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