“In my experience, 70% of vintage guitars are clunkers – a new guitar will beat their sound and how they play. But if you get that diamond in the rough, it’s next-level”: Wayne Sermon is sneaking vintage guitars into Imagine Dragons’ blockbuster pop-rock

Though not always guitar-led, Imagine Dragons’ distinctive style – which merges pop, alt-rock and electronica – has been grabbing rock fans’ attention since they dropped their first record, Night Visions, in 2012.

For guitarist Wayne Sermon, the lack of heroics isn’t a problem. “I’m really proud of the moments where I take the guitar and sort of transform it into something totally different,” he tells Guitar World. “That’s always something the band responds to. It always puts a smile on [producers] Mattman & Robin’s faces when they say, ‘Wait, that’s a guitar?’ I always like to have people ask that.”

Sermon digs deep into Guitar Rig and Pro Tools for effects and sonic manipulation. But what stands out most about his work on Imagine Dragons’ latest record, Loom, is the cache of vintage gear he put to the test, recording the entire album with a ’64 Strat, a ’58 Les Paul Goldtop and a ’55 Fender Tweed.

“The Goldtop is so special and plays so, so nice,” he says. “I haven’t bought another guitar since. It rings for days, just like Nigel from Spinal Tap says. It doesn’t go to 11, but it’s such a special guitar, and I’m so lucky to play it every day.”

At just a shade over 28 minutes, Loom is a far cry from the two-part opus that was previous release Mercury – Acts 1 & 2. And that’s just fine for Sermon, who’s been digging on everything from jazz to surf rock. “I really do enjoy just adding to the song and giving what it needs,” he says.

“In the studio, I feel like there’s a lot of trust. We’re just like, ‘Hey, this needs this. What do you feel about that?’ I’ll go in to do something, having no idea if the other guys would feel it or not. We’d see what worked and what didn’t. It was a fun way to work, and different to the past.”

Given that the Mercury project was produced by Rick Rubin and was pretty expansive, Loom feels like a new start.

“Working with Rick Rubin on the last one was a really rewarding experience. We’ve never had a sort of musical guru that oversees everything. And that gave birth to a lot of different kinds of music and lots of different songs.”

Going into Loom, what did you guys have in mind?

“You’ll do something and then, next time, do something totally different. This was one of those times where it was like, ‘Okay, we had this big, epic thing – what can we do that’s totally different?’ We wanted to make a punchy, concise, leaner and more edited record. Maybe not more thoughtful, but we wanted to be more deliberate.”

Was there a piece of music that kicked it off for you?

“We worked with two amazing producers, Mattman & Robin. We’ve worked with them in the past, but we usually use a plethora of producers for maybe one or two songs, so there’s never a unifying element as far someone being a hands-on producer.

“Mattman & Robin really do feel like an extension of us, so it was easy – It just felt right and very natural. And Dan [Reynolds] would come in with an outline of a song, with a groove or a synth; he’d send me something that was really bare, and I’d say, ’This needs some guitar.’”

Do you tend to be a quick worker in those instances, or do you prefer to take your time?

“I take the song home with me and just kind of mess around. I’m very analytical; my process is very slow for coming up with parts. I don’t just run through things – it’s nice to work for two or three hours on one sound.”

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Imagine Dragons’ music is not known for shredding guitar solos, so your playing needs to be textural. Does your background in jazz lend itself to that?

“I actually went to school and studied jazz guitar for four years. I’d learn Wes Montgomery solos and things by Pat Metheny. Wayne Krantz was like a God to me. He was like the ultimate jazz-fusion idol for me, so I did a lot of that when I was at Berklee – just transcribing solos.

“I’ve always liked pop music; I love ‘60s and ’70s songwriters, and I love ’80s stuff. My influences are pretty steep into the pop world, so I feel like I’m capable of doing a lot of different things. I’m very cognizant of what the song needs.

“We’re definitely all about the song. Sometimes, it’ll be a bit flashier, but more times than not, it’s supporting what’s already going on. A song like Take Me to the Beach is very simple; it’s just a guitar riff that drives the song.

“And then, just trying to do something different – for instance, I went through a phase of Dick Dale’s California surf sound. It was something I wanted to try; I didn’t want to be too on the nose with it, but there’s a little bit of that influence in there.”

What sort of gear inspired you to go there?

“I have a ’64 Fender Strat and a little ’55 Fender Tweed Deluxe. Pretty much any clean sound you hear on the record is that. I would use effects through Guitar Rig and Pro Tools, which was fun. It was basically putting effects on and trying to get as close to that sound as possible without being too on the nose.”

What’s the story behind your love for vintage gear?

“The guitar tech that I’ve had for over a decade, Shane Johnson, lives in Austin, Texas, where there’s tons of vintage gear. He’s super-into it and he’ll give me a heads-up on things that come in.

“I was reticent to do the vintage thing because, in my experience, it seems like 60 or 70 percent of vintage guitars are clunkers – a new guitar will beat their sound and how they play. I’m not a purist or a snob about it; if you do get that diamond in the rough, that special guitar, it really is next-level.”

Strat aside, do you have any other vintage favorites?

“The whole record was done with my ’64 Fiesta Red Strat, and the other guitar is a ’58 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop. Like I said, I’m not highbrow about that stuff, but the Goldtop is kind of nuts! I don’t know what was happening between ’57 and ’60 at the Gibson factory… I don’t know if it was the luthiers or the wood, but all the hype around those guitars is real.”

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Bringing vintage instruments on the road – especially amps – can be tricky. Do you rely on the same gear when touring?

“I’m doing more new on this tour. I took three vintage Vox AC30s on the road with me before and did like a wet/dry system, which, surprisingly, worked really well. Those amps are pretty notorious for blowing tubes, and I was expecting some serious fires on stage, but nothing ever happened. They were super-rock steady. But I didn’t want to tempt fate twice, so I ended up going to younger amps.”

We talked about how you enjoy filling space and serving the song, but do you ever get the urge to step out and solo?

“I’m pretty comfortable with whatever’s needed. There’s been times on records where you just dig in and do something cool. On Mercury there were tracks where the direction was, ‘Just have a moment,’ so I had moments where I could just let loose.”

Is there a song from Loom that best represents where you’re at as a guitar player?

“Eyes Closed was fun for me. Straight-up guitar sounds, like more traditional sounds, kind of bore Mattman & Robin – like it’s not fresh, new, and exciting. So a lot of the sounds on the record are guitar sounds that don’t sound like guitars.

“All the effects during the second verse of Eyes Closed, that kind of wobbly sound throughout, I manipulated a lot. I would throw things into Guitar Rig, scroll through the presets, and change things until they sounded freaky enough not to be guitars.”

• Loom is out now. Imagine Dragons are currently touring the US – see ImagineDragonsMusic.com for full dates.