Las Vegas Weekly

• Tweet
• 
• Print
• 

In July, Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds told the Weekly that his band wasn't interested in signing with a label. Unless, that is, "the right magical opportunity came along."

Apparently Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine has a rabbit hidden under that trademark baseball cap.

The band, which has called Las Vegas home since 2009, has signed with Interscope—and subsidiary KidinaKorner—with plans to a release its first full-length album sometime in 2012. "We've had offers before and turned them down, but this definitely felt different," Reynolds said by phone from LA. "The timing and the terms felt right for us and right for them."

Reynolds was quick to add, however, that Imagine Dragons' work has really just begun. "The goal of a band should never be to sign with a major label. It should be to make good music and get it out to as many people as possible."

Since summer, the band has been writing and recording with KidinaKorner label head Alex da Kid, a British producer best known for his work with hip-hop and R&B acts like Eminem, Rihanna and T.I. "Alex is a genius producer, and we really hit it off," Reynolds said. "He was the first person at Interscope to hear our music, and he's been hands-on with us ever since."

Reynolds and the other Dragons—guitarist Wayne Sermon, bassist Ben McKee, keyboardist Theresa Flaminio and drummer Daniel Platzman—live in Southern California these days, where they can access Alex da Kid's LA studio. But Reynolds said he still feels a close connection with Las Vegas. "We're really grateful to Las Vegas and all our fans who have been there from the beginning," he said. "None of this could have happened without them."