Dan Reynolds (singer) and then transferred to BYU after serving an LDS mission, where he studied communications, marketing, and music and excelled academically. While at BYU, he formed Imagine Dragons and won the school's battle of the bands competition before leaving to pursue music full-time. Reynolds was initially reluctant to become a professional musician, partially because future bandmate Wayne Sermon had once told him: "Don't do music because you want to do music - do music if you have to do music". After he began attending Brigham Young University, Reynolds found that he could not "do anything else" and committed fully to a
Origins (Imagine Dragons album) the album a mixed review, stating "Reynolds has a story to tell, but the music fails to be the ideal delivery system." "The Guardian" gave the album a negative review, stating that "the most streamed rock band in the world may want us to believe that they are angry philosophers, but the reality doesn't change a gilt-edged mainstream formula." "The Irish Times" was also strongly critical, lambasting the album as a "muddled and incoherent mess with all of the best intentions". "NME" also gave a negative review, stating "scattershot and uninspired, 'Origins', the fourth album from the bafflingly popular Imagine