Brigham Young University student Andrew Tolman joined Dan Reynolds as lead singer in 2008. Reynolds and Tolman combined Andrew Beck and Dave Lemke to play bass and guitar respectively. Reynolds explained that each member of the band knew their names, so Reynolds anagrammed their name. The group also released “Speak To Me”, a long play. Beck and Florence also left the group’s lineup in that year. Tolman selected Wayne Sermon, a long-time friend from high school, to be his guitar player in 2009. Tolman eventually recruited Brittany Tolman, his long-time friend from high school, to be his backup singer and keyboard player. The band performed again. Lemke was eventually fired by the band. Sermon hired Ben McKee as a Berklee music graduate to assist the band’s bassist. Before the band moved to Las Vegas where Dan Reynolds was born, they had a huge following in Provo.
In 2010, the band published longer versions of “Hell and Silence”, and also “Imagine Dragons”, which were both recorded at Battle Born Studios, Las Vegas. They returned to studio in 2011. They released their third EP “It’s Time” before signing a recording contract. Their first big opportunity came just before they attended the Bite of Las Vegas Festival 2009, when Train’s singer Pat Monahan fell sick. Imagine Dragons was asked to fill the gap and performed in front of over 26,000 people. Local awards such as “Best CD 2011, “Best Local Indie band 2010” and others helped to make the band a positive choice. They signed a contract with Interscope Records in November 2011. The band began working with Alex da Kid, an English Grammy-winning producer. The Tolmans split in the end and Daniel Platzman was chosen to lead the signing of the label deal. Theresa Flaminio, keyboardist, left Imagine Dragons in the early part of 2012, leaving them with four members. Alex da Kid was the band’s first major record, and they worked closely together. On Valentine’s Day, a long play called “Continued Silence”, was released digitally. It reached number 40 on Billboard’s Hot 200. In 2012, Hear Me was also announced by the band. Soon after, the single “It’s Time”, which reached number 15 on Billboard Hot 100, was released. Radioactive was the second single from the album. It reached No. #1 on the Billboard Rock Songs (and Billboard Alternative Songs) charts. More than 7 million singles were sold in the United States. This album also broke a new record, spending 87 weeks on Billboard Hot 100. “Radioactive,” remained at Number. The Hot Rock Songs chart remained at No. 1 for 23 consecutive weeks, a record breaking feat that made it the biggest selling song in 2013. Radioactive sold more than 3,000,000 copies before the year ended. Rolling Stone called this the “biggest hit rock song of 2013”. It was also the most-streamed song on Spotify in America 2013 It was nominated by the Grammy Award as Record of the Year at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. This song won the Grammy Award. The RIAA declared it a diamond in 2015 for its more than 10 million copies sold in the United States.
The Billboard Pop Songs reached Number One with the third single “Demons”, and it has sold more 5 million copies in America to date. In April 2013, the band released a live album entitled “Live at Independent Records”. Imagine Dragons teased their next studio album in a Twitter tweet that said “studio” on September 27, 2016. For the next few months, the band continued to secretly post messages on Twitter. The band started uploading videos that teased the first single from the album on January 28, 2017. Dan Reynolds, the lead singer of the band, was seen creating surreal pictures with a pen and paper. The videos contained Morse code, which was translated into “objects of the exact same color”. Imagine Dragons debuted “Believer,” their new single, on February 1, 2017. “Believer”, a commercial for the Nintendo Switch, was also used as part of Super Bowl. Imagine Dragons’ second single “Thunder” was released on April 27, 2017. Imagine Dragons debuted “Thunder”, the second single off their third album, on May 8, 2017. The album’s release was announced the same day. Evolve was globally released June 23, 2017. It reached number 5 in many countries. Reynolds, who is still sweaty offstage, is not content. Reynolds is still sweaty offstage but not completely content.
