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Radio France Internationale est une radio publique d'information destinée à être écoutée ou lue dans le monde entier. Elle émet en français et dans la plupart des langues étrangères majeures.

In a dark kitchen in the middle of a sweaty night in Las Vegas, all 6’4” of Dan Reynolds is hunched over a laptop, slapping beats on the table and crooning lyrics into a tiny microphone. Before long, he and the other three members of indie rock band Imagine Dragons would be playing “It’s Time,” that same laptop-demo-turned-supersized-anthem, from the roof of a parking garage to a wave of thousands of screaming fans. This song title to the single from their 2012 debut KidInaKorner/Interscope release “Continued Silence EP” is an all too apt descriptor of the band’s hard-earned success—but it’s also emblematic of the deep-seated anxiety Reynolds and the rest of the band experienced leaving behind any realistic expectation of a normal job to do the thing they love most.

A third-generation Las Vegas native, Reynolds is no stranger to the adage “the house always wins,” choosing to pave his musical career with a near obsessive work ethic and hundreds of unused demos rather than roll the dice with the first songs that sprung from his mouth. It’s no surprise, then, that he was drawn to guitarist Wayne Sermon, another founding member of Imagine Dragons. Having practically grown up in a recording studio and graduated Berklee College of Music, Wayne had been practicing his guitar through meals and other socially inappropriate situations as long as he could remember; he challenged Dan in a way that was both uncomfortable and exactly what they both needed. When they began writing songs together and recognized something special was happening, Wayne called up his Berklee friend Ben McKee, who promptly dropped out of school with only a few credits left, moving across the country to play bass for the band. This sort of reckless/genius behavior is typical for Ben, who has an uncanny penchant for spicy food and a suitcase full of unbelievable road stories. More recently, the band was joined by drummer Daniel Platzman, another Bostonian schoolmate who seems way too nice to be playing rock and roll until you actually see him in action.

Several tours and three self-released EPs later, Imagine Dragons had made a serious name for itself, particularly in the west coast circuit. Although their songs vary from nearly whimsical and light to brooding and powerful, listeners are drawn to the inherent honesty in the music. The only rule of thumb for the band, it seems, is to write from a true place; the result is songs that literally run the spectrum of human emotion. Attend a concert, and it becomes clear that the live performance of deeply personal songs has a real effect on people. And the band itself is not immune, as demonstrated when Dan literally passed out into the drum set during a finale song, sending cymbals and drum stands crashing while the rest of the band played on until the close.

Great songwriting is bound to be noticed eventually. As proof that the harder you work, the luckier you get, one of those people who noticed was Grammy winning producer Alex da Kid (Eminem, Rihanna). Alex and Dan began collaborating on projects, and soon the band had developed a relationship with Alex and his team. The alchemy resulting from Alex’s hip hop sensibilities and Imagine Dragons’ anthemic rock is nothing short of explosive. The byproduct of this creative collision is “Continued Silence,” a six song in-your-face sonic grenade that breaks musical boundaries and yet is strangely relatable by its improbably diverse audience.

Despite it all, on any given day when they aren’t on the road playing shows, you can still find Imagine Dragons huddled away in a rehearsal room somewhere, banging out song after song in search of the next perfect track. Like most things in Vegas, the band is angled at going big or going bust. For the sake of those who love great music, we hope it’s the former.

Sets the agenda in Asia and considers what’s been dominating the day in Europe and North America. The programme is sometimes co-hosted out of our Toronto and New York bureaux and features regular interviews with special guests both there and across the Americas, as well as experts and analysts at our studios in London.

Monocle 24 is Monocle’s round-the-clock radio station that launched in October 2011 and is broadcast from our headquarters at Midori House in Marylebone. You can listen live via our player at monocle.com, as well as downloading shows from our site, iTunes or SoundCloud; we also have a handy app. 

The station delivers news and comment, plus magazine shows covering a range of topics including food and drink, urbanism, design, culture, business and print media. Our newsgathering operation includes bureaux in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Zürich, New York and Toronto, as well as dedicated correspondents in over 30 cities from São Paulo to Sydney.


Comedy Dynamics is a comedy production and distribution company. Its independent archive, the largest in existence, is available only on planet Earth.

Hilarious, honest and unfiltered, Race Wars with Sherrod Small and Keren Margolis delivers a brutally funny perspective that can't be found anywhere else.  Sherrod and Keren cut through all the layers of politically correct media spin to deliver hysterical and truthful opinions on social, racial and global topics.

Every week, Matt Knudsen (Conan, Gangster Squad, Big Love) hosts and literally grabs lunch with some of the sharpest knives in the drawer. Follow, enjoy.

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