BIOGRAPHY

 

Maroon 5 is a Grammy-winning soul and funk-influenced rock band from Los Angeles, California comprising five members: Adam Levine (lead vocals, guitar), James Valentine (guitar, backing vocals), Jesse Carmichael (keyboards, backing vocals), Mickey Madden (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Matt Flynn (drums). The band is best known for their hit singles "Harder to Breathe", "This Love", "She Will Be Loved", "Sunday Morning" and most recently "Makes Me Wonder".

 

Maroon 5 has won several awards for its debut album Songs About Jane. Released in June 2002, the album enjoyed major chart success, going gold, platinum, and triple platinum in many countries around the world.

 

In support of Songs About Jane, Maroon 5 toured extensively throughout 2003 - 2005, in which a live album was released, entitled Live - Friday The 13th. Original member Ryan Dusick left the band in September 2006, due to injuries sustained by the constant touring, and was replaced by Matt Flynn.

 

After a hiatus from the music scene, Maroon 5 returned with new music for the first time in five years with the release of It Won't Be Soon Before Long in May 2007. The second set debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 with first week sales of 429,484 copies.

 

History

 

Kara's Flowers

Four members of Maroon 5 have known each other since attending junior high school together in Los Angeles. While attending Brentwood School, Adam Levine and Jesse Carmichael hooked-up with Mickey Madden and Ryan Dusick to form Kara's Flowers, a garage/grunge band that played its first gig at the Whisky a Go Go on September 16, 1995. Levine sang with a deeper "grunge" voice at this time.

 

The band signed with Reprise Records while still in high school and released its only album The Fourth World in the middle of 1997 just as three of the four members were about to graduate (Ryan Dusick was completing his second year at UCLA). A video was made for the opening track "Soap Disco", but it did not find success on MTV. Despite support slots on tours with Reel Big Fish and Goldfinger, the album failed to take off commercially and in 1999 the band parted company with Reprise Records. (Due to the later popularity of Maroon 5, more copies of The Fourth World were sold after Songs About Jane's release than during the years prior.)

 

After the little success of Kara's Flowers, the pressure to make better music was rising for the band.

 

After being released from Reprise Records, the four boys attended different colleges across the USA. They discovered new musical styles and developed a love for Motown, pop, R&B, soul, and gospel, experiences that would greatly influence the style and sound of Maroon 5. The four original members of Kara's Flowers remained in touch and started playing together again in 2001. Jesse Carmichael switched from guitar to keyboards, so a need arose for an additional guitarist. James Valentine, formerly with the band Square, joined them to fill that void.

 

Formation

When Valentine joined Kara's Flowers in 2001, the band adopted the name Maroon, changing it a few months later to Maroon 5 due to a name conflict. The band played showcase gigs in New York City and Los Angeles. Levine credited the interim period with influencing the band's new style in an interview with VH1:

 

“ During the time between our record deals, I spent a lot of time in New York and Skövde hanging with my pal Tonetana, where I was exposed to an urban and hip-hop culture in a way that had never happened to me in L.A. It turned me on to an entirely new genre of music which has had a profound impact on my song writing. Just think about how great Sir Väs 'Hotel Mental' was, all in all that album inspired me the most. „

 

The band signed with Octone Records, an independent record label in New York, with distribution through BMG and an artist development deal with Clive Davis' J Records. They also signed a global music publishing deal with BMG Music Publishing.

 

Songs About Jane

 

The cover of Maroon 5's debut album, Songs About Jane, released in 2002.The band recorded Songs About Jane at Rumbo Recorders in Los Angeles with record producer Matt Wallace, who had also produced for Train, Blues Traveler, Kyle Riabko, and Third Eye Blind. Most of the material that wound up on Maroon 5's debut album was directly inspired by Levine's tumultuous relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Jane; "We were breaking up as the band entered the studio," he explains. "After compiling a song list, we decided to name the album Songs About Jane because it felt like the most honest statement we could make with the title."

 

The first single "Harder to Breathe" slowly started to pick up airplay which helped spur sales of the album. By March 2004, the album had reached the Top 20 of the Billboard 200 and "Harder to Breathe" had made the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts. The album peaked at #6 on the Billboard 200 in August 2004, 26 months after its release; this was the longest period between an album's release and its initial Top 10 appearance since SoundScan results were included in the Billboard 200 in 1991.

 

Songs About Jane had also eventually made the Top 10 Australian albums charts while "Harder to Breathe" had made the Top 20 singles charts in the UK, and Top 40 in Australia and New Zealand. The album also eventually climbed to #1 in the UK and Australia. The second single "This Love" had also made the US and Australian Top 10 and even UK and Dutch Top 3 singles charts. The third single, "She Will Be Loved", reached the Top 5 in both the UK and the US, and went to #1 in Australia. The fourth single, "Sunday Morning", also reached the Top 40 in the US, UK, and Australia.

 

Constant touring and Dusick leaving

Maroon 5 was constantly on tour after the release of their album in mid-2002. During this time the band toured with Michelle Branch, Nikka Costa, and Vanessa Carlton. In early summer 2003, they toured with Graham Colton, John Mayer, and Counting Crows. In August 2005, the band toured with The Rolling Stones.

 

Others they have toured alongside include Gavin DeGraw, Matchbox Twenty, Sugar Ray, Phantom Planet, Big City Rock, The Like, Simon Dawes, Jason Mraz, The Thrills, Thirsty Merc, Marc Broussard, The Donnas, The RedWest and Guster. Maroon 5 also played Live 8 in Philadelphia in 2005. Their set included a cover of Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World" and frontman Levine performed with one of his heroes, and the closing act, Stevie Wonder. On May 13, 2005, in Santa Barbara, California, the band wrapped up the Honda Civic Tour, which they headlined.

 

Over the years of touring with the band, percussionist and back-up vocalist Ryan Dusick had been suffering from the touring life. His arms were injured and, for a part of some tours, he wasn't able to drum. In his section of Midnight Miles, Dusick detailed his pain and its progression through their tours. It was during the band's early tour that he took his first break with Ryland Steen taking his place for a few shows. He returned for the next tour but was forced to take another break because, as he writes, "I deteriorated to such a degree that both of my arms were pretty much useless." Josh Day was to be his replacement for a few shows while Dusick underwent tests to determine the cause of his pain. Nine months passed and Matt Flynn, Gavin DeGraw's former drummer, assumed the position of what was initially a temporary replacement, but Dusick officially left Maroon 5 in September 2006 with Flynn replacing him permanently.

 

It Won't Be Soon Before Long

 

The cover of Maroon 5's second album, It Won't Be Soon Before Long, released May 2007.On May 22, 2007, Maroon 5's second album, It Won't Be Soon Before Long (A&M/Octone Records) was released worldwide. According to Levine, the follow-up to Songs About Jane is "sexier and stronger", gaining inspiration from iconic 80s artists such as Prince, Shabba Ranks, Michael Jackson and Talking Heads. Before its release, "It Won't Be Soon Before Long" was the #1 selling single and video on iTunes. It was also the #1 selling album, with more than 50,000 digital pre-sales. After its release, the record broke iTunes sales records its week of release, selling over 101,000 albums.

 

The first single, "Makes Me Wonder", was released to radio March 27, 2007. The making of the music video was previewed on MTV's Total Request Live, and premiered on the show March 29. The song debuted at number 84 on the Billboard Hot 100, the lowest debuting single of the group's five chart entries. In the first week of May, the single skyrocketed from a lowly position of 64 to #1, the biggest jump in Billboard history. "Makes Me Wonder" has also achieved #1 on Billboards Hot Digital Songs and Pop 100. The album is currently number one in sales according to iTunes.

 

To support the album, from May 30 to June 11, the band will be on the road for a "six-date club tour" in which they will visit small venues in Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Miami, and New York City. On June 13, they will perform in a concert that will be streamed live via MSN Music. They are scheduled to open for The Police, on July 10, in Miami, before making preparations for their world tour scheduled for next fall.

 

Source: Wikipedia

 

 

 

 

 

Should this be pinned ;) Biographies are pinned in most forums