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Isis Queen: Jello’ s a great guy. He let us open up for his Guantanamo School of Medicine many times in Europe and in the States. He’ s a great performer and he really lives everything he talks about. We have a high respect for Jello. A lot of people have come to see shows, like Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols. It’ s a really cool feeling because they are our idols. But at the same time, when you meet them, you feel like you’ re at the same level. You’ re just musicians greeting each other. It’ s a really cool experience.
Mosh: In 2012 – 2013, the band played hundreds of shows and festivals. How much confidence did your bandmates gain from playing all those shows? Isis Queen: Every band has its ups and downs. But at the end of the day, the road is what gives you the confirmation that you’ re capable of achieving anything. It’ s a lot of hard work being a touring band. We did 200 shows in the first two and a half years, just touring everywhere. At every gig we were booked at no matter what the guarantee was or no matter what the money was, just to get that experience. We lived in a van down by the river. We lived out of that van, all of us together. All our personalities in the band and we fought through it. If you can’ t do this, then you might as well just move onto something else. The music is just a part of it all. Touring is the other part. The personalities are another part. What you’ re capable of experiencing and handling is another part of this whole process. It really pushes your limits. Mosh: What was the audience’ s reception like at the Vans Warped Tour this past summer? Since it usually attracts a younger crowd, do you feel like you captured new fans? Isis Queen: Oh definitely. Before Warped Tour, we had played up to about eight countries throughout the world, and they were all headlining shows. We’ ve only opened for a
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Imagine Dragons
Continued from page 20
Arrow, now five( additionally, in March of this year, the couple became parents of fraternal twins, Gia and Coco, who have helped him regain a child-like sense of wonder when viewing the world). The Las Vegas-based rocker had also reconciled his strict Mormon upbringing with bigger religious and philosophical questions that he’ d been wrestling with since childhood(“ Like, What happens when we die? Why the hell are we here? And what’ s the meaning of existence?” he sighs). And – at the time of the IE cover story, the first interview he granted for
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Smoke – he had been seeing a therapist for six intense months, working his way to King the bottom
Crimson of, 1972
his personal abyss so he could rise triumphantly back to the surface. Only things didn’ t work out that way.
Touring behind the disc – and reading all of its attendant press, in which he was refreshingly candid about everything he was going through – only served to sadden Reynolds further, until he and his bandmates finally agreed to take a depressurizing year off so he could collect his thoughts. He had earned himself a little‘ me’ time.“ It was just a necessity – I felt like I just didn’ t have a choice,” he recalls, somberly.“ I needed to get off the road and remember what it was like to be …. to be Dan. And have a home and have a community, a constant in my life. So I got home and decided to work on myself and really get to the root of this depression that I’ ve been dealing with for so many years. Because with Smoke + Mirrors, it was really relentless. So I decided that as a father, as a musician, and just as a human being, I owed it to myself and my community to seek help.”
The vocalist found a great new therapist in France, and they initiated a regular series of overseas Skype sessions that continues to this day. The doc didn’ t waste time – he had his patient dive straight into the most uncomfortable reflections from his past, things he’ d never discussed with anyone else, to begin the healing process. And it worked.“ I found out a lot about myself, and got to a healthy spot,” he admits.“ To the point where this last year has been the most healthy, colorful year of my life. And naturally, it’ s reflected in this new album in a lot of ways. And it feels really great, like I’ m a totally different person.”
But it takes effort some days, basically eternal vigilance, Reynolds feels compelled to point out. For anyone experiencing it, depression is a lifelong struggle, so you over come it one day at a time. But each day, he says it feels amazing to not wake up feeling numb, trapped in an emotional miasma, and instead be excited about life itself and what the day could bring for him, his wife, and his daughters. Not to mention Imagine Dragons itself, which only grows stronger with each frailty he’ s bold enough to confront, both personally and lyrically.
“ There are so many stigmas that people put on talking to a therapist, making it out to be a weakness, and that’ s a really dangerous concept to teach our children,” concludes the frontman, who loves watching rabid crowds gleefully chanting his“ Believer” words back at him in concert, perhaps completely oblivious to their graver import.“ So my goal has been to teach my kids – and hopefully share a message with the entire world – that it’ s not weak. It shows strength to say,‘ You know what? I’ m going to face my life head-on, I’ m going to be honest with myself, and sometimes that might mean having someone who helps me find that honesty.’
“ And even if that’ s going to offend some people that I might be near and dear to, as long as I’ m still being true to myself – and being a good human being, obviously – then that’ s okay. Just being a little offensive? Hey – you need at least a little of that or the world would be this vanilla place that’ s never going to, well, evolve ….” Appearing 10 / 18 at United Center, Chicago