Imagine Dragons on the evolution that led to 'Evolve' and what fans can expect on new tour

Twelve days before Imagine Dragons take the stage at Talking Stick Resort Arena for the launch of their "Evolve" tour, drummer Daniel Platzman checks in from Las Vegas to discuss the tour and album.

It's clear that the man has been itching to talk about a few specific highlights of the stage show, but Platzman is playing it close to the vest.

I guess you learn that sort of thing in Vegas.

"I can’t reveal too many of the secrets," Platzman says. "It’s shrouded in mystery and anticipation and I’d hate to ruin that. But I can assure you, there will be some drums and we will be playing the music from 'Evolve.'"

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Then he laughs and adds, "Actually, I couldn’t give you a 100 percent honest answer because we're still changing things about the show even at this moment and it’s very stressful, but only in a really fun way. There’s a couple of specific moments I am extremely excited to do in production rehearsals and see how they go.

"I can’t spill the beans more than that. But there’s things that I am specifically excited and maybe terrified about in the production."

It's pointed out that "maybe terrified" sounds promising, to which Platzman replies with a laugh, "That seems to be a thing people like, us being terrified."

That's not the only thing, of course, that people like about Imagine Dragons. They're among the most successful rock acts of their generation, thanks to such crowd-pleasing signature songs as a 10-times-platinum triumph called "Radioactive" and its five-times-platinum followup, "Demons,"

“Believer,” the first single out of the box from "Evolve," spent no fewer than 13 consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard alternative radio charts while breaking a record that had stood for more than 13 years for number of spins at the format, besting Linkin Park’s “Faint” in the process.

Question: When I saw you on the Smoke + Mirrors Tour, I was really impressed with the energy you put into the show. Has the stage show always been that energetic or was there a turning point where you guys found that side of who you are on stage?

Answer: Well, thank you. I can honestly say that we are legitimately having the time of our lives when we’re on stage. So I think that has something to do with it. I was not in the “playing the casinos” part of the band, but by the time I joined, the shows were full of energy.

I think that has a lot to do with playing shows in casinos for crowds of people that did not come to see the band play. That puts the pressure on. It’s almost like you’re auditioning for everyone that’s wandering into the room to buy a drink to try to make them stay there for 15 more minutes and get a second drink. Because then you will get hired back.

So I feel like that has a lot to do with it. But we can’t help it. We’ll be complaining before the show that our elbow hurts, or something hurts, and still go crazy at the show then at the end, we’ll be smiling in pain.

Q: Did you ever see them play a casino?

A: I actually did sit in with them a couple of times. Both at O’Shea’s and at Mandalay Bay. Because I went to college with the guys and kept in touch. So I did get to sit in but I didn’t actually go through the gauntlet of one of the six-hour gigs. I was sitting there eating a hot dog and drinking a beer and then casually going up to play “Semi-Charmed Life.” I did not put the blood and sweat in.

Q: What was your first impression of the music they were doing before you joined?

A: It was great. I was Ben (McKee’s) roommate when he dropped out of Berklee (College of Music) and moved to Vegas to join Wayne (Sermon’s) band because, you know, the three of us had been playing together in fusion lab, the Eclectic Electrics, with the extremely talented Mr. Mark White, an amazing teacher, amazing guitar player. We had been doing that for three years.

Then I moved to New York, was doing a bunch of jazz stuff. I actually went to South By Southwest with Michael Feinberg’s group. And Imagine Dragons was playing South By Southwest at the same time. So we hung out there and I saw them do a couple sets. I was blown away. They were great. I had been sent the music. It wasn’t the first time I had heard it. But they put on an insane live show even back then.

Q: You talked about having played jazz. Do you draw anything from that world when you’re playing what you’re playing now?

A: On a micro level, no. On a macro level, absolutely. I think a lot of jazz is figuring out how to play with people as a team. And certainly, that part of jazz, I think, is with me. Even when I’m not doing music. When I’m just trying to be a good member of the team and help out with the dishes. That’s part of the jazz thing. You want to be aware of what is going on and complement what’s going on around you.

Sometimes the most important thing you can do is to stop playing and not overplay. The whole yin-and-yang aspect of that is with me all the time.

Q: Having said, “Sometimes the most important thing you can do is to stop playing,” in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Dan (Reynolds) talked about trying to pull back a bit on this album from what he called “almost a wall of noise and music.”

A: (Laughs). I think what Dan was referring to is the clarity on “Evolve” and the new aesthetic there. And he’s absolutely right.

With “Smoke & Mirrors,” we were self-producing mostly. We did a couple tracks with Alex (da Kid) but for the most part we were producing it ourselves in our studio in Vegas and ran into a lot of things that we didn’t know to look out for, like, “We have over 200 audio tracks on this song. Should we keep adding?” (Laughs).

We’re really proud of “Smoke & Mirrors,” but I think you can absolutely hear that there is a lot going on, and that it isn’t the clearest sound. On “Evolve,” I think that is the one thing that stands out. It’s really clean. And that’s because we did not mostly self-produce this one at all. We did some tracks with Alex and we also did some tracks with some other producers, which is a thing that we had never done before.

So really just getting to wear the musician hat and knowing there is someone in the room that you trust wearing the producer hat was so much fun, so much less stressful. When someone’s sitting in the chair and they’re like, “You’ve recorded enough takes of this. Let’s move on,” you know it’s time to move on. There was no lingering, “But maybe we should try it with a snare drum full of water.” (Laughs).

You have the time in the studio as a young band and you want to try all the options. That’s not a bad thing at all, but I think that’s a thing that resulted in not the cleanest sound.

Q: Did you really use a snare drum full of water?

A: (Laughs). I really have used a snare drum full of water. We did not in the making of “Smoke & Mirrors,” but in something that I can’t talk about, I definitely did use a snare drum full of water. It’s shrouded in mystery.

Q: How did you decide on “Evolve” as the album title?

A: I think it’s really a coming of age for us. We’ve never felt more comfortable with who we think we are and what we sound like. I think you can hear that. I think that’s the only reason we were able to decide to step back and work with some producers and really trust that we were who we were.

Q: How would you say you have evolved in the course of these three albums?

A: All the things we were talking about, feeling comfortable in our own skin, not needing to record 200 snare drum sounds to get the right one. Maybe just record eight different sounds. (Laughs).

Q: Are there certain types of songs and sounds you try to include when you’re getting material together for an album that make it who you are?

A: No. That’s what I would call a fear-based decision. I think that’s exactly what we were avoiding this time, like, “Oh man, people expecting us to write a song like A. Let’s write that song now.” We did not do that going into this one at all. We were creating music. We still went through the same insane album process where we wrote way too many songs, but I think that’s fine.

Out of all of those demos came a collection of songs that we saw had some cohesion and made sense together as an album.

Q: Now, I’m sure this will fall under the heading of fear-based decisions, but being among the most successful rock bands of the decade, is there a pressure that comes with that to keep coming through with the hits?

A: Yes! That would exactly be a fear-based decision. (Laughs.) We as humans make fear-based decisions all the time. I’m not saying all fear-based decisions are bad. If a car is going down the street, I am afraid to walk in front of it. That’s really not a bad thing. But when it comes to making art, an artistic decision made out of fear is generally not gonna be a good one.

It’s gonna come across as inauthentic and no one’s even gonna like it. When you listen back, you’re gonna be like, “This is not good.”

Q: Having said that, you are happy when “Believer” tops the rock charts.

A: Absolutely. We were blown away. We have not evolved past our egos completely. (Laughs). As much as it would be great to be like “I don’t care about that,” the success of “Believer” and “Evolve” has been blowing us away. We couldn’t be happier. We’re thrilled. And it makes us especially excited because if the album got this big of a response before we hit the road, these shows are just gonna be so much fun.

Q: Are you doing a lot of the songs from the album?

A: Yeah. We’re gonna play every song in production rehearsals. We’re gonna be prepared to do every song. I know Dan has talked a lot about switching up the set list night to night. So I can’t with full confidence say that you will hear the whole album, but we’re certainly prepared to do the whole album.

Q: Your songs tend to turn up a lot in TV commercials and movie trailers. Is that ever a weird experience for you, like you’re watching TV and suddenly, there’s your song, playing in this context that it wasn’t in when you recorded it?

A: Certainly. I’m from Atlanta, Ga., so for example, when I was watching the Falcons in the Super Bowl this year, there was our song in a commercial and that was very surreal because I had my football hat on and I had to take it off and put my band hat on.

I was like, “Wait a minute.” And everyone’s like, “There were so many e-mails about this that it was going to be specifically at this moment.” But I was so caught up in the game, obviously.

Q: When I said I was interviewing you, a friend said I should ask what’s the longest period of time you’ve watched TV this year without hearing yourself in a commercial.

A: (Laughs). I went to Berklee as a film-scoring major so I didn’t plan on being a rock-and-roll musician or touring. I thought I was gonna be some film composer’s assistant and be the person trying to do the MIDI strings at 3 a.m. just so I could at the end of it feel like I was somehow involved.

So going backwards through the telescope where the music we’re actually making is being used in movies and commercials is a thrill for me.

Q: What’s been your favorite use of your music?

A: When we got to work on “Transformers” with Steve Jablonsky and Hans Zimmer, that was College Me’s dream come true. And to remain friends with Hans and Steve after that. They’re heroes of mine, they’re amazing musicians, I learned so much and I have so much respect for them. I’m still smiling thinking about it.

Q: You’ve played a variety of different types of venues here in Phoenix. Is there a particular gig that stands out in your mind?

A: Arizona has always been really good to us. I remember touring both Phoenix and Tucson in the Dragon Wagon and those shows would always be crazy, when we were driving ourselves in our airport shuttle bus. But does one show stand out in particular? I know when we were playing the arena last time, it was a really crazy show. Phoenix always goes hard.

Q: You mentioned the casino thing and Vegas earlier. Is there any sort of friendly rivalry between the Vegas bands — you guys, Killers, Panic! At the Disco?

A: There’s just a lot of Vegas pride there. Vegas doesn’t get talked about as a musical hotbed very often so personally, when anyone’s mentioning Vegas, the Killers and Panic, I’m happy. I’m prideful. I’m like “Yeah, Vegas! We’re on the map.”

We love those guys. I got to go to the Killers’ “Sam’s Town” show, the 10th anniversary of “Sam’s Town” at Sam’s Town casino and it was amazing. I am a huge, huge Ronnie Vannucci fan. Their drummer is such a badass. Always going crazy. He’s an inspiration for sure. He’s having so much fun when he’s playing a show. I try to have half as much fun as Ronnie.

Q: That’s great. You know what I got, like, an hour before you called was a stream of the Killers' new album.

A: Oh awesome.

Q: I haven’t been able to listen to it because I was getting ready to talk to you, but I have it.

A: Ahhh! I ruined your Killers experience. We have nothing but love for those guys.

Imagine Dragons

When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 26.

Where: Talking Stick Resort Arena, Second and Jefferson Streets, Phoenix.

Admission: $39-$972.

Details: 800-745-3000, ticketmaster.com.

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