In this episode, John links up with Dan and Wayne of Imagine Dragons to talk about how they wrote, recorded and produced their latest album 'Mercury - Act 1.

Having spent almost three years writing almost 300 demos, Dan and Wayne look back on the process of whittling down the tracklist and forming the album, from capturing their ideas as quickly as possible, through to working with legendary producer Rick Rubin and deconstructing everything to its purest essence.

As well as sharing their thoughts on creativity, songwriting and their life experiences in the world of music, the pair speak openly about the inspiration and meaning behind some of their most honest tracks to date, while also demonstrating how they let the subject of each song help define its production.

Listen to find out why samples can sometimes work better than a live performance, how raw magic often is captured on a first take, and the wealth of instruments that Dan can create using only his mouth.

Tracks discussed: Dull Knives, It’s Ok, Wrecked

LINKS TO EVERYTHING TAPE NOTES 

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Listen to ‘Mercury - Act 1’ here.

‘Mercury - Act One’ - Interscope Records, KIDinaKORNER 

Intro Music - Sunshine Buddy, Laurel Collective 

GEAR MENTIONS

Analogue Design Black Box Plugin

ApTrigga

Soundtoys Devil-Loc

TrackSpacer Plugin

Fab Filter Pro-Q3

Melodyne

Antares Auto-Tune

Goodhertz Wow Control

UAD E SSL Channel Strip

Valhalla Reverbs

Native Instruments Guitar Rig

Native Instruments Drum Lab

Native Instruments Rickenbacker

Gibson Les Paul

Ebow

Vox AC30

Marshall ShredMaster Pedal

Shure SM57

Royer Microphone

Neumann U47

Neumann U67

Neve 1073

Kemper Profiler Rack

Fender Telecaster

Fender Princeton Amp

Roland TR-808

Ableton Tube Amp

Ableton Compressor

Ableton

Cakewalk

Logic Pro

Cubase

OUR GEAR

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