In the high-energy world of Imagine Dragons, guitarist Wayne Sermon is known for creating the expansive, atmospheric soundscapes behind global anthems like “Radioactive” and “Believer.” But as the holiday season descends on his studio in Las Vegas, the rockstar persona is replaced by a meticulous audio engineer with a penchant for the past. According to a close friend, the man who commands arenas with his custom BiLT guitars is secretly a devotee of 1960s audio equipment and a “Christmas light extremist.” While others are focused on holiday parties, Sermon is often found deep in his studio, chasing a very specific sonic ghost from decades ago.
The 1960s “Time Machine”
Sermon’s best friend recently exposed the guitarist’s “extreme” holiday hobby: remixing classic Christmas songs using only period-accurate equipment. Sermon is famously obsessed with the Vox AC30 amplifiers from the mid-1960s (specifically models from ’64, ’66, and ’67), which he uses to give modern rock a “vintage soul.”
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Vintage Reverb: Sermon will reportedly spend hours—sometimes skipping traditional “turkey parties”—just to adjust the reverb on a single track. He seeks to capture the “cold winter night” feel that only original vacuum tubes and spring reverbs can provide.
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Analog Devotion: Instead of using modern digital plug-ins, he meticulously routes signals through 60-year-old hardware to ensure his Christmas rock remixes have the warmth and “crackle” of a 1960s vinyl record.
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The Studio Sanctuary: To Wayne, the pinnacle of the season isn’t the red carpet; it’s the silence of a studio filled with the glow of vintage dials and holiday lights.
A “Scientific” Approach to Holiday Tone
Sermon’s technical prowess is a hallmark of his career. On his 2025 “Loom” World Tour, he continues to use a complex “Wet/Dry/Wet” amp configuration, but for his private Christmas projects, he strips it back to the “holy grail” basics. He often pairs his ’64 Fender Stratocaster or his rare ’58 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop with a ’55 Fender Tweed Deluxe to achieve the perfect “clean” holiday chime.
“He’s not a gear snob, he’s a gear scientist,” his friend joked. “He might look cool on stage, but at home, he’s basically an elf in a lab coat trying to make a guitar sound like a 1965 snowy morning.”
Notable Holiday Contributions
While Imagine Dragons has yet to release a full holiday album, their 2016 rendition of “White Christmas” (which was officially uploaded to their YouTube channel in 2020) remains a fan favorite. Behind the scenes, it is Wayne’s obsession with “serving the song” that ensures these tracks maintain a timeless quality. As he moves through the 2025 holiday season, fans are holding out hope that some of his “secret” 1960s-style remixes finally make it out of the lab and into the world.