Dan Reynolds

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Biography of Dan Reynolds

Daniel Colter Reynolds is an American professional musician and vocalist, and a founding member of the rock band Imagine Dragons. The formation of the team falls on 2008-2009, the peak of development falls on 2012-2016. Reynolds and his band became a sensation in the music world, fusing different styles such as pop, country, R&B, synth-pop and rock.

Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds


Childhood and education

Dan Reynolds was born July 14, 1987 in Las Vegas, Nevada. His parents, Ronald and Christine Reynolds, belong to the Mormon religious movement common in the United States. One of the features inherent in the Mormons is the large number of children coming from the commitment to Christian traditions. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Reynolds family raised nine children, the seventh of them was Daniel (Dan) Colter.

From early childhood, Daniel was taught to study music, he and the rest of his sisters and brothers learned to play the piano from the age of 6.

The huge family of Dan Reynolds (in the center – the parents of the musician)


While studying at school, Daniel was a difficult teenager, it was difficult for him to communicate with his peers, the future musician was tormented by complexes because of his appearance. Dan Reynolds later recalled that as a child he had only one friend, he could not become part of any company. The teenager’s consolation was a serious passion for music – from the age of 12, Daniel began to compose his own melodies using a computer.

In his youth, Dan Reynolds suffered from complexes because of his appearance.


In the Reynolds family, music was considered more of a hobby than a life credo or a serious profession. Later in college, when creating the rock band Imagine Dragons, Daniel was very worried about the attitude of his parents to his occupation, he felt uncomfortable because of the difference with his brothers and sisters, who already worked as lawyers and doctors.

At the age of 19, he had a difficult period in his life: a quarrel with his parents, leaving home. He went to church, where for two years he did missionary work with difficult families. To earn a living, Dan did dirty work on farms.

In the end, cherishing dreams of a career in the army or the FBI, he entered the private Brigham Young University, located in Provo, Utah. After the first year, he dropped out, but it was in this place that he met his future bandmates Andrew Tolman (drums), Wayne Sermon (guitar), as well as temporary members of the band – Aurora Florence (keyboards), Dave Lemke (bass -guitar), Andrew Beck (guitar), Brittany Tolman (keyboards).

Very young Dan Reynolds plays the guitar

Between 2008 and 2009, the group, starting with performances among peers and in local bars, comes to a number of victories in student competitions. Regular music lessons already at this stage allowed Daniel to grow greatly in terms of vocal skills, guitar playing and drums. The realization of the first successes prompted Dan Reynolds to leave the university and devote himself to a career as a musician.

Musical career

In 2009, after gaining prominence in Provo, the band moved to Las Vegas, where they began by performing at local strip bars and casinos. Here the band releases their first mini-albums: “Imagine Dragons” and “Hell and Silence”.

Dan Reynolds – Mormon


The Imagine Dragons’ first major success and notoriety came after their performance at the 2009 Bite of Las Vegas festival as a replacement for the retired rock band Train. Participation in this major festival brought Dan Reynolds and his band an important experience of performing in front of an audience of more than 25,000 people, recognition from listeners, organizers of the event and music critics.

The rapid growth of popularity, the coverage of the group in the press allowed Imagine Dragons to receive the status of “Most Wanted Group 2010” in 2010, in which they already performed at the Bite of Las Vegas 2010 festival as a guest group.

Dan Reynolds and Imagine Dragons


An important stage in both the career and personal life of Dan Reynolds was the meeting in 2010 with his future wife, Aya Volkman, the lead singer of the Nico Vega band. Together they recorded four tracks that were included in the mini-album “Egyptian”. In November 2011, the budding rock band Imagine Dragons signed a record deal with Interscope Records, allowing them to begin a fruitful collaboration with Grammy award-winning producer Alex Da Kid. This collaboration gave the music world the single “It’s Time” (2012), the mini-album “Continued Silence” (2012) and full-length albums “Night Visions” (2012), “Smoke and Mirrors” (2015) and “Evolve” (2017) , and their tracks have firmly entered the radio airwaves around the world, received recognition from listeners and critics.

Dan Reynolds on making “Next to me”

The most outstanding and highly acclaimed songs include “Believer” (2017), “Radioactive” (2012) and “Thunder” (2017). Each of these rock hits topped the charts in the US, Canada, Sweden or the Czech Republic.

Social activity

One of the goals of Dan Reynolds’ creative and social activities is to fight suicide and intolerance towards the LGBT community, as well as help those who have ankylosing spondylitis (inflammation of the joints of the spine). The topic of complex illnesses and the deep depression that comes from this state is well known to Dan Reynolds. He created an interactive course, This AS Life Live!, about the symptoms of the disease, how to deal with it, and how to live with ankylosing spondylitis.

Dan Reynolds’ disease is called ankylosing spondylitis.


The Imagine Dragons singer himself suffers from ankylosing spondylitis, which, in his own words, makes life a constant struggle. Against this background, he developed an anxiety disorder, and when the musician finally managed to get out of a particularly protracted depressive phase, he wrote the song “Radioactive” as a symbol of a new page in life. The song subsequently became a major hit for Imagine Dragons.

Imagine Dragons

Another key topic is the regular support of the LGBT community, an attempt to convey the idea of ​​equal rights for people with traditional and non-traditional orientations. He pays special attention in this matter to the Mormons, who have a negative attitude towards any manifestations of non-traditional orientation. Dan Reynolds came up with the idea for The LoveloudFestival, a series of concerts in Utah dedicated to the issue of suicide by LGBTQ teenagers.

Dan Reynolds is not gay, but supports the LGBT community


Personal life of Dan Reynolds

Dan Reynolds was married once, divorced, but reconciled with his wife again. Father of three children. The vocalist of Imagine Dragons met his future wife Aya Volkman (also a singer and musician) in 2010, during her performance at a nightclub in Las Vegas. Already in March 2011 they played a wedding.

Dan Reynolds and his wife Aya


At the beginning of their married life, they repeatedly publicly expressed the depth of their feelings for the second half. Dan Reynolds claimed that it was not only music that connected their couple, but also deep, warm feelings of recognizing a loved one.

The marriage union gave birth to three daughters: Arrow Eve Reynolds (born August 18, 2012), twins Coco Rae and Gia James (born March 28, 2017). Dan Reynolds has repeatedly said in his interviews that the children and his wife gave him hope and strength to fight the disease, were a bright ray in his life.

Imagine Dragons lead singer has three children


At the end of April 2018, the couple announced the beginning of the divorce proceedings, without even hinting at the possible reasons for the quarrel. It took them eight months to reconcile. Now harmony reigns in the family again. “I am proud of you Dan Reynolds, your humility and ability to still be a loving dad,” Aya wrote on her Instagram.

Dan Reynolds now

In addition to the unexpected decision on the divorce of Dan Reynolds and Aja Volkman, which was rushed to cover many of the world’s media, the forthcoming second concert of The Loveloud Festival was not deprived of attention.

2018: Dan Reynolds at Loveloud


All the latest news from the life of Dan Reynolds can be found on the vocalist’s official Twitter account.

Dan Reynolds – listen online