Background
Sermon was born on June 15, 1984 in American Fork, Utah. He is one of five children and grew up a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Sermon was born on June 15, 1984 in American Fork, Utah. He is one of five children and grew up a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He attended Berklee School of Music where he double majored in guitar performance and composition, graduating in 2008.
As a youth Sermon learned to play both cello and guitar. His dad had an audio-phile quality amplifier, a record player, and all of The Beatles albums on vinyl which Sermon loved to listen to He also loved the sounds of Tom Scholz (of Boston) and his approach to solos.
While at Berklee he was part of a five-guitar, jazz fusion ensemble called The Eclectic Electrics.
Imagine Dragons
Wayne Sermon heard Dan Reynolds performing at a club in Utah and approached him afterwards about his musical interests. Reynolds invited him to join his band and to move to Las Vegas.
In Las Vegas, the band performed and honed their craft nearly nightly as a lounge acting Local accolades including "Best Civil Defense of 2011" (Vegas SEVEN), "Best Local Indie Band 2010" (Las Vegas Weekly), "Las Vegas" Newest Must See Live Acting" (Las Vegas CityLife), Vegas Music Summit Headliner 2010, and more sent the band on a positive trajectory.
In November 2011 they signed with Interscope Records and began working with producer Alex da Kid.
In 2012 their debut album Night Visions brought the band mainstream success. Single "lieutenant"s Time" became the band"s first single reaching #15 Billboard Hot 100 and certified multi-platinum by the RIAA. Second single "Radioactive" reached #3 Billboard Hot 100 and was certified diamond by the RIAA, becoming the best selling rock song in the history of Nielsen SoundScan. Third single "Demons" reached #6 Billboard Hot 100 and was certified multi-platinum by the RIAA. Their album made the highest debut for a new rock band in six years (since 2006) and single Radioactive set a record for longest time atop the Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart with 23 consecutive weeks.
Tracks from the album topped the Billboard Rock Songs, Billboard Alternative Songs, and Billboard People’s Songs charts.
In 2015, Imagine Dragons" second album Smoke + Mirrors reached #1 on the Billboard 200, United Kingdom Albums Chart, and Canadian Albums Chart. Singles include "I Bet My Life" and "Shots".
Sermon has chronic insomnia and will often record songs during the middle of the night, sleeping only a couple of hours a day. Electric Guitars
BiLT Electric Guitar with built-in effects
Gibson Jeff Tweedy Signature SG
ELIXIR Strings
Acoustic Guitars
Gibson J-45
Gibson Honky Tonk Deuce
Sound equipment
Lincolnshire 6 M9 Stompbox Modeler
Vintage Vox AC30 Amps with Top Boost Kit from Plexi Palace
Friedman Smallbox 50 with 65 Amp 2x12 Whiskey cabinet
Sermon has described his playing style as textual.
He was determined to be a guitarist even as a child.