Imagine Dragons' Dan Reynolds Revisits 'Night Visions' 10 Years Later: 'Changed Everything for Me'

Courtesy KIDinaKORNER/Interscope/UME Imagine Dragons

Fresh off the release of the new double album Mercury - Acts 1 & 2, Imagine Dragons is revisiting the record that launched its career.

On Friday, the pop-rock band released Night Visions (Expanded Edition), a repackaged version of the 2012 debut album that brought Imagine Dragons worldwide fame via the multi-platinum hit singles "It's Time," "Radioactive," "Demons" and "On Top of the World."

Available in multiple digital and physical formats, Night Visions (Expanded Edition) features all 11 tracks from the original album and nine songs previously released on various deluxe editions, plus demos of "Love of Mine" and "Bubble," two songs recorded during the Night Visions sessions but never shared with listeners — until now.

"There are a lot of songs that get left off that are a point of contention amongst the band. We have had many late-night arguments about what makes the record," frontman and vocalist Dan Reynolds tells PEOPLE.

Courtesy KIDinaKORNER/Interscope/UME Imagine Dragons

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After a decade of holding back the scrapped tracks, which some members of the band — which also features guitarist Wayne Sermon, bassist Ben McKee and drummer Daniel Platzman — wanted to include on the initial Night Visions track listing, "Love of Mine" and "Bubble" proved themselves as standouts worthy of release.

"Some songs that you thought were important, you listen to now and just smile, and you're grateful that they never saw the light of day, but these are two songs that we felt represent that era well," continues Reynolds, 35. "'Bubble' is a really jovial, happy, ironic song that always has made us smile, so we wanted to finish it."

"Love of Mine," on the other hand, is one that Reynolds personally wanted to release on Night Visions from the jump. "It just represents that time period in music in a way that makes me smile," says the musician. "There was a lot going on at that point that I was influenced by that I'm sure people will hear in 'Love of Mine.' ... I'm really excited for people to hear that."

Looking back on the album, which Reynolds says "changed his life forever," allowed the frontman to reflect on a flurry of intense personal experiences he was going through at the time of its creation. "It's hard for me to even recall many memories during that time," he explains. "I think I was shell-shocked to the extreme."

Reynolds continued, "I was a Mormon missionary who had just gotten home from the mission and was very lost, losing my own faith and religion and kind of scrambling. Then, suddenly I was married and had a child and was broke."

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After tying the knot with fellow musician Aja Volkman in March 2011 and welcoming their first child, now-10-year-old daughter Arrow, in August of the following year, Reynolds says the couple was struggling to make ends meet as Imagine Dragons crafted Night Visions.

"It was like, 'When you have a show, bring the money, and we'll go to Trader Joe's and buy some groceries for the week. And then when I have a show, vice versa,'" he recalls. "It was a scary time and then suddenly, the band just blew up so quickly and it changed everything for me."

Eric Ray Davidson Imagine Dragons

"It's Time," which previously featured on a 2011 EP, dropped as the album's lead single in February 2012 and soon climbed up the Billboard Hot 100 chart to No. 15, eventually becoming six-times platinum certified by the RIAA — thanks in part to several television and film projects including a notable Glee cover.

Following its success, "Radioactive" became the second Night Visions single and reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 before receiving a remix from Kendrick Lamar and going on to sell over 10 million units in the United States. Subsequent singles "Demons" and "On Top of the World" also sold millions of units, and Imagine Dragons later won the best rock performance Grammy Award for "Radioactive" in 2014.

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Since then, the band has notched more than 10 more worldwide hit songs including two additional diamond-certified singles — 2017's "Believer" and "Thunder" — and consistently performed arena concerts around the world through today, as Imagine Dragons is currently in the midst of the Mercury World Tour. It's safe to say Night Visions was a strong launching pad for a lasting music career.

"I'm so very, very grateful for that record. I listen back to [the songs], and it makes me smile because there's a lot of themes and such that I've since moved past — like heartache about losing religion," explains Reynolds. "That's something that is not part of my life anymore, but I can look back on it and smile and be grateful for the 22-year-old Dan who was flailing and looking for a foundation."