Songfacts®:

• Dan Reynolds starts off this song by sending a warning about the company one keeps.
  
  Trouble
  Blood is in the rocky waters
  Hide away your sons and daughters
  Eat you alive
  
  Tricksters and cheats sometimes get called "sharks" because the finned creatures snap up their food alive or dead, regardless. "The world is filled with sharks," Reynolds told Hanuman Welch of Apple Music 1. "And as you get older it becomes more and more evident."
• In the pre-chorus, Reynolds asks himself how he can judge others when he's indulged in shark-like behavior too.
  
  When it comes to the end
  To the end
  You're just the same as them
  Same as them
  Ha ha ha ha ha
  
  Reynolds wanted to find a middle ground where, rather than getting all emo about sharks, he finds it all amusing. "The world is filled with selfish people, but is there a way to kind of almost laugh at that, because it is inevitable?" he said.
• Reynolds becomes even more lighthearted on the post-chorus.
  
  He's comin' to get you
  Chick, chicka woo, woo
  
  The Imagine Dragons singer can't stop people from being sharks. All he can do is just smile and carry on, because that's life. "I love the juxtaposition on songs that are dark, but also maybe a little funny, ironic, or self-aware," he said.
  
  Reynolds added that the band's previous single, "Bones," does a similar ironic kind of thing where there's a "lot of tongue in cheek."
• Reynolds wrote 'Sharks" with Imagine Dragons guitarist Wayne Sermon, bassist Ben McKee, and drummer Daniel Platzman, plus the song's producers Mattman & Robin. Previous collaborations between Imagine Dragons and the Swedish production duo include "Believer," "Enemy" and "Bones."