Since Imagine Dragons debuted 10 years ago, billion has become their default number. Four of the hitmaking group's singles — "Radioactive," "Believer," "Demons," and "Thunder" — each have more than a billion views on YouTube and a billion streams on Spotify.
Clearly those aren't the only songs that have made Imagine Dragons one of the most commercially successful rock bands of the 2010s. Combined, the group's streams top 100 billion, thanks to other hits like "Whatever It Takes" and "Enemy." The latter track is part of the group's sixth LP (and first compilation album), Mercury - Acts 1 & 2, and became their latest top 5 single on the Billboard Hot 100 — proving that they're not done making hits.
Behind each one of Imagine Dragons' songs is frontman Dan Reynolds, the group's principal songwriter. While the band has only been active in the mainstream for a decade, 35-year-old Reynolds is going on 25 years of making music.
"I started writing when I was 12, and I have recorded a song almost every day since then," Reynolds tells GRAMMY.com. "I have thousands and thousands of recorded songs with lyrics and melody that never saw the light of day."
Luckily for Imagine Dragons and their fans, plenty of songs have emerged from Reynolds' daily songwriting — and it's taken him and his band around the world. The group kicked off their 72-date Mercury World Tour in Miami in February, and they return to North America on Aug. 5 after a stretch of shows in Europe. (They had to cancel shows in Ukraine and Russia due to the countries' ongoing conflict, but Imagine Dragons showed their support for Ukraine by becoming ambassadors for United24, the organization launched by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that collects charitable donations for his country.)
During a brief break from performing, Reynolds reminisced with GRAMMY.com about some of his group's most recognizable hits to date.
"It's Time" — Night Visions, 2012
The major-label debut single from Imagine Dragons cracked the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100, also finding its way onto multiple screens thanks to Gossip Girl, Perks of Being a Wallflower and Glee.
Ten years later, it's still the song with which Imagine Dragons open the majority of their live shows. For Reynolds, "It's Time" serves as perhaps the most full-circle song in their catalog. "I wrote 'It's Time' in my dorm room the week I was dropping out of college to pursue music," he recalls. "The stomp clap is me hitting my desk."
After moving back to his hometown of Las Vegas, Reynolds recorded the song with the rest of the band at The Studio at the Palms. "We added the group's stomps and claps, but we kept the slaps and claps I had done in the dorm room," he says. "There is something about the youthfulness of that song. It took us from obscurity into alternative radio. It paved the way for 'Radioactive' and is still, to this day, one of my favorite songs."
"Radioactive" — Night Visions, 2012
Imagine Dragons' highest-charting single on the Hot 100, the No. 3-peaking "Radioactive" was the band's first top 5 single. It also gave Imagine Dragons another big first: their first GRAMMY. "Radioactive" won Best Rock Performance at the 56th GRAMMYs, where it was also nominated for Record Of The Year (and where the group performed the song with Kendrick Lamar).
"My first memories of 'Radioactive' are me living in a studio apartment at the Villa Carlotta in L.A. with my wife and first child," recalls Reynolds. "My wife and I were both struggling musicians. She was the singer of a band called Nico Vega who were signed to MySpace. Imagine Dragons was unsigned. We played at the Viper Room and Alex da Kid's assistant attended our show, bought our EP and gave it to Alex. [Alex] emailed saying 'I like your songwriting. Would you like to come in and do some songwriting sessions?'"
"Radioactive" was one of the first songs they wrote, with Reynolds writing the lyrics and melodies and Alex da Kid creating the dubstep beat. With the addition of Wayne Sermon's guitar parts, Ben McKee's bass and Daniel Platzman's drums, the song became, "More and more strange," laughs Reynolds. "Combining EDM and dubstep and five rock instruments was weird. But we wanted to keep listening to it. That was promising."
But when they brought "Radioactive" to their newly minted team at Interscope — their label home since 2011 — Reynolds remembers being told "This can never play on Top 40 radio." Nonetheless, "It forced its way on the radio," he asserts. "It was a monster. One of those songs that just wanted a life of its own and took on a life of its own."
"Demons" — Night Visions, 2012
Imagine Dragons' second Top 10 single "Demons" was "written in two hours," says Reynolds, during those same early songwriting sessions with Alex da Kid. Reynolds would write from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. every day, and present what he had to Alex da Kid at the end of the day.
"Alex is usually very reserved and not reactive," says Reynolds. "I remember specifically when I played 'Demons' he was like, 'This is really special,' which is a lot for him. When we brought in the band, it took even more life. Same as 'Radioactive,' where adding real instrumentation took something that was electronic and brought more live emotion to it, it made the song feel magical.
"We were an unsigned band at this time," Reynolds continues. "Even though these songs feel special, we had no understanding or idea that they would go on to be massive. In a perfect world, we wanted to maybe get enough fans to be able to do a club tour around America and play in front of 150 people in every city. The dream was to be able to sustain ourselves as indie artists. We had no understanding of what the songs would actually end up doing."
Last year, "Demons" was Diamond-certified, making Imagine Dragons the first band to have three Diamond-certified singles at the time; "Thunder" hit that milestone certification this July, adding to their record-breaking RIAA legacy.
"Believer" — Evolve, 2017
"Believer" marked the start of Reynolds working with Swedish songwriting/production duo Mattman & Robin, as well as hit-making songwriter Justin Tranter — collaborators who Reynolds says helped Imagine Dragons get back on track.
"We self-produced our second record, Smoke & Mirrors, which is one of my favorite records that we've done," says Reynolds. "But its biggest weakness is, it was way over-produced. When it's four people producing, it's easy to overthink and keep adding, so it's a huge wall of sound on every song."
With that in mind, Reynolds says the band took "a really minimalistic view" when approaching Evolve. "Mattman and Robin, that's what they do: very few sounds, but really intelligent and well thought out. We were in a room with [Tranter] and 'Believer' came really quick. It was one of those songs that was waiting to be written."
"Believer" spent 29 weeks topping the Hot Rock & Alternative chart — their longest run on the tally to date. Additionally, "Believer" is the only song in Imagine Dragons' catalog to have more than 2 billion streams on Spotify and 2 billion views on YouTube.
"Thunder" — Evolve, 2017
Imagine Dragons' fourth Diamond-certified single was nominated for Best Pop/Duo/Group Performance at the 60th GRAMMY Awards. The song spent 24 weeks in the No. 1 position on the Hot Rock and Alternative Songs chart and seven weeks at No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
"It was recorded at my computer in my front entry room," recalls Reynolds. "If you listen really closely, you can hear a couple of my kids screaming in the background. There was nothing professional about it. It wasn't in a studio. It's not recorded in a vocal booth. I recorded it in one evening, sent it back to Alex, he said, 'I love this, let's get the band on it.'"
"Whatever It Takes" — Evolve, 2017
"Whatever It Takes" is Imagine Dragons' unintentional sports anthem. The third Hot Rock & Alternative Songs No. 1 — in a row — from Evolve was the official theme song for WWE's Battleground 2017 as well as featured on Madden NFL 18.
"We lived with that song for months," remembers Reynolds. "We kept feeling like the chorus sounded too familiar. Nobody could put their finger on it. We finally realized it sounded too close to Gary Glitter's 'Rock 'n' Roll.' It wasn't the same melody, but it was close enough that it made you think of it. We got rid of the chorus. I rewrote and re-recorded the chorus at my house in the same front lobby that I recorded 'Thunder.' I wanted that kind of redemptive chorus and I tried to stay in that zone when I was creating it."
Says Reynolds of the GRAMMY-nominated Evolve, "It's a big record for us, which is crazy because we felt Night Visions was one of those things that we were never going to replicate and that it was all downhill from there."
"Natural" — Origins, 2018
Also an unintentional sports anthem, "Natural" was the hype song for ESPN's 2018 college football season. Reynolds wrote "Natural" during the same sessions as "Believer," but held on to the song for a strategic reason.
"When you put out an album, you're lucky in this day and age, if maybe you get two big singles," he says. "You don't get three or four singles. It just doesn't happen that way. We knew 'Natural' was going to be a big song, but we didn't want to put it on Evolve, because it would get buried with 'Thunder' and 'Whatever It Takes' and 'Believer.'"
So, they put it on Origins, which Reynolds calls "the sister album" to Evolve. "I'm really glad we did that, because I don't think it would have ever been released as a single or seen the light of day otherwise."
"Enemy (with JID)" — Mercury - Act 1/Arcane League of Legends Soundtrack, 2021
When the video game company Riot Games presented Arcane: League of Legends to Imagine Dragons to tap them for a theme song, Reynolds felt "Enemy" was a good fit for the Netflix animated series.
"We had the whole song complete," remembers Reynolds. "But we thought it'd be cool to have a guest appearance on it. We took out my vocals on the bridge. I really love JID and suggested him. What he added to it really brought it up a level."
It was four years from the time "Enemy" was written to when it was released with Arcane. But it was worth the wait for Imagine Dragons: "Enemy" earned them their first top 5 hit on the Hot 100 in five years.
"Bones" — Mercury - Acts 1&2, 2022
The lead single from Mercury - Act 2, "Bones," earned Imagine Dragons their 22nd Top 10 hit on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. Reynolds says his writing for Mercury - Acts 1&2 revolved around the concept of finality — and "Bones" exemplifies that idea.
"I was really hyper focused on death," says Reynolds. "That sounds so morbid, but that was the theme of the record. My goal was to write a song about death that was not sad. It's the first time we've ever made a dance song. When we play 'Bones' live, everybody's dancing. It's not typical for Imagine Dragons. That's not the rhythm that we go for. It's usually more angsty.
"'Bones' is supposed to be self-aware and a little bit ironic. But also, it was part of my lifelong obsession about, 'What is life? Why are we here? Where are we going? What happens when we die?' And also about not wanting to recognize death because it's such a scary thing to talk about. Why not just sing about it and make light of it?"
As "Bones" continues to rack up the streams and views and Imagine Dragons hit the road again, one thing remains clear: They're showing no signs of stepping down from their place as one of the biggest rock bands of their generation.