Las Vegas rockers Imagine Dragons recorded over 100 demos in a home-built studio (which may or may not have been located nextdoor to an undercover drug lab) for their recently-released sophomore album, Smoke + Mirrors, despite only 13 tracks being cleared to make the final cut.

The awesome foursome have been in town for a whistle-stop promo tour to plug the new disc, and they took some time out during the whirlwind visit to sit down with Music Feeds and have a chat about the recording process.

“We’re just huge music nerds”, said drummer Daniel Platzman, describing how all the songs for the album were born during on-road songwriting sessions. “What we do for our own well-being, and therapeutically and just for fun is we make music. So, you know, we finish a show, we get on the bus, we have a three-hour ride somewhere…all that time gets filled and we just take our laptops out and start making music.”

The band also spoke about the genre-bending diversity of the new album, which features an eclectic variety of songs sporting rock, pop, folk, country and even hip-hop vibes.

“We’ve never consciously tried to put ourselves into a genre”, explained bassist, Ben McKee. “And I think that people who are listening to music these days – they’re listening to everything, they’re not confined to one kind of music anymore.”

“You know, back in the ’90s it seems like people really would listen to only one kind of music and that kind of defined who you were. But now, everybody goes on the internet, everybody listens to every kind of music. We – as music appreciators – we listen to different kind of music. So everything we listen to becomes an influence to us. We can’t help but make a diverse album and we don’t worry about which category it fits into.”

“I don’t think any of us are concerned with where we’re put,” added guitarist Dan Reynolds. “So whether it’s called ‘genre-less’, whether it’s called a rock band, whatever it is – we’re just creating music that we like, that inspires us.”

Imagine Dragons will be returning to our shores very soon for a full-scale album tour, this September. Check out the full list of dates, here or check out our review of their new album, Smoke + Mirrors, here. [Music Feeds Australia]