Members: Adam Levine, James Valentine, Jesse Carmichael, Michael Madden, Matt Flynn
Formed: 2003
Videos: 119
Karaoke: 14
Interviews: 1
Featured in: 9
Playlists: 699
Twitts: 30
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www.maroon5.com
Maroon 5 are an American rock band. Formed with only two members at the French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts[citation needed] and expanded in Los Angeles, Maroon 5 have sold over 10 million albums in the United States and nearly 15 million world wide. The band performed throughout the summer and fall of 2007, including a North American tour with The Hives. They followed that with a world tour with New Found Glory. Beginning March 28, 2008, they toured with Counting Crows and Sara Bareilles. In 2005, they won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
The four original members of Maroon 5 have known each other since attending Brentwood School together in Los Angeles. While attending Brentwood School, Adam Levine and Jesse Carmichael joined up with Mickey Madden and Ryan Dusick to form Kara's Flowers, a garage/grunge band. The name was taken from a girl that the band had a "collective crush" on. The band played its first gig at Whisky a Go Go on September 16, 1995. While they were playing a beach party in Malibu, indie producer Tim Allen heard them playing and offered to manage them, which eventually led to their deal with Reprise Records and producer Rob Cavallo. Very early on, their sound was what Carmichael called "Fugazi and System of Down [the sound] meets [sic] Sesame Street [the lyrics]". However, by the release of The Fourth World in 1997, they had morphed into band reminiscent of 1960s Brit pop. Despite high expectations from the band and record company, the album failed to catch on and their lead single, "Soap Disco", was a failure. According to Levine, the failure of the album was "a huge disappointment" that nearly led them to break up in 1998. Levine and Carmichael went to college in Long Island, New York, while Madden and Dusick stayed home in L.A. In the interim, Levine and Carmichael were exposed for the first time to the gospel, hip-hop and R&B of their largely African-American schoolmates. Levine credits the period with informing the band's new style stating:
“ I spent a lot of time in New York 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 songwriting. ”
When the two returned in 2000, they brought those influences with them. Sam Farrar (bassist for Phantom Planet and former roommate of Levine and Valentine) says that the Aaliyah song "Are You That Somebody?" affected the band and influenced the song "Not Coming Home." Jordan Felstein, a friend of Levine's family and a junior agent at ICM, stopped by one of the band's rehearsal's and was so surprised by what he heard that he quit his job in order to manage the band full time. The band put together a demo that was rejected by several labels, before falling into the hand of the executives at Octone Records--James Diener, Ben Berkman and David Boxenbaum. Especially impressed with "Sunday Morning," Berkman encouraged the other three to fly out to L.A. to observed Kara's Flowers at their showcase gig at the Viper Room. After watching Levine onstage, they were convinced, and Kara's Flowers became the new label's first act.
Octone immediately insisted that the band change its name to break with its pop-rock past. Also, the label began looking for a full-time guitarist to enable Levine to focus on performing as the frontman. James Valentine (from the L.A. band Square) was recruited for the job. Even still, the only that songs of their repertoire that showcased the band's new direction were "Sunday Morning" and the soon-to-be-written "She Will Be Loved" — neither of which the label approved of as a first single. The band toured for a full year before entering the studio with producer Matt Wallace. Levine's frustration with Berkman's demands for a lead single inspired him to write just that — a song called "Harder to Breathe".
Sources: Wikipedia.
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