The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Platzman, who grew up near Emory Village, calls his commercial success ‘mind-boggling.’
In 2003, Daniel Platzman was a young multi-instrumentalist, in the audience for a Roots show at what was then Hifi Buys Amphitheatre in Atlanta.
As he watched drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson entertain the crowd, the mesmerized Platzman wondered what it would be like to stand on that same stage.
Nineteen years later, Platzman, the drummer for Imagine Dragons, gets to find out Tuesday when the band comes to the former Hifi Buys Amphitheatre — now known as Lakewood Amphitheatre — as part of its Mercury World Tour with opening acts Macklemore and Kings Elliot.
The Mercury World Tour, in support of the quartet’s fifth studio album, “Mercury, Acts I & II,” is the Las Vegas-based group’s first North American tour since releasing their fourth LP, “Origins,” in 2018, and Platzman is excited to play in his hometown again.
“It’s very humbling to think I can be on a massive list of ATL musicians,” said Platzman, who grew up close to Emory Village and joined Imagine Dragons in 2011. “Growing up, we kept track of which musicians and producers were from Atlanta, so it was a lot to get excited about. It’s awesome that I’m now coming through to play that stage.”
“Mercury, Acts I & II” is a 32-track double album recorded at Shangri-la, the
Malibu studio owned by producer Rick Rubin. The album’s subject matter leans toward darker themes like depression, death, grief, addiction, low self-esteem and suicide while continuing the band’s knack for experimenting with and meshing together various genres and textures.
While recording, Platzman, along with
lead singer Dan Reynolds, bassist Ben Mckee and guitarist Wayne Sermon, set up a mobile studio in one of Bob Dylan’s old tour buses parked behind Rubin’s estate. The bandmates adopted a divide-and-conquer strategy in the studio: recording string parts that were run through Waldorf synthesizers while Reynolds laid down his vocals.
Rubin listened to all 100 of the Imagine Dragons’ demos for “Mercury” and offered detailed notes before the band agreed on the final sequence. The megaproducer’s goal was to push the band to become more musically honest.
“He didn’t phone in,” said Platzman, who wrote the songs “Continual,” “Crushed” and “Take it Easy” for the album. “He did all of the groundwork, put the time in. Rick is one of those very big personalities by saying very little. He’s one of those guys who makes you lean in. We’d work all day and prepare stuff to show him later in the day …”
Imagine Dragons made music history in July. The band became the first act in history with four singles — “Radioactive,” “Believer,” “Demons” and “Thunder” — to earn diamond certifications, meaning the songs each went 10x platinum.
Achieving massive commercial success is exciting to Platzman, who grew up playing jazz and prog rock while studying film scoring at Berklee College of Music.
“As a band, we have a dual identity,” said Platzman. “We’re a faceless band in all of this. Not sure we’re the most recognizable, but I quite enjoy being able to go out and about. It’s an interesting dichotomy.”
Imagine Dragons released its multiplatinum major label debut, “Night Visions,” an amalgamation of tracks from the outfit’s self-produced EPS, a decade ago this year. Platzman refers to “Night Visions” and “Mercury” as
bookends that reflect the group’s evolution.
“We were still trying to find ourselves with the first album,” said Platzman. “It’s mapping the journey of the band, and you can totally hear that in the music. It wasn’t really until album three (2017’s “Evolve”) that we really felt super confident in who we are.”
Imagine Dragons recently became ambassadors for United24, which raises awareness and funding for Ukraine. They met with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy via videoconference in July, to discuss ways they could assist the country, including raising money for ambulances.
“All of us were really heartbroken when we started to see what was unfolding there,” Platzman said, adding that Imagine Dragons last performed in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, in 2018.
Now that Imagine Dragons have comfortably found their niche, Platzman remains ambitious. He hopes to score more films and release more albums with his jazz side project, the Daniel Platzman Quintet. He even picked his trumpet back up.
Playing a sold-out show at Boston’s Fenway Park, blocks from his alma mater, earlier this month in front of his extended family was a highlight for Platzman. But coming home to Atlanta reminds him that he has more to accomplish.
“My main goal was purely to support myself with music whatever that may be,” Platzman said. “To go from studying at Berklee to four Diamond singles and coming back home to play Lakewood Amphitheatre is mind-boggling. It’s a wonderful reminder to be extremely grateful. I still have a lot of work to do, but I have a lot of fun making music.”