If we had just blown up in the last year and then gotten those opportunities, I don’t know if they would have helped the band. In 2014 alone, you guys have had some highlights playing on the Grammy broadcast, then the Grammy tribute to the Beatles, and on Saturday Night Live.ĭaniel Platzman: And all three happened in one week.ĭan Reynolds: It was good that we had four years under our belts before that week came. The route to where we are now has been long and intense. The past two years must seem like a rock -‘n’-roll fairytale to you guys.īen McKee '09Ben McKee: Yeah, two and a half years ago, we were still playing cover gigs in little clubs and casinos in Vegas just trying to scrape by. For the Dragons, their success and broad appeal is anything but imagined. The band has never shrunk from the hard work necessary to gain a toehold in the business, and it was savvy enough to wait until the terms were favorable before signing with a label. Songs by the group are in soundtracks of major Hollywood films and commercials, and their perky tune “On Top of the World” was sung by a children’s choir at President Obama’s 2012 inauguration. These days, the band’s sold-out arena shows on multiple continents are drawing enthusiastic fans ranging from teens to middle-agers. While largely considered an alternative rock band, the influences of edgy anthemic rock, dub step, hip-hop, straight-up pop, and more shine through on their recordings and concert set lists. The combination of intuitive and schooled approaches to the music has blended the best of both worlds. There is undeniable musical chemistry among the instrumentalists and Reynolds (who plays music primarily by ear). The label’s clout helped bring Imagine Dragons’ music to radio and beyond. His studio and songwriting expertise and industry connections led to a contract for the group with Interscope Records. The band had released multiple EPs before the pivotal moment when British hip-hip producer Alex Da Kid e-mailed them about working together. (For a brief time, keyboardist and singer Theresa Flaminio ’08 was also in the group.) A film scoring major and jazz drummer, Platzman dropped everything he was doing in New York and headed for the band’s home base in Las Vegas. A few years and countless road trips later, McKee tapped his former Berklee roommate Platzman.
On top of the world imagine dragons album professional#
Sermon later beckoned bassist McKee, who left his Berklee studies eight credits shy of earning his degree in professional music, to join the band. They reconvened when Imagine Dragons’ original drummer Andrew Tolman called on Sermon, his friend from American Fork, Utah, who had just graduated from Berklee with a degree in contemporary writing and production. (See “Atonal Solfege, Eclectic Electrics, and Shout-Outs to Professors” sidebar.) Then they went their separate ways. Guitarist Wayne Sermon ’08, bassist Ben McKee ’09, and drummer Daniel Platzman ’09 had developed a musical and personal rapport playing together for three years in Professor Mark White’s Eclectic Electrics guitar ensemble.
But things began in earnest when the current lineup, including three Berklee alumni, joined. At the time, he was a student at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. In 2008 the group’s lead singer, Las Vegas native Dan Reynolds, started the band with a different lineup. Dan ReynoldsWhenever you see what looks like an overnight success in the music industry, the backstory usually reveals otherwise.
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