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From left to right: Ben McKee,Wayne Sermon, Dan Reynolds, Daniel Platzman
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Ben McKee
Benjamin Arthur McKee (born April 7, 1985, also known as Soft Hands McKee) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is the bassist for the band.
McKee was raised in Forestville, California, and graduated from El Molino High School. He grew up playing acoustic guitar and violin, before picking up acoustic bass in fifth grade.
In high school, he continued learning bass guitar as a member of a jazz trio, which influenced his decision to attend Berklee College of Music.
While at Berklee, McKee played in a guitar performance ensemble with future Imagine Dragons bandmates Wayne Sermon and Daniel Platzman.
Wayne Sermon
Sermon was born on June 15, 1984 in American Fork, Utah to parents Jeff and Debbie Sermon. He is one of five children and grew up a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
As a youth Sermon learned to play both cello and guitar. He was determined to be a guitarist even as a child. His dad had an audio-phile quality amplifier, a record player, and all of The Beatles albums on vinyl, which Sermon enjoyed listening to. He also loved the sounds of Tom Scholz (of Boston) and his approach to solos. He attended Berklee College of Music where he double majored in guitar performance and composition, graduating in 2008. While at Berklee he was part of a five-guitar jazz fusion ensemble called The Eclectic Electrics.
Wayne Sermon first met Dan Reynolds after hearing him perform at a club in Utah and approaching him afterwards about his musical interests. Reynolds invited him to join his band and move to Las Vegas. Sermon then invited Ben McKee to join the band on bass, and drummer Daniel Platzman
Dan Reynolds
Reynolds was born on July 14, 1987 in Las Vegas, the seventh of nine children.
As a Boy Scout, he earned the rank of Eagle Scout in 2005. Reynolds is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). When he was 19 years old, he volunteered full-time as a missionary in Nebraska for two years.
Reynolds wrote the song "I Bet My Life" celebrating and reflecting on his enduring relationship with his parents. Following his graduation from Bonanza High School, he attended University of Nevada, Las Vegas (after losing his ecclesiastical endorsement for Brigham Young University) and then transferred to BYU after serving an LDS mission
Reynolds was initially reluctant to become a professional musician, partially because future bandmate Wayne Sermon had once told him: "Don't do music because you want to do music - do music if you have to do music". After he began attending Brigham Young University, Reynolds found that he could not "do anything else" and committed fully to a professional music career.
Daniel Platzman
Platzman was born on September 28, 1986 in Atlanta, Georgia. He attended Berklee College of Music where he earned a degree in film scoring. While at Berklee, Platzman played in the Berklee Concert Jazz Orchestra, the Urban Outreach Jazz Orchestra and the Berklee Rainbow Big Band, and received the Vic Firth Award for Outstanding Musicianship and the Michael Rendish Award in Film Scoring. He also played in a guitar performance ensemble with future Imagine Dragons bandmates Wayne Sermon and Ben McKee.
In 2011, McKee was invited by Wayne Sermon to join Imagine Dragons, based out of Las Vegas. McKee dropped out of his final semester at Berklee to join the band, inviting Daniel Platzman to play drums, completing the lineup. The band proceeded to earn a number of local accolades including "Best CD of 2011" (Vegas SEVEN), "Best Local Indie Band 2010" (Las Vegas Weekly), "Las Vegas' Newest Must See Live Act" (Las Vegas CityLife), and more sent the band on a positive trajectory. In November 2011 they signed with Interscope Records and began working with producer Alex da Kid.
*All information from Wikipedia
Created on February 19, 2019