“PEOPLE pigeon hole us as indie-rock but we don’t even know what that means.” In a confused state, and with (almost) hysterical fans waiting for them to begin the sold-out Glasgow gig, Imagine Dragons sit relaxed in an environment that is anything but as they embrace the fame spiral out of control since that advert.
The advert in question features the bands song ‘radioactive’ which acts as the theme tune to video game Assassin Creed 3. And the band has no problem with admitting a whole troop of fans imploded on to the dragon scene from its release: “There are a lot of people I have met that say they learned about us through the Assassin game which I think is pretty cool man.”
‘Night visions’ is anything but a predictable title for an EP from a Las Vegas band. From a state where the best things happen after dark, Imagine Dragons stumbled across the name typically between the twilight hours- when the band are at their best, of course: “When the title came up in conversation, we just knew it was right. We always write between 3 am and 6 am, that’s when we write best. That’s the only time we write actually.
“Our guitarist is a clinical insomniac; he sends me stuff that he’s written after being up for five days straight. A lot of thatguitar made its way to the album.
“After dark, my lyrics are born. A lot of lyrics I have written have come from dreams and of course nightmares.”
Successfully bringing renowned Hip Hop producer Alex Da Kid to the dark side of rock, Imagine Dragons count the industry-king as a friend since he fell for the band in his wheels: “I guess he was just riding in the car one day and his assistant put in our CD. He said he really liked it and wanted to meet with us. When he emailed us we were just so stoked as we were pretty familiar with his work, I listen to a lot of urban music.
He was a genuine fan of the band and didn’t want to change anything about what we were doing but really just bring his expertise to the table and help us do it on a bigger level.
As a musician, you never want to change your form to fit in with labels or industry opinions, with Alex he just really wanted to help us. We were the first rock band he worked with.
“He’s a big fan of rock music and he just really wanted to work with a rock band, we just happened to be it.”
Even Las Vegas dudes get stars in their eyes and while playing with a childhood hero recently, star struck the band got: “We recently played with Third Eye Blind; the first song I ever learned on guitar was their tune ‘jumper’. They came over to us at a festival we played at together and asked us if we wanted to go on stage together and play that exact song ‘jumper’. So I was pretty star struck after that.
“I was so nervous, it was amazing.
“We will never forget Bergen Fest in Norway, it was so beautiful there and it was so cool. We were really new as a band when we first played there and a lot of people were reaching out to us and that was really special.
“Our bass player tried a local drink that messed him up so bad that he ended up getting punched in the face.
“Well actually he asked a big hairy Viking dude to punch him in the face. But he god punched all the same.”
As Tenement TV’s chat with Imagine Dragon descends into the night we leave the band whose name is a secret anagram with a gift of an evening in the hope the extra hairy crowd at Nice N Sleazy’s can top that night in Norway with the hairy Viking.
Edited by Nadine Walker
