Who would you guys love to collaborate with?

Hmm. That is a good question.

Hey guys, Erica Ross here. No, we are not in New York. We are in the heart of Hollywood at Paramount Studios for the Billabong Design for Humanity event. We're catching up with the headliners. So I am here with Imagine Dragons on the back lot of Paramount. Have you guys ever been here before?

Uh, for sound check.

How is this different from playing a charity event versus a regular concert?

It's not every day you play, uh, you know, a movie set essentially. We're kind of in New York right now. It's just kind of surreal. Yeah, we're in Brooklyn and LA. Weird.

How does it feel to be in New York? Amazing, right? We're on the east side of Los Angeles right now. Tell us a little bit about the charity.

It's called the Cultivate Foundation. Basically it draws attention to agriculture, sustainable methods of farming, animal welfare, and, um, drawing attention to things like local suppliers and yeah, making good, making good kind of individual choices about where the food comes from.

There is a whole lot to take in. There's a lot of art, a lot of fashion, uh, a lot of pretty people.

A lot of pretty people.

And there's a lot of great music, you know, we're really looking forward to seeing Imagine Dragons and The Lumineers. Um, Joy Formidable is pretty darn awesome. So I, I'm looking forward to seeing them. Now there's a fashion show and there's also a few bands playing, you guys being one of them. Are you guys gonna check out the fashion show, the art?

We want to check out the whole thing, you know, we, uh, very much like to get involved. It's not a job, it's not just showing up and playing a set and going home, you know, So like we said, it's, you know, it's good to be part of something that's a worthwhile cause. So absolutely.

Now pretty soon thousands of screaming fans will be here. Do you guys have any kind of ritual you do before you perform?

We do have a little ritual thing that we do. We, you know, just warm up our vocals and have a little chant. But uh, it's top secret. I couldn't tell you, but uh, yeah.

You guys all look so spiffy. Check this out. I'm like

Our moms all dressed us today. We've graduated, we've graduated.

Your mom dressed you?

Yes. That's nice. Yes, she did.

The band name Imagine Dragons. How'd you guys come up with that?

Um, it's an anagram. So we had a phrase that we had initially had, but we didn't want to call the band that phrase. But it was something that we all agreed on, you know, felt somewhat passionate about it and uh, so we switched letters around and came up with Imagine Dragons and uh, we haven't told anybody what that initial phrase was just because it's fun to hear people guess and uh, I'm sure one day we will, but.

Who would you guys love to collaborate with?

Hmm. That is a good question. The Beatles. Come on now.

So living, they have to be living.

Well, what, okay, so dead, The Beatles, living. Uh, uh, living, uh, Paul Simon for me. I'd love to do something with Björk. Michael Bolton. Oh, that's a good one. We really love the uh, the snowy-haired wonder Michael McDonald. For today I'll say Patty Smith. Dave Grohl or Trent Reznor? Uh, maybe Tom Waits, that could be fun.

Who have you guys been inspired by recently? What is playing on your iPod?

Uh, The Lumineers. Arcade Fire. The Yeah, we should say that. Yeah, off J. Florence and Machine is really inspiring. I had Subtrax album, Nero's album. All sorts. You know, we've, uh, we've been here in LA for months. Oh, yeah, I do like a bit of Tom Waits.

Are there any like guilty pleasures on your iPod? Like maybe some Bieber, I don't know, or

Some of my old school prog rock, I'd put it in the guilty pleasure category. You know, everybody enjoys a Party in the USA every now and then. Miley. I see, I see your style.

Now, when we walked the red carpet, you guys had like a mob of fans waiting to say hi to you guys and they had paint all over their face. Yeah, they're ready to go. They're ready to party. Where did the paint come from?

Uh, the paint came from the Anson video. When we were filming it, we wanted to have sort of a Peter Pan and the Lost Boys sort of vibe. And, uh, when we released it in at our hometown, we had a party and sort of just tried to recreate the vibe of the video for fun. And it just went so well that night that it kind of accidentally made its way into the rest of the shows and became this tradition that we do.

How would you guys describe your music?

You know, uh, why don't you describe it, Ben? Well, you know, we are, we're a rock band. We, we all grew up listening to rock and that's essentially what we are at our core. But, uh, we also like to experiment and anything we hear that we like, you know, we try to, you know, make that part of our sound. So maybe we're on the fringes of what a rock band is, but I still think that rock is where our core stand. We're frickin' rock.