Imagine Dragons

Posted in Music

3 Mar
Imagine Dragons image 1

Imagine Dragons

Imagine Dragons is an American pop rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada. In 2008, lead singer Dan Reynolds met middle school drummer Andrew Tolman at Brigham Young University where they were both students. Reynolds and Tolman added Andrew Beck, Dave Lemke, and Aurora Florence to play guitar, bass, and piano respectively for their band.

Dan Reynolds cites Arcade FireNirvanaMuseThe BeatlesPaul SimonColdplayLinkin ParkHarry Nilsson, and U2 as some of his and the band's artistic influences. In terms of success, Reynolds credits bands like Foster the People and Mumford & Sons for bringing alternative pop music to a new level of commercial success in recent years.

The five-piece released an extended play titled Speak to Me that year, but Beck and Florence departed from the band's line-up later that year. In 2009, Tolman recruited long-time high school friend Wayne Sermon, who had graduated from Berklee College of Music to play guitar. Tolman later recruited his wife, Brittany Tolman, to sing back-up and play keys, and the band began to play shows together again. Lemke left the band later on, leading Sermon to recruit another Berklee music student, Ben McKee, to join the band as their bassist and complete the line-up.

They got their first big break when Train's front man Pat Monahan fell sick just prior to the Bite of Las Vegas Festival 2009. Imagine Dragons were called to fill in and performed to a crowd of more than 26,000 people.

In 2013, along with the family of Tyler Robinson, Imagine Dragons started a charity called the Tyler Robinson Foundation, helping young people battling cancer. Beginning in 2014, the first annual Tyler Robinson Foundation Gala was held in Las Vegas. Imagine Dragons performed for "Playing It Forward" (S1 E2) to raise $100k for school music programs. The band partnered with mtvU to help choose four Fulbright-mtvU Fellowship recipients. They partnered with Do the Write Thing: National Campaign to Stop Violence for a fundraising event.

Imagine Dragons performed as part of Amnesty International's "Bringing Human Rights Home" concert in Brooklyn on February 5, 2014. In 2015, Imagine Dragons released the track "I Was Me" for the One4 project with all proceeds going to the UN Refugee Agency to support fleeing refugees, particularly in the Middle East. Imagine Dragons also released cover track "I Love You All The Time" to benefit the victims of the terrorist attacks in Paris. In 2017, the band helped organize the annual LoveLoud Festival which aims to raise awareness about LGBTQ youth and benefit LGBTQ organizations such as the Trevor Project.

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