Maroon 5 Interview

Depth PerceptionMaroon 5With a radio-friendly pop/R&B/funk combo, guest spots with Mr. West, a Rolling Stone cover and throw in a couple of Grammys, and you have one of the biggest bands in the world.

Forming originally as Kara’s Flowers back in 1997 and becoming Maroon 5 in 2001, the LA quintet is living the rock ‘n’ roll dream right now. The last time that Maroon 5 was in Motown, they opened for the Rolling Stones at Comerica Park, one of the band’s idols and an experience they will not likely forget. “We had the opportunity to meet them all backstage,” guitarist James Valentine said. “They were so gracious. We were led around by Ronnie Wood to each member’s dressing room and you could sort of see each member’s personalities in the little areas. Keith Richard’s backstage area was just a bar.”

This time around, Maroon 5 are the headlining band, with Swedish rockers The Hives opening up for them. “We love The Hives, they’re a great band and we wanted to get a really good, energetic, amazing live act,” singer Adam Levine said. “They’re the best Swedish band; we’re the best American band.”

Maroon 5 has become know for that confidence, or perhaps arrogance. When your debut album sells over 10 million copies, and second album debuts at number one, selling 500,000 the first week, it seems to be working, however they’re perceived.

When asked how they want to impact popular culture, they seem hesitant to answer. “Bands get big and they kind of develop these grandiose opinions of themselves and what they want to do,” Levine said. “Then they start answering questions like this and you think, ‘All right, let’s backpedal for a minute.’ We craft songs and we love to play them. But we’re certainly not reinventing the wheel or necessarily putting a flag anywhere.”

After the wild success of Songs About Jane, their new album has already sold 2 million copies, seemingly avoiding the dreaded ‘sophomore slump.’ “We were really glad, at least I was sort of relieved to make it through this record because it is sort of a test,” Valentine said. “One record doesn’t mean that you’ve proven anything. I’m excited now that that’s over. I’m really excited about making our next record because I think we’re going to go in there with a lot less of that pressure over us, as much as we sort of pushed that aside to make this record. I think we’ll be free to follow wherever our creative musings go.”

After the success of their first two albums, Maroon 5 is planning on staying around for a while. “I think that we don’t want to burn out and there’s definitely this mentality that’s very strong these days about cashing in and we’re much more interested in longevity. We’re also interested in cashing in to some extent, who wouldn’t be?” Levine said. “We want to be taken seriously as a band. I think that we just need to try as hard as we can and make sure that we’re not always taking a check just to take a check. I think that at the end of the day, it comes down to one thing, which is writing good music that people can connect with.”

“I’m happy that even over the few years since we released Songs About Jane that some of the songs have entered the canon of pop music that will be around forever,” Valentine added. “We want to write those sort of songs that will stick around forever, that you’ll hear on the radio in 20, 30 years.” RDW