IMAGINE DRAGONS
FACING LIFE HEAD-ON
W
hen Dan Reynolds was in first grade , his teacher came up with an interesting assignment . She had her students stand up against the blackboard , where she traced a profile of their heads on white paper . “ So everybody made this silhouette , and then you got to write something about yourself on it ,” recalls the Imagine Dragons singer , who just turned 30 in July . “ And I remember that I wrote , ‘ I am unique .’ And that was what I chose to define myself in first grade . But I find now that I ’ m 30 , I ’ m grateful for that , and that ’ s what I ’ m trying to grasp and hold onto more than ever – that sense of uniqueness .”
Mission accomplished with the Grammy-winning Imagine Dragons , the percussive quartet that , in 2012 , began charting tub-thumping alterna-pop hits like “ Radioactive ,” “ Demons ,” “ Shots ,” “ I Bet My Life ,” and – most recently – the swaying Top Five smash “ Believer ,” from the new Evolve album , its third . And its monolithic Brontosaurus-stomp of a sound truly resembles no other contemporary combo , something almost tribal in its propulsive pounding . But Reynolds is also one of rock ’ s most idiosyncratic lyricists , a man who has battled serious depression since he was 14 and isn ’ t afraid to document it in song ; In “ Believer ” alone – an open ode to existential pain itself -- he sings , “ I was broken from a young age / Taken my sulking to the masses / Writing my poems for the few / That look to me , look to me , shook to me , feeling me .” The sentiment is honest to a fault , and not something kids are accustomed to hearing on often-vacuous Top 40 radio .
“ But “ Believer ” is about embracing weakness , embracing flaws , and having the realization that you ’ re nothing without them ,” says Reynolds . “ That ’ s the most crucial part of my existence – my unique flaws .” Other “ Evolve ” tracks dig deeper into the metaphorical marrow , offering uplifting messages of selfempowerment in the process , like the handclap-huge “ Rise Up ” and a jitterrhythm “ Start Over .” And some , like the rap-cadenced cascade of reflection “ Whatever It Takes ,” find him vowing to never surrender to the darkness that often envelops him : “ Run me like a race horse … I love the adrenaline in my veins / I do whatever it takes / ‘ Cause I love how it feels when I break the chains .”
Reynolds knows what his silhouette has grown to encompass . And he chuckles impishly about it . “ I know that there has to be people out there who listen to Imagine Dragons music and hear it as this overly serious , angsty person who writes continuously about the heaviness of their perceived position in life , and I ’ m sure that can be wearing on people ,” he ’ ll allow . “ But at the end of the day , it ’ s who I am , and how I cope . It ’ s the truth for me , and it ’ s therapeutic for me . And I ’ ve been doing it since I was 14 .” So naysayers can carp all they want , he adds . “ I ’ m never going to apologize to anyone for turning to my art to help me find a safer mental space . And frankly , I ’ ve just never found any inspiration in writing a song about going to a party or a club – it ’ s just not a real thing for me . So Imagine Dragons is a mental battle that I ’ ve dealt with since I was a kid .”
Initially , during early interviews for the band ’ s last record , 2015 ’ s Smoke + Mirrors , it seemed like the vocalist had won the war , defeated his debilitating condition and emerged relatively content on the other side . He had a happy marriage ( to Nico Vega ’ s Aja Volkman , whom he met in 2010 ), and a daughter
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By Tom Lanham
20 illinoisentertainer . com october 2017