Waves of success

Things just keep getting better for L.A. band Maroon 5: a top album, a Grammy award and a gig as headliner for the Honda Civic Tour.

By BRIAN ORLOFF
Published March 24, 2005

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Unless you live in a pop culture vacuum, or, perhaps, you still think George Michael is ruling the pop charts, you've probably heard popsters Maroon 5's boffo single This Love at least once. Likelier still, you've heard it a gazillion times.

This Love - with its infectious guitar riff (try shaking it from your head) - comes from the Los Angeles quintet's 2002 debut album, Songs About Jane, and has taken root at radio stations over the past two years. Its saucy video dominated MTV and VH1. Now, after scoring an upset at last month's Grammy Awards, beating out the expected choice Kanye West for best new artist, Maroon 5 is poised to be more than just that band with the overplayed song. On the other hand, its win came in a category with a reputation for killing careers (former best new artist winners include acts like Arrested Development and Paula Cole who are sadly MIA). But more on that later.

Band members - singer/guitarist Adam Levine, guitarist James Valentine, keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, bassist Mickey Madden and drummer Ryan Dusick - have known each other since middle school (with the exception of Valentine who arrived later on). Since Songs About Jane's 2002 release - the disc's namesake is Levine's former girlfriend - the band has been breathlessly touring with acts such as John Mayer and Matchbox Twenty. Now it's headlining the Honda Civic Tour, which comes to Tampa on Friday at the St. Pete Times Forum.

Keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, 25, called to gab about the band's recent Grammy celebrations, the band's kooky name and his love of Hondas.

Congratulations on the Grammy Award. What was it like to be at the ceremony?

Very cool and very surreal. All the award shows, they have strange vibes to them, kind of like a high school assembly where they're passing out awards to people in your class. It's almost the same type of dynamic there - the cool kids, the punky kids and the jocks - all the different cliques there are in this world of music.

We try and have a really good time at these things but it's hard to really get behind the idea that we're involved in them. The actual moment where they called our names was a total shock. I was in shock so much I didn't even get to focus on anybody's face in the crowd. And I wanted to look at Bono and the Edge (of U2). I couldn't focus on anything, and I felt kind of sick to my stomach. It was just a strange experience.

So you weren't worried when you won that Kanye West was going to beat you up in the parking lot?

(Laughs) No, not at all. I think we're going to work with him soon on a track on his new album. We were fans of his when his album came out and we wanted him to do a remix of This Love. So we went into the studio with him and John Legend. ... They remixed This Love.

We didn't release it because it had a different feel. It ended up being more like a track from (Stevie Wonder's) Songs in the Key of Life than a hip-hop track, which is great; I love listening to it. It sounds like Ebony Eyes but we didn't put it out. But we've kept in touch and now we'll see what happens from here.

Not to dampen the mood, but are you aware of the curse of the best new artist?

Yeah. I've heard about that but I'm not afraid of it at all because I feel like this is a really good motivator to make a great second album. It helps us to know that people are going to be getting ready to listen to it.

Your album has been topping the Billboard charts for more than a year. I imagine the past year has been pretty gratifying.

I think that last year was the most interesting year of my life. The years before were hard work mentally and it's certainly all worth it - beyond worth it. I never really feel comfortable talking about how I feel about this great success because it was so lucky the way everything has worked out. Our lives are so fortunate that it makes me feel so uncomfortable.

You've been playing these songs for three years. How do you keep yourself inspired by them? Or do they get boring now?

We're coming up with subtle ways to change certain things about them. I found over the last couple of years that playing the same song is a really good exercise - sort of like a Zen exercise in living in the moment - because you might think it's the same song but it's not. It's a totally new experience each time you play it in front of different people and on a different stage in a different city.

You started as Kara's Flowers in high school and disbanded in college and got back together again. When was Maroon 5 born?

We never disbanded. We always kept playing while we were going to school out here in L.A. Maroon 5 officially started when James joined the band ... We put out the record in 2002 and we were already on tour from right when we finished it in February 2002 until now. So it has been exactly three years of being on the road and that is really strange. A week on the road feels like a month. A month feels like a year. Three years easily feels like a decade of experience.

It's like dog years.

Exactly. I have gray hair in my beard right now.

How would you characterize your relationship with your band mates? You have known each other for so long.

It is like a family. It's like a big therapy session.

So which of the four of you had the worst teenage "awkward" phase?

Oh man. (laughs) I think we all went through our awkward phases at the same time.

That's very diplomatic.

(Laughs) And we were lucky to be in a band together so we could hide it behind dyed hair and music.

Has anyone heard from Jane since the record blew up? Is she demanding royalties?

I think she's totally happy about it, and I was always hoping that she would be. And Adam got her permission right when he decided to name it Songs About Jane. But it's cool. Nobody knows who she is, and she is happy. So all is well.

I read that people tease you about the band's name a bit. Why Maroon? Why not Scarlet?

The official story is that we can't talk about our name because we took a blood oath as a band to never discuss that aspect. But I can say that it means nothing and it means everything.

Have you been working on any new material?

I think once we finish this tour, we'll be able to reflect on everything that's happened a little more clearly than we could right now. We will be playing about three new songs, alternating them into the set.

This is the Honda Civic Tour. Shameless corporate sponsor plug: Say something nice about Hondas.

(Laughs) I think that they're the best car company in terms of fuel efficiency and low emissions, so they have the title as best "green" company. My sister works at an environment nonprofit in Washington D.C. called the Alliance to Conserve Energy and when she gave me her support, I was very happy to be with Honda. And I'm going to get a Honda hybrid soon, actually.

PREVIEW: Maroon 5, with opener the Donnas, 7:30 p.m. Friday, St. Pete Times Forum, 401 Channelside Drive, Tampa. $35. (813) 287-8844 or (727) 898-2100 or (813) 301-2500. Parents dropping kids off at the show may wait, free of charge, in the meeting room located in Shots at Channelside, starting at 6 p.m.