BYU NewsNet - Imagine Dragons

Imagine walking onto a stage with a sold out crowd chanting your name. Imagine playing next to a band like The Killers. Imagine touring across the United States and Europe selling out shows in every city. Imagine - Dragons.

Indie rock band Imagine Dragons is making a lot of noise around Provo and especially around BYU campus.

The five-member band, all students at BYU, consists of Dan Reynolds (vocals, guitar), Andrew Beck (guitar, piano), Aurora Florence (violin, piano), Andrew Tolman (drums) and Dave Lemke (bass guitar).

The band formed in preparation for BYU's 2008 Battle of the Bands last October.

"At the beginning of the semester, I got a call from a friend from high school who was in the same mission as Dan Reynolds, and he knew Dan was wanting to form a band," Tolman said. "Andrew and Aurora had already met Dan. I was kind of hesitant to be honest ... [but] we jammed once and they wanted to play at the Battle of the Bands, so I grabbed a bass player [Dave] and we prepared for the Battle of the Bands."

To their astonishment, the band won the battle.

"We were really surprised because we'd been together only like two months," Reynolds said. "It all came together really well. We were all ecstatic."

Only a few months later, Imagine Dragons took on yet another battle, this time at Velour for its winter 2008 Battle of the Bands, competing against other local bands.

"When we won the Velour Battle of the Bands, we were like, 'OK, this is crazy,'" Reynolds said. "We would be happy just to be opening for any of the bands we played with, but to win ? it was a neat experience, very humbling."

Reynold's older brother is the manager for The Killers. Right after finals in December, Imagine Dragons headed to Las Vegas and recorded a five song EP that is planned on being finished sometime this week.

"The main reason was to have some recordings done and to use it to search for different labels that we could maybe be with," Tolman said. "[Dan's] brother is actually producing the EP. It is his brother, but at the same time, he wouldn't do it if he didn't think it was good. He treats the band as he would any other band."

The band writes their own music as a collaborative effort, and they are still in search of their own distinct sound.

"I would say there is some influence of The Killers, but more pop-y ? and happy," Tolman said, chuckling. "Each song is a little different, [but] there is definitely an influence from The Killers and maybe Jason Mraz."

After winning two battles, already booking other shows, and watching their fan base grow each day, the future is looking brighter and brighter for Imagine Dragons.

"Hopefully we plan to be picked up by a label within the next month and go on tour this summer," Reynolds said. "Hopefully from the tour we will start picking up a fan base in America or Europe depending on what label we get picked up on."

The experience has been an exciting and unexpected ride for all the members of Imagine Dragons, one that will last a lifetime.

"Probably my favorite part has been meeting the people I'm playing with in the band," Reynolds said. "We aren't band members, we're best friends. We all have the same aspirations. We want to give it a try and see if we go somewhere."