Maroon 5 found success was well worth the wait

By ALAN SCULLEY - Special to The State

 

When Maroon 5 released “Makes Me Wonder,” the lead single off of its new CD, it was no surprise to see the song zoom up Billboard’s singles chart.

 

The new CD, “It Won’t Be Soon Before Long,” enjoyed a similar response upon its late-May release, debuting at No. 1 on the albums chart.

 

Considering Maroon 5’s 2002 debut CD, “Songs About Jane,” produced three hit singles and sold more than 10 million copies worldwide (4 million in the United States), that kind of response was easy enough to predict.

 

Somehow, though, one gets the idea the guys in Maroon 5, who perform Thursday Oct. 18 at the Colonial Center, weren’t taking that kind of success for granted.

 

Guitarist James Valentine and singer Adam Levine said they had been fully prepared for “It Won’t Be Soon Before Long” to not make the huge initial splash that was expected widely. They both noted that “Songs About Jane” took a long time to catch on.

 

“I think it (the gradual success) was because we just take a very classic approach to song craft, and I think that’s sort of lacking in a lot of music today,” Valentine said. “And I think those sort of songs take longer to really seep into the public’s consciousness. I think that’s why it took so long for ‘Songs About Jane’ and even, like, our singles (to take hold).”

 

“Songs About Jane” was pushed by 2004 singles “Harder To Breathe,” “This Love” and “She Will Be Loved.”

 

Perhaps the guys in Maroon 5 also didn’t bank on immediate success for “It Won’t Be Soon Before Long” because they have more experience with the ups and downs of the music business than many people realize.

 

Levine, keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, bassist Mickey Madden and drummer Ryan Dusick (who had to leave Maroon 5 because of ongoing arm and shoulder injuries and was replaced by Matt Flynn) were in a band, Kara’s Flowers, that was signed to Warner Bros. Records and released “The Fourth World” in 1997.

 

That album, which featured a straight-ahead pop-rock sound, bombed. (Billboard has reported that it sold just 5,000 copies.) It was only after several months apart that the group members reconvened, discovered more of an R&B dimension in the song-writing and renamed the group (adding Valentine, who joined on guitar).

 

In fact, during a teleconference interview, Levine made a point of saying that, despite the huge sales of “Songs About Jane,” Maroon 5 is far more concerned with establishing itself as an enduring act than with cashing in while the group’s popularity is at its current peak.

 

“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,” Levine said. “We want to be taken seriously as a band, and there are things that you need to do in order to make that happen.

 

“I think that, at the end of the day, it comes down to one thing, which is writing good music, writing music that people can connect with,” he said.

 

On “It Won’t Be Soon Before Long,” which took about a year to finish, the group stuck mainly with the melodic pop/R&B sound that worked so well on the debut. There are several grooving, catchy and immediately appealing tracks, including “Makes Me Wonder,” “Wake Up Call” (the new single) and “Won’t Go Home Without You” (a song both Levine and Valentine predicted eventually would be the blockbuster single off of the CD). The ballad “Goodnight Goodnight” seems like a natural successor to “She Will Be Loved,” with its smooth sound.

 

“The only conscious thing that we really went into the studio thinking was that we definitely wanted some more up-tempo songs, because we felt that our (live) set lacked that,” Valentine said of the new CD.

 

Both Levine and Valentine said the band is enjoying playing the new material live and that having the new songs has made for a stronger set list. As for the show itself, Levine said fans can expect the group’s music to take center stage.

 

“We don’t want there to be too many bells and whistles, because we don’t want to detract from the music,” he said. “That’s obviously really important to us. We’re going to stretch out our show a little bit and do things that we didn’t do last time.”

Thanks to The State