By Christina Radish
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Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine performing at the KIIS FM Jingle Ball concert held at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. on December 3, 2004. |
Having sold more than 4 million copies of its first album, Songs About Jane, Maroon 5 are anxious to get back out on the road again, in support of their sophomore effort It Won’t Be Soon Before Long, out this week. The soul-influenced rock band from Los Angeles, comprised of five members, including Adam Levine (lead vocals, guitar), James Valentine (guitar, backing vocals), Jesse Carmichael (keyboards, backing vocals), Mickey Madden (bass guitar, vocals) and Matt Flynn (drums, percussion), is best known for their hit singles “Harder to Breathe,” “This Love” and “She Will Be Loved.”
Frontman Adam Levine talks to MediaBlvd Magazine about the release of their second album, which already has a hit single, “Makes Me Wonder,” and the band’s excitement to play their new music for their fans.
MediaBlvd Magazine> Songs About Jane, was released in 2002, and now it’s 2007. Why wait so long before releasing your second album?
Adam Levine> I think the common misconception is that we took a lot of time off because the record took such a long time to happen, but we only took about a month off, when we got home. We were on the road for about three and a half years and, pretty immediately after we got home, we started working on the new record. The record took about a year to make. We couldn’t have anticipated the success of the first one and, obviously, when that happens, it gets more intense, and the cycle gets a bit bigger.
MediaBlvd> Why do you think it took awhile for your first album to catch on?
Adam> There weren’t a lot of bands out there that sounded like us when our album came out, so radio stations and MTV didn’t jump on it right away. We had to build up a following by touring for the first year. And then, slowly, but surely, radio stations would start adding us to their play-lists. When they saw that it worked, other radio stations would start adding us. So, it was just an organic process, as opposed to a big blitz. That’s why we need to get used to this new way of doing things. That’s an adjustment, in and of itself. It’s really intense because we remember when we couldn’t get anybody to listen to us, and now it’s changed quite a bit. It’s exciting. It makes you feel special.
MediaBlvd> When you were on the road, was there any negativity, amongst the band, as far as wondering what was going on?
Adam> No, not really. The cool thing is, we weren’t bitter or upset that people weren’t picking up on it, right off the bat. The only true currency for a band is when you go and play live. Everything else is such a wild card. It’s such a fickle universe that you don’t really know what’s going to happen. We knew that we could play, and that’s what we had to offer. Going out there and getting fans was the only thing on our minds, at the time. We wanted to give them a reason to play us on the radio and put us on television, so we needed to build that up. We just wanted to make an organic, grassroots thing that started from a really sincere place, and have it grow from there.
MediaBlvd> Coming off the great success of the last album, what kind of pressure did you feel in recording this one?
Adam> I don’t think we could possibly feel the pressure we felt with our first album because that had so much more riding on it. We didn’t have any money and we had no idea what we were going to do, had it not worked out. That’s real pressure. We were in the studio for a shorter period of time with a very small budget. Not to sound like we should cue the violins or anything, but we had to borrow money for food from our producer. We were in a rough spot. We poured our entire lives into it, so there was so much more riding on it then. In my opinion, this is the fun part. God forbid, we don’t have the success that we did on the first record. We still made it this far. I think we all have a pretty healthy head about it. I think the record is going to do great, but there is pressure. I can’t deny that there is. That definitely exists, but we certainly don’t feel it, like we did the first time around.
MediaBlvd> How do you come up with ideas for songs?
Adam> I don’t really have a process that is consistent. I don’t have one method for all of this madness. Sometimes, it’ll be a chord progression that Jesse Carmichael writes on the keyboard or guitar, or a riff that James Valentine writes and I elaborate on, or something that I do entirely by myself with a drum. Or, my friend, Sam, who’s a great producer and one of my best friends, will have something amazing that he’s whipped up on the computer, or something. Or, I’ll be singing in the shower. There’s no method to it, whatsoever. Things just pop into my head, at random times. That’s how that happens.
MediaBlvd> It seems very difficult for bands to continue the momentum of success, after they have one album that is a smash hit. Why do you think that is so much of a challenge?
Adam> You never know why these trends take place. But, maybe it has something to do with what happens before the boom of success. The coolest thing about what’s happened with us, and the reason why we were so happy and confident going into this record, is because we toured for a long time before anything really happened. A lot of times, bands will release a record in the summer, and then, by fall, they’ve sold a million copies, and it’s really difficult to know why people are there. I think the slower and more gradual it is to get to that point, the more you have to fall back on, when that buzz is over and the dust settles. I think the best thing about being in a band is that you can tour and, hopefully, just accumulate fans all over the world, or at least all over the country, before anything major happens.
MediaBlvd> What were some of the sources and influences you drew on for this album?
Adam> When we started writing the record, we moved into a house together. We spent a few months, just making music every day and seeing what came out of us. We always try to have our musical output be really sincere and spontaneous. There’s nothing calculated about it. So, we can’t really pinpoint influences because it’s just everything that we’ve ever heard and experienced in our lives, coming out of us while we make the record. So many different things play into it. Especially in our band, we all have such eclectic, diverse tastes, it’s insane.
MediaBlvd> How has the group evolved, musically, between records, and how does that evolution come out on stage?
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Maroon 5 at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards held at UCLA Pauley Pavilion in Westwood, Calif. on March 31, 2007. |
Adam> We went through a bit of a change, with losing our drummer, Ryan. Over the years, he developed a nerve injury in his shoulder from repetitive drumming and he had to leave the band, half-way through all the touring we did. And, Matt Flynn came in and took his place. That’s a difficult thing, in and of itself, to get over, emotionally. Then, on top of that, there’s the whole musical and personality/chemistry thing that a new member brings to the situation. Luckily, Matt really fit in and definitely changed the sound of the band with his style of drumming, which is a bit more upbeat and energetic. I think the whole record feels a bit more urgent than the first one.
MediaBlvd> What is it about this album’s music that you think will resonate with fans?
Adam> Hopefully, we’ve continued to be honest and forthright with the lyrics that we write. I think what helped establish our relationship with our fans, in the first place, was that they connected with what we were doing, lyrically and musically. Hopefully, that connection is still there. I think that we were equally honest with ourselves, with this music. As far as I’m concerned, as long as we continue to be sincere in everything that we do, our fans will be onboard.
MediaBlvd> The music on this album sounds a lot funkier than the last one, with a deeper bass. Was that what you were aiming for?
Adam> Absolutely. We wanted this record to be stronger and we wanted you to be able to feel it in your chest. We wanted it to hit you a lot harder. We really wanted it to be an uninhibited album. We wanted it to be unrelenting. We have our issues on our first album, but with this one, I just think that we’ve become better players, and I think the parts are cooler and more unique and definitely funkier. That was the goal.
MediaBlvd> Do you have any personal quality-control measures with a new recording? Will you play it for anyone?
Adam> Our friends and family. Our best barometer for things is that we have such a big group of support around us, at all times. We filter it through them before we put it on tape. I think that’s important. We’re making this music for ourselves, but we’re also making it for everybody else.
MediaBlvd> In terms of production, who are some of the producers you guys worked with on the new album?
Adam> We worked with a team of producers. The first people we worked with were Mike Alizondo and Spike Stanton. Mike had just finished with Fiona Apple’s record and had done a lot of work with Dr. Dre. He knows a lot about hip-hop and R&B production. And, Spike was a sonic genius who worked with U2 and Björk. So, we put them together, just to really round out everybody in the band. We could go to Mike to ask him questions about musicality and arrangements, and go to Spike to ask questions about the sound of the recordings. That was a great start to the record. We just worked so hard on it, for so long, that we started to not be able to hear it for what it was and we needed some fresh ears. Also, like the first record, we decided, half-way through, that we needed to add more live elements into it and balance out everybody’s tastes in the band, so that everyone would be satisfied. We worked with Eric Ballantine, who had done some good sessions with Queens of the Stone Age. And, we finished up the process with a guy named Mark Endert, who really just tied everything together. The last thing we recorded with him was the album’s first single, “Makes Me Wonder,” which was the track we’d been struggling with the entire year we were making the record. It finally came together with Mark, and then we were done.
MediaBlvd> What was the problem that you were having with “Makes Me Wonder”?
Adam> We just didn’t have all the parts together. We were actually missing the chorus part until the very end. It was this great song, but it didn’t have a chorus. And, I have a bad attention span, when it comes to music. It’s my fatal flaw and my greatest gift. So, I didn’t really know what to do with it. And then, we went to Vegas, and I met a girl and wrote a chorus. It was amazing. All of sudden, I had a girlfriend and I had a great song. That song was sitting around for four years, and it was one of the first demos we made, so it’s got the oldest and newest feelings in it.
MediaBlvd> When the single made the big jump from #64 to #1, in what has to be the highest leap in Billboard history, did that give you some sense of relief?
Adam> Yes, absolutely. There’s always some degree of fear, when you’ve taken a hiatus, and you’re coming back, but that certainly put most of those fears at bay. The enthusiasm from everybody is exciting. You never really know what is going to happen. You can’t predict the future. There are no certainties in this life, regardless of how much success you have, or think you’re going to have. That was very encouraging. And, iTunes is responding really well. The cool thing about iTunes, which is so amazing, is that it’s completely driven by people that go online and purchase music because they love it. That gives us so much. People are going out there and listening to our music, which is cool.
MediaBlvd> Since you did so much touring with the last album, was there any sort of demonstrative effect that you can point to where, when you went back into the studio, you were able to apply that, as musicians?
Adam> Absolutely. When you do something so often, for such a long period of time, no matter what it is, it becomes second nature. Obviously, playing the songs on our first record became extremely easy, and they will probably be easy to play, for the rest of our lives. It’s a skill and, when you hone that skill, you get better. When went back into the studio, we were completely different musicians. We were far better, more seasoned and just stronger, in all ways. Mentally, we’ve really come around, too. We are all in a pretty good place, at this point, which makes us really happy. We also saw how crowds responded to the more energetic and upbeat songs, so that definitely helped us record stuff that was a little more straight-ahead, rhythmically, that would also translate to large groups of people. And, now that we’ve got two albums, we can put together a much better set list for our concerts.
MediaBlvd> You’ve collaborated with other artists, like Kayne West and Alicia Keys, since Songs about Jane came out. Did that influence the writing of the new album, or give you a different perspective at all?
Adam> Yes, I think it definitely did. Kanye and Alicia are amazing talents, in totally different ways. Just seeing such amazing people, working in the studio, had an influence on me, especially when I first saw Kanye work. He is such a master. Just to watch his brain work is pretty fascinating. And, Alicia is this unbelievable maniac of a musician. Her whole energy is just amazing, so that was pretty cool. I definitely took things away from them. Just seeing how intensely they loved music was very inspiring.
MediaBlvd> Why did you guys decide to add two bonus tracks to It Won’t Be Sooner Before Long?
Adam> This is such a cool time right now where people are getting all the information that they need from the Internet and we can spread music that would normally be B-sides, that might not get heard by a lot of people, to everybody. We are happy that people on iTunes can get two bonus tracks. People who buy the record at another store might get a different bonus track. It’s nice that the business is changing because it’s actually giving the artist more options for things they can release. They can take things that would otherwise be obscure and put them very much in the foreground. It’s just more music for our fans to appreciate.
MediaBlvd> How much creative control do you have with your videos?
Adam> We’re very much involved with them because we don’t want it to get into the wrong hands. We choose the directors and we collaborate on all the ideas. We never let anything get too far past us.
MediaBlvd> What do guys think about the promotional world of MySpace?
Adam> MySpace is like a double-edged sword because, on one hand, it’s very nice that people can become involved with bands that they like, on a personal level. On the other hand, sometimes people go too far with the Internet and start basing their lives on virtual experiences. I think that using MySpace as a vehicle for your band as an enterprise is amazing. I think that it’s one of the coolest things in the world to ever happen for new bands. You can market your band and have your music online. You can create a buzz. You can get people to your shows, and you have a legitimate network to do that with. We try to personally manage our page, and put blogs on it and update the photos ourselves, so then it’s something that people can feel like they’re actually getting directly from the band, which is really nice.
MediaBlvd> With the success of the last album, you were thrown into the Hollywood spotlight, and gossip is a big part of that scene. How have you handled being in that public eye and being subjected to the scrutinization of it?
Adam> I don’t think it’s very cool. We tend to laugh at it and ignore it and treat it as a silly little by-product of the success that we’ve had. It’s definitely funny.
MediaBlvd> You’re starting off your tour in very small clubs. Are you going to have to remember how to play at really small venues, since you haven’t done that in a long time?
Adam> Times are tough and we don’t know whether anyone will show. No, we’re actually just doing little warm-up gigs, I guess you could call it. We’ve done some shows in Europe, so I think we’ve picked it up again. That’s how it started, and we need to get back to our roots, so that we can expand from there again, and the jump isn’t so big that we get overwhelmed and implode on ourselves. We want to do brief little stints all over the place, just to poke our heads in and say, “Hey, what’s happening, everybody? We’re going to be coming back here.” We want to play intimate shows for our fans, that are kind of conversational, where we can play some new material. We don’t want to have it be so formal because the tour that we eventually embark on is going to be pretty intense. There’s going to be a lot of people, lights and large, cavernous halls, so we wanted to make it kind of chill for this run.
MediaBlvd> Are you guys gearing up for a big fall tour?
Adam> Yes, we are. We’re so excited to play these songs for people, and just get out there and play again, and do what we do.
MediaBlvd> How will the feel of these new songs fit in with the old songs, when you play live?
Adam> Really well. We really needed these songs because we were lacking upbeat, fist-pumping songs that really got people excited. We only had one record. If you have one record out, it’s basically your set list, so it was tough to round out our live show. These songs are great because they’re a lot more straightforward, easily danceable tunes that people can get into.
MediaBlvd> If you could go back to right before you started the tour for Songs about Jane, what would you tell yourself about the next several years, and what do you wish you’d known ahead of time?
Adam> I don’t know if I would want to have given myself any advice because I might have altered the course of time. We’ve all seen what happened in Back to the Future 2. I could have told myself something that would have totally screwed up everything, and we might not be where we are today. I’m a big fan of no regrets. So, I think that, if that was a possibility, maybe I would just say, “Take a deep breath and relax.”
