“Welcome to the new age, to the new age,” where Imagine Dragons are one of the most popular alt-pop bands of this decade. You may have recognized those lyrics from their first smash hit “Radioactive,” which came out in 2014. The hit not only catapulted them onto the scene, but it won them a Grammy award, too. For a group of friends who met at Brigham Young University to national sensation, this band is living the American dream (and the global one, on world tours).

Imaginative Beginnings

The band started as a twosome, with vocalist Dan Reynolds and drummer Andrew Tolman. They met in the late 2000s, and by 2010, they were a band of four. After adding their bass player Ben McKee and Britney Tolman (Andrew’s wife) to the group, they set out for Las Vegas to put out their first EP. They recorded both “Imagine Dragons” and “Hell and Silence” in Vegas, at Battle Born Studios. Both EP’s did well, but not well enough, in the band’s opinion. Their third and final EP “It’s Time” got them a record deal with Interscope. Their success was starting to seem less imaginative and more realistic.

Whatever It Takes

After signing with Interscope Records, the band put out their debut album “Night Visions.” It included the hit single “Radioactive,” which brought them more fame than they could have ever expected. Their first albums success led to them releasing their second album “Smoke and Mirrors”, which topped charts, and “Evolve”, which earned them yet another Grammy nod.

After taking a quick break in 2016 (they’d released an album three years in a row) they did some great collaborations - from working with Khalid to doing songs for movie soundtracks. And while their song “Sucker for Pain” did well in the Suicide Squad movie, it’s more like this band is a sucker for hard work. They put out their fourth album, Origins, in 2018.