{"id":24683,"date":"2025-12-20T14:03:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T14:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/?p=24683"},"modified":"2025-12-20T14:03:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T14:03:00","slug":"dont-let-the-rockstar-look-fool-you-wayne-sermons-best-friend-exposes-his-secret-christmas-obsession-with-1960s-gear-hours-lost-remixing-holiday-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/?p=24683","title":{"rendered":"\u201cDon\u2019t Let the Rockstar Look Fool You\u201d \u2014 Wayne Sermon\u2019s Best Friend Exposes His Secret Christmas Obsession With 1960s Gear, Hours Lost Remixing Holiday Songs."},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-path-to-node=\"1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">In the high-energy world of Imagine Dragons, guitarist Wayne Sermon is known for creating the expansive, atmospheric soundscapes behind global anthems like &#8220;Radioactive&#8221; and &#8220;Believer.&#8221; 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 &#8220;Christmas light extremist.&#8221; While others are focused on holiday parties, Sermon is often found deep in his studio, chasing a very specific sonic ghost from decades ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr data-path-to-node=\"2\" \/>\n<h3 data-path-to-node=\"3\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The 1960s &#8220;Time Machine&#8221;<\/span><\/h3>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"4\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Sermon\u2019s best friend recently exposed the guitarist\u2019s &#8220;extreme&#8221; holiday hobby: remixing classic Christmas songs using only period-accurate equipment. Sermon is famously obsessed with the <b data-path-to-node=\"4\" data-index-in-node=\"187\">Vox AC30 amplifiers<\/b> from the mid-1960s (specifically models from \u201964, \u201966, and \u201967), which he uses to give modern rock a &#8220;vintage soul.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<ul data-path-to-node=\"5\">\n<li>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5,0,0\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><b data-path-to-node=\"5,0,0\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">Vintage Reverb:<\/b> Sermon will reportedly spend hours\u2014sometimes skipping traditional &#8220;turkey parties&#8221;\u2014just to adjust the reverb on a single track. He seeks to capture the &#8220;cold winter night&#8221; feel that only original vacuum tubes and spring reverbs can provide.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5,1,0\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><b data-path-to-node=\"5,1,0\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">Analog Devotion:<\/b> 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 &#8220;crackle&#8221; of a 1960s vinyl record.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5,2,0\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><b data-path-to-node=\"5,2,0\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">The Studio Sanctuary:<\/b> To Wayne, the pinnacle of the season isn&#8217;t the red carpet; it\u2019s the silence of a studio filled with the glow of vintage dials and holiday lights.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 data-path-to-node=\"6\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">A &#8220;Scientific&#8221; Approach to Holiday Tone<\/span><\/h3>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"7\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Sermon\u2019s technical prowess is a hallmark of his career. On his <b data-path-to-node=\"7\" data-index-in-node=\"63\">2025 &#8220;Loom&#8221; World Tour<\/b>, he continues to use a complex &#8220;Wet\/Dry\/Wet&#8221; amp configuration, but for his private Christmas projects, he strips it back to the &#8220;holy grail&#8221; basics. He often pairs his &#8217;64 Fender Stratocaster or his rare &#8217;58 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop with a &#8217;55 Fender Tweed Deluxe to achieve the perfect &#8220;clean&#8221; holiday chime.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-path-to-node=\"8\">\n<p data-path-to-node=\"8,0\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">&#8220;He&#8217;s not a gear snob, he\u2019s a gear scientist,&#8221; his friend joked. &#8220;He might look cool on stage, but at home, he\u2019s basically an elf in a lab coat trying to make a guitar sound like a 1965 snowy morning.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<hr data-path-to-node=\"9\" \/>\n<h3 data-path-to-node=\"10\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Notable Holiday Contributions<\/span><\/h3>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"11\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">While Imagine Dragons has yet to release a full holiday album, their <b data-path-to-node=\"11\" data-index-in-node=\"69\">2016 rendition of &#8220;White Christmas&#8221;<\/b> (which was officially uploaded to their YouTube channel in 2020) remains a fan favorite. Behind the scenes, it is Wayne\u2019s obsession with &#8220;serving the song&#8221; that ensures these tracks maintain a timeless quality. As he moves through the <b data-path-to-node=\"11\" data-index-in-node=\"340\">2025 holiday season<\/b>, fans are holding out hope that some of his &#8220;secret&#8221; 1960s-style remixes finally make it out of the lab and into the world.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the high-energy world of Imagine Dragons, guitarist Wayne Sermon is known for creating the expansive, atmospheric soundscapes behind global anthems like &#8220;Radioactive&#8221; and &#8220;Believer.&#8221; 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&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24683\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}