Imagine Dragons - KROQ Sound Space Artist Interviews (2024)

Imagine Dragonsjoined us for a special performance and interview in the Helpful Honda Sound Space to give fans a preview of their brand new albumLOOM, upcoming tour dates, and more.

With the arrival of their brand new, sixth studio albumLOOM, Imagine Dragonsdropped by Audacy's KROQ in Los Angeles to give fans a taste of the new record, as well as what to expect from the band on their impending tour which kicks off at the end of July.LOOMis available now.

Looking back on the band's relationship with KROQ, frontmanDan Reynolds remembers the first time he heard their music played on the radio back in 2012, recalling they were driving from Las Vegas to L.A. to play a show. “We were just getting in range to pick up the station and-- this sounds like such a made-up story, it's so dramatic -- it was fuzzy," he says as their single "It's Time," came through the speakers. "We were just racing as fast as we could to kind of get a better signal to hear it. It was straight out of a movie. We were all just like, ‘This feels too weird.’”

12 years after their debut, the group just released their sixth studio album,LOOM, and are feeling familiar excitement and relief now that it’s finally been delivered.

“You know, when you make a record -- you're working on it for over a year, sometimes two years," Reynolds says. "So, we've been sitting with this music for a long time, and it's really hard for us to sit on that. I hate it, I'm always anxious about it, waiting. So we've been counting down the days for a long time… It's a relief and we also are really proud and excited about this record and we hope everybody likes it as much as we do.”

“You have given me purpose and a place to sing and dance,” Dan stated when announcing the new offering. “You have continually stood by our side now for over a decade. in return we will always be here singing along with you. I always and only hope that it helps you feel less alone. It brings you joy. makes you cry. makes you angry. makes you dance. makes you FEEL something.”

“I've just spent a lot of my life numb,” he tells us. “I had a hard time expressing myself. That's why I turned to music in the first place -- I found that it was something I could always turn to and feel any emotion. I'm kind of one of those people who doesn't cry for a long time and then when you cry, you just cry really hard in a long time. Or, when you get angry you're really angry because you've been holding it in, and that's really unhealthy. I did that for a long time,” he admits.

“Now I'm just angry all the time, I cry all the time,” he laughs. “But only a little bit angry,” bassistBen McGeeadds.

GuitaristWayne Sermonsays of the new record, “The album cover itself, you don't even know if it's necessarily a sunrise or a sunset… The word ‘Loom,’ it can be a positive or negative connotation just depending on what's going on. I think one thing that looms over every single person through their life is, you're guaranteed to have relationships with other humans, with other people. To me, we always do like the sort of diagnosis after an album's out. I don't want to speak for Dan, but I'm not sure even he knows what the album is about until it's done. So for me, this was an album purely based on relationships, whether it's to us personally… or just, you know, writ large. It’s a pure relationship album, to me.”

“To us, that is the most important thing to know. That there are people around the world that we've connected with, we've really grown up with, you know? We've been through sad times, hard times, multiple heartbreaks,” Dan explains, “and to know that people still wanna come out and celebrate that. I think anybody who's been to a Dragons show has hopefully felt that honesty and that sense of community. It's a different experience than other shows and we're really proud of that. It's because it's just honest, for better or for worse, it's always honest. So to know that 16 years in the band is bigger than it's ever been and people are wanting to come out means everything to us.”

Catch the full performance andMegan Holiday's interview with Imagine Dragons above -- plus stay tuned for more conversations with your favorite artists right here on Audacy.

Words by Joe Cingrana Interview by Megan Holiday

Imagine Dragons - KROQ Sound Space Artist Interviews (2024)

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