's hard to stay focused. So many different
ideas come from so many different angles, especially with us,
from all the different backgrounds that we have musically. Um,
having somebody from the outside that's sort of as a
(06:00):
vision a direction for the song to go and can
kind of tell you what's fitting and what isn't, And
when to step away when you have enough, when you're
no longer adding more to the song by adding more parts,
when you're you know, more is becoming less. You know
you have somebody to help you find that. And I'm
wondering if if in that process you found the recording,
(06:21):
you know, the whole process of recording more concise, that
you could do it without necessarily laboring. Yeah, you know,
I think that's actually really interesting, because if I are
to be honest with you, I typically hate the studio process.
Throughout these years, UM, most of our songs would start
with either one of the guys sending me something that
(06:42):
they had recorded on their own, and then I'd plug
it in at home and i'd kind of work on
it and sing melodies and lyrics. Or I would start
it at home and sing melody and lyric and it'd
be a skeletal thing, and it'd be this beautiful just
moment of just creation, a spark, and it'd be dirty,
but I love like I would get very attached to it,
and I enjoyed that process, And then going into the
studio felt like this laborious task of you know, having
(07:05):
to amplify everything and create it live and sometimes I
really hated it. But on this record, it actually was
a very enjoyable process because we learned that sometimes those
those ways that you recorded things on the demo were correct,
and we used them, whether it was me singing into
my laptop and we said it sounds good, keep it UM,
or just not not spending, you know, ten days trying
(07:29):
all different sorts of things on a song. You have
someone to reel it in and say no, you know,
because I would imagine with anything that UM requires attention
and focus. If you do it too long, you start
to hate it. And you know, I have to believe
if you're if you're more concise about it, if you're
more focused on it, and you're kind of more quick
(07:50):
about it, you get a better result. And I've noticed
it's sort of a common theme that I've sort of learned,
and I finally getting it because I'm a little slow.
But UM limitations are actually really good. Boundaries are amazing
without any boundaries, Like I don't know, like the Beatles
recorded most of their stuff on a two track or
(08:12):
a four track to two tracks taped together basically, and
the things they were able to do with that are
amazing because they had it wouldn't have been as good
in my opinion, if they had a thousand tracks. I
don't know. I don't want to bore people, but these
days you basically have an unlimited amount of layers you
can put on a song. But back in the day
that was not true. You can record one thing and
(08:34):
then another thing. They have to bounce that to something
and then you can record something else, bounce that to
record something else. So it was very limiting. But like
in that limitation, there was freedom and there was creativity,
and so we finally had to learn, like, okay, just
because we can do two or fifty six tracks of cowbell,
we didn't do that. We didn't do that. We didn't
(08:54):
do that. But they're all layered, just on the quarter notes,
just that tone. And especially I want to I want
to shout out to Matt Man Robin, especially because there
are two producers that were probably the most Swedish producers.
They're incredible and they were they were very much laser
focused in their eyes. They wouldn't even they had actually
never said no. They would just look at you in
(09:15):
silence like we're like, hey, at that point, you knew, yeah,
I can't tell you how many times would be like,
we have this great idea, like this keyboard countermelody like
and they were just looking and be like, you know,
it's really bad when they wouldn't make eye contact. And
that was most of the time. That's so, but that's
actually perfect for us because that's how we work and
that's how we like to be because I would just
(09:36):
play a guitar for an hour and then they'd be like, Okay,
that's cool. Yeah. The other word that I read that
you guys have used about this record is cohesion. That
there is a more cohesive sound. Is that a result
of all of this being more focused not necessarily putting
every single sound that you possibly could on a track. Yeah,
(09:56):
I think that definitely has something to do with it.
It's uh, you know, we used the word clean a lot,
like a clean aesthetic, but um yeah, when you use
you know, not ten different snare tracks and just a
couple and you really are pickier with the audio that
you're using, I think you end up with a more
cohesive sound. That's what we found. When you guys are
are writing, um are you are you demoing stuff and
(10:19):
bringing it in? Is it something that you do collectively
in the studio. What's the process? Like, it's all It
starts as a journal entry for me, Like we all
kind of contribute to me basically lamenting about my my
inngsty fourteen year old self that I've been stuck in forever.
(10:40):
And um, so we end up right like, I know
this sounds so strange, and we tell this to people
and they don't believe it, but this is the honest truth.
For each record, we've written over a hundred and fifties
songs and for each for each record, so we have
how many songs do you think we've written six early days,
(11:01):
I'd say we could be a lot, a lot, It's
really a lot. Now how many of the now, how
many of those songs are complete, good ideas? Very few?
Most of them are terrible. But that process is I
would wake up every day and part of my process
was to create. So the guys would send me something
or I would create something, and then I would sing
(11:23):
and the lyrics were my journal entry for the day.
And so at the end of the year, we compile
all of that and we look through them and we
choose the ones that tell the most cohesive story of
the last year and then also have a sonic kind
of cohesion too. But and and Dan in particular, you know,
you're you're talking about your journal entries. You've been very
open about the challenges that you experienced during the last
(11:44):
tour depression. Um, you know, real, real emotional difficulties. And
I'm wondering how how that has played into evolve, How
how has that experience it's informed what you did on
this record. You know, I uh, I dealt with depression.
(12:06):
I was younger, but it really came to a serious
head where I finally had to go see a professional
and sit down with a therapist and go through things
that I didn't want to go through that I've been
putting off for a long time in my life. And
that kind of came to a head really during smoking. Mirrors,
I mean night vision started, but smoking just the whole
I don't know if it was Anybody who deals with
depression knows that you have triggers. Certain things can trigger it,
(12:27):
and then you can go into a state of depression.
It could be a long period, It could be a
short period. It could be a year of your life,
it could be six months. It could be an ongoing
process for five years. For me, I would go in
these cycles. Sometimes it'll be a month, sometimes it'd be
six months, sometimes of a year for Smoking Mirrors. It
really was the whole process. I was pretty miserable person,
and and even creating the record. So it's really a
(12:48):
dark record, every single song, even the song as it
sounded light like imagine Dragon's can it Sometimes if you
dive into the lyrics, it really I was really in
a really dark place. But for me it was, you know,
as part of my journey. And I'm and I'm proud
of the record and I listened back to It's hard
for me to listen to some parts of it because
I know where I was and where I am now,
which is I'm in a great place. But you know,
(13:08):
I took time off the road and I met with
a therapist for a long time and really dove through
things that I didn't want to and then I now
I talk about it, and for me, it's actually really
I enjoy talking about it because I know there's this
stigma in the world of a therapist and oh, you
know you're depressed, and some people hold those things back
because we live in this world of Instagram where everybody
(13:30):
wants to show their beautiful moments, and that's fine and
cool whatever, but I think it's so important to also
talk about a hard moments and what we struggle with
and to make it more normalized because a lot of
people deal with depression and hide it, and so for
me to talk about it, it's been freeing. And I've
had so many people who have reached out and said,
you know what, thank you for talking about it, because
this needs to stop being stigmatized. Like depression is such
(13:52):
an awful word. I wish there was another word for it,
like uniquely emotional. Yeah, we can all sign up to that. Yeah,
And and and I know that, Um, you know, in
the course of of being more public about that, you've
gotten feedback from audiences and fans, And it tell us
(14:15):
a little bit about the kind of feedback you You've
received as a result of being more public about your struggle. Oh,
it's been beautiful. We have the most I I can't
even begin to tell you how many incredible stories I've
read from fans, whether it's letters or in person, from
people who have expressed there are sensitive, emotional, vulnerable parts
(14:38):
to us, and to me, I hold that is sacred
and It's one of the reasons that our concerts are emotional,
wonderful experiences because I look out and I feel like
I know these people on some level because of their
words and because of something that we share. And so
I love what Imagined Dragon stands for because I think
it stands for emotion and maybe some to some people
(14:58):
who seems like it's over the top for two angsty,
and that's okay, and I understand that. But for me,
it's real and that's who I am, and that's who
I've always been. And I think our fans get that,
you know. And and thinking about the Smoke and Mirror Store,
and I pulled some statistics here, and you guys got
to check me on this. So the Smoking Busted the
Smoke and Mirror Store a hundred and ten dates, forty
(15:21):
two countries, five continents. Is that relatively accurate? It sounds low.
That sounds low, It feels feels low. We were very
upset one time. There was a list that went out
and it was like the top touring acts in the world,
and we got number two, and we were so pissed.
I mean, but as you look as you look back
at that, is that a good idea. No, Dave Girl,
(15:47):
this is a true story. Dave grol Um. We're playing
a festival during the Smoking Mirrors, like the end of
the tour, and he came up to us and he said,
I have been looking at you guys. Tour dates over
the last few years have been kind of watch what
you've done. Stop, he said, I have never with any
of my bands towards to that extent. You're gonna kill yourselves.
(16:09):
You need to stop, you know. Chris Martin said the
same thing to us about like our pace of recording
and releasing stuff. It's like just take a break. Yeah,
and and and then they're talking about who are those guys?
I don't remember. Did Chris Martin really say that? Yeah,
when we met him, you know at that the Austin
Uh oh yeah, he was like a word of advice.
He said, take time off after this record. And then
(16:30):
we're like, okay, in the studio, bank a record, let's
let's do it again. But you know, before we get
to the part where you guys do decide to you know,
kind of step away for a minute. Um, how has
the band and it sound in terms of doing all
those shows and and you know, becoming this unit on stage.
(16:52):
Tell me about how the band has changed over time. Well, Uh,
I think it's probably different for all of us. Um,
for me, I think I'm a little more comfortable. I
think there was some serious growing pains from me as
as I was. I was just a kid that wore
pajamas to school. And uh, even in the band you
(17:16):
can attest literally he was in pajamas. I don't know,
I was. You know, I was just a normal kid
that loved music and I love to play for people
and that's all I wanted to do. And uh, this
band has been, you know, obviously amazing, and uh, the
success we've had has been unbelievable. And so I think
just a normal kid from from American Fork, Utah to
(17:39):
be kind of thrust from the spotlight like that and
be out of his element and for things to change
as much as they did, it was weird for me.
It was hard. It was you know, people like people
like that you knew for years was sort of treat
you different, differently and you don't you don't know why,
or like you wish they wouldn't have, you know, And
uh that's just one example. But you know, the smallest
(17:59):
violin is playing for me right now? Yeah, I know, right, um,
But nevertheless that it is what it is, and uh,
you don't know until you do it. It is all
I would say to defend myself. And and you did
make a decision, you know, after after that long dred
and ten shows, however many countries and continents to to
(18:21):
step away. It's like, you know what, we need to break,
take a break hard to do that. I think it
was necessary to do that. I think we were at
a point where we realized that we were approaching the
point where we weren't appreciating some of the blessings that
we were getting in our lives from the opportunities the
(18:42):
music was giving us. And I think when we stepped back,
although we didn't, you know, completely stop making music because
music is a part of all of our lives every day,
it gave us the ability to get to a place
where I think we got back to that mindset where
we realized that we really needed music. You know, you
step away from a little bit and you fall in love.
(19:02):
You fall back in love with a part of you
that really compelled you to get into music and explore
music when you're a kid and you could fall in
love with that process, the process of writing and performing
music all over again. And I think that spending that
time apart gave us the ability to rekindle that fire
when we came back together and approach it from a
more optimistic and maybe a truer place. And you you
(19:26):
released a track early on in February. I think around
the Super Bowl, Believer, and you know, I'm wondering, you
know what part of you guys became Believers? You know,
in the process, did that bring you back around to
a certain degree? I mean, I think, Um, I think
(19:48):
Believer is a very vulnerable song in a lot of
ways for me as a lyricist, and I think it's
one of the first songs that we've written as a
band that we all collectively felt this is imagine dragons,
this is what personifies us in a lot a lot
of ways. It's angsty um, but there's a tinge of
redemption to it. And yeah, I think that it came
(20:09):
out and you never know what to expect when a
song is going to come out. Your fans could hate it,
the world could hate it. But at the end of
the day, you know, the four of us loved it,
and we played it and we felt something, you know,
and as long as you can get behind it, then
it all works out, okay, because then if the world
hates it, you at least can the four of you
can say, okay, we loved it. Though. I think the
(20:29):
problem is when artists put out a song because they're
trying to make other people love it or something, and
then if the world hates it, then you hated it
and the world hated and you're like great, you know,
not a good combination. Tell me a little bit about
you know, Danny Wayne in particular in terms of the songwriting.
What is it about you guys that that sort of works?
Why do you compliment each other so well? Um? I
(20:53):
think everyone's bands has a very clear idea of what
the final product needs to be, and it doesn't really
matter how we get there, because I don't think there's
ever been any song that's been written that was the
same as the one before. We don't there's not like
some process, some formula where you know, we do some
ritual and then we write a song and then we
go home have dinner, you know, and it's never been
(21:15):
like that, you know, so much stuff happened to me
sending a guitar, really simple guitar part to Dan and
he works with it or the whole track, or maybe
it's something he just came up with on his own.
We at our instrumentation is necessary. So if it was
the same every time, that would that would that would
spell doom, I think for us, because then then would
literally become a formula and our music could be formulaic.
(21:36):
And amen to that band. And and I know that. Um,
you know we've been talking about, you know, kind of
the different approach to this record, and and now as
you get ready to go on tour, I'm wondering if
the approach to playing the songs live changes. Doesn't absolutely Um,
(21:58):
we we definitely have a clear idea of what we
want the songs to sound like live. But um, there's
something magical that happens with any piece of music when
a group plays it, you know, fifty plus times, Uh,
it starts to change. Happy accidents happen on stage, something happens. Uh,
Wayne will play some tasty lick that everyone will be like,
you have to do that every time. I mean, if
(22:18):
you listen to the way a song sounds at the
beginning of a tour, in the end of a tour.
I think for any band it's going to sound different,
but we we especially love that part of the process.
I think playing bringing the music to life live is
all of our favorite parts of this. And if it wasn't,
there's no reason we would though that's terrible. And you
played every time, and I know you, I know all
(22:39):
of you know what. Look I'm talking about right now. No,
I know, I have no idea. I don't don't sing it.
That's copyrighted. There's this lick. I'm gonna tell you a secret,
a dirty secret. Wayne. One day was like, I have this.
I have this. If I were like a McDonald's jingle writer,
I know this perfect jingle for McDonald and it goes
dip it in my dip. So here's the deal, and
(23:03):
you play it every time on Radioactive Act every time
you guys do it. Imagine you have a mean Donald's
chicken nugget meal, right, and instead of just having your
chick and you choose with sauce. Right, Oh, I want barbecue.
I want ranch. No, okay, so chicken nuggets in the
middle around it is honey mustard ranch barbecue like flavor mode.
(23:24):
I don't think that the jingle writers get to decide
the whole marketing process for McDonald's. And so anyway, I
saw this guy, you know, he's show him dip it
him I dipping sauce and you have all eachment kinds
of dips to do. I mean, how does that they
play it every time? Right? No, No, is there anyone
for McDonald's here. No, do not clap for this, you know,
(23:46):
justin Termber, like it's got so much money for that,
I tell you no. Let me just say, I can't
tell you how many times that song is a heavy
song for me emotionally. It's a heavy song. It's a
song about depression. It's like it's heavy song. I can't
tell you how many times I've gone on stage and
I'm in the moment and I'm like in this song
and it's like there's this one part of the song
(24:06):
every time where it's like the end of the song
is like going into the climax, and all three of
them do this. It's like done, a man happened in
my mind. The radioactive lyrics are all about chicken nuggets.
Now I want some chicken, that crispy chick. The worst part,
the worst part is now that I told you this,
(24:27):
they will do it for they do as a posted before,
where we were just going to play it every sing
every time that we could possibly to keep that song,
you know, happening for us. You know it's a great
you know, we love it, but it's we gotta keep
it like that doesn't keep it happening for and He's
and gentlemen, jingle writers in here, the imagine Dragons ad agency.
(24:47):
You know, you can hire a problem think about it,
but it does. It does bring to mind, whether whether
it whether it's songs from Evolved or Smoking mirror Is
or night Vision, you know whatever. Over time, the songs
reveal different things about them, about themselves, and you know,
(25:10):
and I'm wondering kind of what you've learned about songwriting
and performing, you know what the songs, how they change
and how they reveal different things about themselves. Yeah, I
think if I had to choose a representation for each
song we ever wrote, I'd probably most of them probably
(25:30):
be live because I feel like that's, um, that's what
we are. We we're live, man. That's how we started
doing the crummy casinos and they're not so crummy casinos,
but pretty much anything we could do, you know we'd
be playing live. We have a lot of hours locked
on stage. You know, love hate us. That's one thing
you can't take away from us, is those those hours
we put in. And so we're proud of those hours,
(25:51):
and we think it shows the live show. Um, and
so yeah, I feel like the live shows at this
kind of the final evolution, if you will, of the
of songs and and you know, let it be said that, Um,
you guys did not spring to the top of the
billboard chart, you know, for lack of a better term, overnight.
I mean, there were years of playing on the strip
(26:15):
in Las Vegas. God knows how many sets a night. Um,
you know, how do you think that experience benefited you?
I think that every band needs to go through that,
because I in our time period that we've been a band,
we've seen other bands that I'm not gonna blast, but
we've seen bands that came up at the same time
of us as us that are now like not on
(26:36):
the scene anymore. And some of the reasons that I
attribute that is because if you get success and you
get it overnight, you you genuinely get it overnight, it'll
ruin you. It absolutely ruins you. Because things happen. Um,
egos happen. Uh. You you think that you're entitled to
where you were because you're doing something incredible, and you're
(26:57):
entitled to now have a tour bus. And for us,
you know, in a lot of ways, when we did
break we did break fast, But before that happened, we
had four years of broke, living together in a house,
getting each other out of jail, um getting robbed together,
being you know, just at a really low point in
(27:21):
grinding the road. And I don't know if that happens
that much anymore with bands. Maybe it does, but the
bands that that doesn't happen to, I can tell you
I've watched them break up because there's egos and they
fight and then it's over, and it's sad because a
lot of them were great acts and and and I
know when you guys finally got together, and and I
found this fascinating when I was reading about it. You
(27:41):
were very serious about this. This This was not YEA,
let's get a band together because we can go score
some you know, free beer at a KEG party somewhere.
Tell me a little bit about kind of the early
discussions when you first got together. I mean, the first
time we really got together to rehearse, and last Vegas,
we had already agreed to a six day a week,
(28:03):
eight hour a day rehearsal regiment. And you know, then
after that first week we managed to get gigs. We learned,
you know, fifty cover songs or so uh, and added
to that, and we would go and take the cover
gigs on the strip in order to support ourselves and
then spend eight hours a day playing those songs and
(28:24):
also writing songs, writing our own original music to play
on the weekends. So I mean we were really devoting
more time than you would devote to a conventional full
time job to our music. Um. We were never treating
it casually. It was very deliberately something we wanted to
do as a career, something we had devoted our lives
up to that point to studying. And UM yeah, I
(28:47):
think that approaching it from that really technical and very
deliberate standpoint did so much for us to to learn
where we were all coming from musically. Actually learning those
fifty covers, we all went out and we each picked
ten cover songs that we love from popular music for
the last forty years. We all had different backgrounds, so
getting to learn, you know, the history of our own
(29:09):
experiences through music, and getting to learn the way popular
music has been written over the last fifty years was
absolutely invaluable for us in every everywhere. I'd be interested
to know. Tell me each of you tell me one
cover song that you guys wanted to play. I remember
I brought a Santa Ria by Sublime was one of
(29:30):
the songs I've brought. Awesome, Awesome Wayne. Maybe if I'm wrong,
if someone else suggested, I think cars was me. I
think it was just where I needed. Um. Awesome song,
awesome band. The guitar player for that band is incredible,
Ellia Easton. I made them play Third Eyed Blinds, Semi
(29:50):
Trump kind of life with Me Dan. That was such
a hard lyrical one to memorize dirty, Uh, I'm like
picking back on that. That's still to this day. I
don't know if I know all the words. Nobody does
like you. You give me as you give them stage
she needs then a motive age, energy going down. I mean, hey, man,
(30:12):
you want to do coming over you and do you
like going to the freak show? Taking stage? Give anyway?
So thank you? Yeah? That was really good. Yeah, and
actually one of our one of our first festivals, I
got invited on stage to sing that to sing um
(30:34):
motorcycle Jumper, No No, No Jumper with Stephen Jenkins of
the Third Eyeline, which was amazing. But anyway screen in Milwaukee, Yeah,
oh yeah, that's what it was. I would say sound
no satisfaction by the Rolling Stones. I love Mike shag
I think he'll do that'll do? Was there was there?
Just just just going back and you know, in terms
of your your very earliest years and the kinds of
(30:56):
things that you were hearing growing up, was there an
artist or who was that artist or band that kind
of perked up your ears and made you, guys say, yep,
that's what I want to do. I don't like this question.
Nothing is you. But it's because my it's because my
answer is so cliche and boring. It's the Beatles, and
it's and it's a good one and we've heard it before.
(31:18):
But I can't lie and say, you know, it's it
is my core of who I am. That was That
is what music is. I mean it's hard to be
it's hard to beat the Beatles. And I would be
the first to tell you that, Um, you know what
we could schedule a program here at the Grammy Museum
with me and any member of this audience talking about
(31:40):
any Beatles record, and people would come to hear about it,
because that's how much impact that band had. I mean,
there was never a point in time where I didn't
know what a Beatles song was. I don't remember not
knowing what the Beatles. That's what my My dad was
obsessed every single record on vinyl. That's all that was
my life. So, um, thank you for that. I guess
what what about what about you guys? What? What? What
(32:02):
artist was it? I'd say Harry Nelson for me was
the one that uh, and so I'm pretty much as
generic because Mary Nelson the Beatles are like. But but
I have to ask you, because I've read that about
you in terms of in terms of Nilson, what is it?
What is it about Nielsen that that attracted He did
whatever the hell he wanted to do. He didn't care
what anybody thought. He sang Lime in the Coconut, but
then he's sang everybody's talking, and then he he had him.
(32:25):
He's saying the saddest emotional songs. His heart was in
every song. He's saying his vocal. He could do so
many things with his vocals and um, and he just
I love Harry and he never got his do ever,
he never got his do. The Beatles even said this
is our favorite artists, and people like cool, yeah, Beatles whatever.
But to me, Harry was just a great documentary films man.
(32:48):
I cry every time I watched that, and and and
the point he did this incredible animation video at the
point with Ringo. He's just I love Harry. Yeah, what
about you guys? You know, if I'm really being honest
about the first time when I was a young, young child,
and that's something musically really connected with me. Britney spears
(33:10):
Kenny G. As as a little seven year old kid,
I just loved those melodies. I would put on Kenny
G music and this this album I got it was
electronic orchestral strings that I heard at a whale show
that I watched at the Mystic Seaport Aquarium in Connecticut's
(33:32):
two thousand. He's one of the kind guy that mean
that may be the first KENNYG reference. Um, you know
here on the stage of the ground, play play Kenny G.
For some kids, They're gonna light up and just get
to it. It's like there's something universally relatable to the
quality of those melodies. Fantastic, can't deny. My older brother
gave me a gentle giant c D one year and
(33:54):
that changed everything for me and I fell in love
with prog rock. Go Go King Crimson, So you know,
and you know, in the course of you know, releasing
night Visions and smoking mirrors, and the band gets bigger,
and you guys are starting to go out and play
bigger halls and and all of a sudden it's stadiums.
Tell me a little bit about how you kind of
(34:15):
had to change your mindset to stay connected to your
audience as you're playing these giant arenas. Yeah, I think
um as an artist, I always when I perform. I'm honestly,
I'm quite an introverted person, but when I get on stage,
it's my moment of just freedom. And I always try
to look out and my immediate surroundings and see the
(34:37):
people around me and and really see them. You know,
there is one thing to look at a person, but
it's another thing to look at them and connect with them.
And for me, even if it goes back, you know,
however far it goes back or however close it is
that I always have that and I really feel there's
this magic kinetic energy in the concert. If you all
(34:58):
really connect, it just feeds back and it just goes back.
So long story short, whatever whatever room it is, it's
always the same for me. Yeah, Um, you you had
UM and I remember this remarkable experience on the two
thousand fourteen Grammy Award telecasts where you did a performance
(35:20):
with Kendrick Lamar and and you know, I'm wondering, first
of all, what what the initial rehearsals were like, how
did you know? How did you guys connect? What did
you find? Where were the intersection for you? And there
were there? It was way deeper than we thought that
it would be. Because how it how it went down
(35:41):
is um. Grammy's reached out to us, they said, we
want you to perform, and Kendrick mars performing. We asked
him if you would like to do a collaboration with someone,
and he said that he wanted to collaborate with you. Guys,
would you want to collaborate with Kendrick? I said, well,
of course, we love Kendrick and so that from the
start we knew that we had a mutual respect for
each other, and so when we got in the room,
we already had that to build upon, so there wasn't
(36:03):
some weird awkward thing of I know that I've heard
people say the Grammy's like, you know, put these artists together,
and maybe sometimes they do, maybe time sometimes they don't.
But I can tell you in our case, that's how
it went down. We chose each other to perform with,
and I think that's why it was a magical performance.
First we got in the same room, we geeked down
on each other's music, and then we said, let's jam together.
And we we sat down and we said, how do
(36:24):
we want it to look aesthetically? And we talked about
different things, and then I remember us all saying, well,
we should be all white. Everything should be all white,
and then we should just mess it up. It should
just get destroyed. Um, because the energy. We talked about
the energy and what each song meant, his song and
our song, and the explosiveness of it. But it's starting
it restrained, and then it havn't just bubbling and getting
larger until it couldn't be contained and then exploding and
(36:46):
becoming just this red dye and and um, yeah, I
get excited even talking about it because that there was
so much energy in that room. And then it came
through on stage and it was a really emotional, magical moment.
And I remember looking at Kendrick when it was done
and both of us just saying to each other, this
is the beginning of something great for both of us.
And and and it did that, it really opened up
(37:08):
disguise for both of us, and clearly it was I mean,
that was, you know, a remarkable moment. But one of
the things and Dan, you and I talked about this briefly. Um,
none of you have shied away from taking a stand
about social issues that that you think are important. And
recently just the other day, Uh, you guys participated in
(37:30):
something called Loved Loud. Um this remarkable, remarkable concert. And
and Dan tell us tell us a little bit about
the intention of the show and how it turned out.
I was raised Mormon and a very conservative Mormon family
in Las Vegas. I still am Mormon, uh, and I'm
(37:50):
a unique Mormon, is how I say it. Um, I
have kind of my own spiritual identity and belief system.
But UM, I learned I saw from a very young
age a few of my friends who were gay and
they were Mormon, and the path for them was so
incredibly hard and devastating. You're set up for disaster when
your parents tell you that, or your church tells you
(38:11):
that your most innate sense of being is broken or
flawed or sinful. It sets a child up for a
devastating life because then your choices to be lonely your
entire life. What's all that to anybody? And see what
kind of life it creates for them. So I saw
this from a young age, and I was conflicted because
my faith taught me that, you know, you were marriage
(38:34):
was between a man and a woman. As I grew up, Um,
it didn't. It didn't affect me enough that it was like,
you know, I was as activist when I was a
young kid, but I was very conflicted about my faith.
And I was conflicted by my faith in a lot
of other ways too. I was always like the black
sheep of my family. All my brothers, eight boys won't
grow in my family, all served missions, all lawyers, doctors,
and here I was wanted to be a musician and
(38:55):
very conflicted by my faith and singing about it, but
very metaphorically. So none of my family would know that
I was dealing with us. And so then flash forward,
I got married to beautiful woman from Eugene, Oregon, who
grew up with no religion at all, astrology. When I
first met her parents, they were like, sit down, we're
doing your tarot cards like that. And I'm just saying,
(39:15):
but I thought these are like Satan's cards. I was
pretty sure, like you know, but it was amazing and
I loved it, and we fell so deeply in love
and we just were like, you know what, you take
these things from your life, I'm gonna take these from
mine and let's go start our own life. And at
the time, she was living with her two best friends
who were gay, and they were all the activists they
were they were. They were, you know, marching at pride
(39:36):
parades and stuff. And because I was Mormon, they were
deeply hurt when we fell in love and they never
wanted to meet me um just because of what Mormonism represented.
This was during prop eights. It was very heated at
the time, and everybody was looking at Mormons is just
basically the enemy of the LGBTQ community. So neither of
them came to our wedding, which was devastating to my wife,
who was there two best friends. But I understand now
(39:58):
at the time I didn't. At the time, I was
upset and I was like, why aren't your two best
friends coming to our weddy. Even I I support them,
but it was marrying into Mormonism for them, and it
broke their hearts. And so I get it now, But
so I kept seeing this divide between the LGBTQ community
and Mormonism or religion, and I just I'm tired of it.
I'm so just burnt out on it, and and so
(40:18):
many of my friends. Now I've lost a suicide throughout
the last few years. UM Utah, the number one reason
for death among teenagers is suicide. Sorry I'm talking so long,
but I say that the number one reason for death
among teenagers in Utah is suicide. Um According to the
Family Acceptance Project, if an lgbt Q child isn't accepted
(40:39):
in their home or community, they're eight times more likely
to commit suicide, three times more likely for risky drug use.
The statistics are devastating, and nothing is being done. It's
just a blind eye is being turned to this. And
so you know, I just I've talked with my wife
about a lot and we and we decided, let's do something.
So we created a festival called Love Loud. Just three
(41:00):
months ago. We said we're gonna throw a festival. We're
gonna end and um, and it's going to be about
bringing everyone together. It's inclusive. We have to have the
Mormons there, we have to have religious people there. We
need the far left, we need the far right, we
need all different faiths, non face, everybody to come out
and say we can drop all everything at the door.
We can all agree this needs to change. We need
to love our youth. What does it mean to truly
(41:21):
love and accept the LGBTQ youth. So that was the
mission and we announced it and it was very scary
because we decided to do it right in next to
b y U in Utah, which is the heartland of Mormonism.
It's not a place for a gay pride, a gay
like festival. So it was it was definitely shocking and
there were a lot of people that were upset. And
then I did this interview with Billboard and the title
(41:42):
was like bigotry and Mormonisms and Mormons were like, I'm
not going to his bride, forget this. You know. But
then UM, the church endorsed. The LDS Church came out
and endorsed, which was a historical moment in a huge way. Fantastic, UM.
And the festival sold out twenty plus people and all
(42:04):
coming out Mormons with their families, and we had transgender
youth come on stage and tell about how hard their
story was, people from every different community in the LGBTQ
community saying did different things and and spoke about how
we as a community could be better. And it was beautiful.
It was so incredible. UM. And you know, my family
came out. We're a very conservative Mormon. It was amazing.
(42:26):
And it speaks to the people in Utah who have
been waiting to say, hey, hear us and and know
that we actually we have our faith, we have these things,
but something needs to be done and so we're gonna
walk into a place that might be out of our
comfort zone. And they came and it was beautiful, and
we're gonna do it every single year. Good for you.
Good for you. That's fantastic. So alright, So so last question,
(42:51):
and and I I read about this, and I have
no idea if this track actually ended up on Evolve,
but I read something, don't ad so can we say scared? Whatever?
Go ahead. I believe you're going to ask us about
a traybe he won't. Maybe he won't those, so don't
say it. Maybe it's something else. It had something to
do with a specific percussive sound. Let's just say that
(43:13):
track is still in the can. Oh, fair enough, nobody
knows that we're talking about. We will. We will leave
it at that. So here's what we're here. You know,
oh you know, I'm just keep it to yourselves. Don't
tell anybody the word. Some of these people know. But
I found that. I found that hysterically funny. Nonetheless, it
(43:34):
had great tone, sounded great. I have no doubt. I
have no doubt, and we'll wait for when when it comes,
it sounds like it's a fart or something. Now I
need to clear it up. Let me just say we
there was We were looking for a slap noise on
one of our songs. It didn't make the record. We
slapped Ben's ask and we recorded it and it sounded.
It did actually sound. Honestly, the acoustical value of it
dead serious was incredible. You did you ever in like
(43:59):
and elementary school? You know, in elementary school. That one
thing where you like open it up and then you're
like wrap. You know, I'm talking what is that called?
It's like the crap, it's like two boards, it's like
a clop machine whatever. Yeah, it sounded like that but better,
and we wanted that, but we didn't have that in
the studio and they were like, let's just like slap
Ben's ass and then and then we did it and
we were like, that sounds really good. That's good. But
(44:21):
we didn't want to tell people that because now every
time you hear it, any time you here like that,
you'll be like, you'll see him nake it into this.
And we didn't put it on the record door all right,
so we'll leave the visual images out. But um, guys,
we couldn't feel like I'm being body shamed. Never not
not here at the Grandy Museum. Um, we could not
(44:41):
be more pleased that you guys took the time to
come by and and chat. This has been fantastic. I
know you're about to leave and and go on tour
and we wish you all the best. So ladies and gentlemen,
give it up for Imagine day. Thank you. That was
(45:01):
my conversation with Imagine Dragons in the Clive Davis Theater
at the Grammy Museum in downtown Los Angeles. I love
Dan's description of their music as emotion. That's such a
great way to describe what the band does. And what
marked this for me is the band's willingness to take
a different path on the new album. That's a brave
thing to do and they embraced it. So that's your
(45:27):
required listening for today. Will be here twice a week
every week. Find us wherever fine podcasts are heard. Also,
if you plan to be in Los Angeles, I hope
you'll come visit us at the Grammy Museum. You can
go to our website at Grammy Museum dot org for
all the information on our activities, are exhibits, and our programs. Now,
I'd love to keep the conversation going, so feel free
(45:49):
to hit us up on all the social platforms at
Grammy Museum. Finally, thanks to the team that makes required
listening happen. Jason James, Justin, Joseph Lynn Sheridan, Jim Knock,
Atrick Kern's, Miranda Moore, Jason Hope, Nick Stump, and the
entire team at how Stuff Works. Thanks for listening until
next time. I'm Scott Goldman,
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