Maroon 5

Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band that originated in Los Angeles, California.[7][8] Before the group was formed the original four members of then 1994 band were known as Kara's Flowers while its members were still in high school and originally consisted of Adam Levine (lead vocals, guitar), Jesse Carmichael (guitar, backing vocals) Mickey Madden (bass guitar) and Ryan Dusick (drums).

Adam Levine was introduced to Ryan Dusick by a mutual friend and aspiring guitar player, Adam Salzman. Levine was 15 years old and Dusick was 16. The four original members of the band met while attending Brentwood School 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 pop band. The name was taken from a groupie that the band had a "collective crush" on. In 1997 when they were playing a beach party in Malibu, indie producer Tommy Allen heard them play and offered to manage them and record a complete record with his partner, songwriter John DeNicola, who is known for his work on Dirty Dancing – including "(I've Had) The Time of My Life". Producer Rob Cavallo's management team heard the record Allen and DeNicola produced, which eventually led Cavallo to offer them a deal with Reprise Records. However, after the release of The Fourth World in 1997, they had morphed into band with a style reminiscent of 1960s Britpop. 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. The album sold around 5,000 copies and they were dropped after only one month.

Dusick and Madden attended college locally at UCLA, while Levine and Carmichael relocated to the East coast to attend Five Towns College, in Dix Hills, Long Island, New York. While Levine and Carmichael were in New York, they began to take notice of the urban music surrounding them and later let the style influence the songs they wrote.

The band returned to the music industry again in 2000. Sam Farrar says the Aaliyah song "Are You That Somebody?" affected the band and influenced the song "Not Coming Home." Producer Tim Sommer signed them to a demo deal with MCA Records and produced three tracks with them in Los Angeles in the middle of 2000 with Mark Dearnley engineering. Against Sommer's advice, MCA declined to pick up the band, and these tracks were never released. The band put together a demo that was rejected by several labels, before falling into the hands of Octone Records executives James Diener, Ben Berkman and David Boxenbaum. While looking for talent for the new Octone label, Berkman was given a bunch of demos by the brother of a former colleague at Columbia Records and the song that caught his attention was "'Sunday Morning'" which he referred it as a "genius song". Berkman was surprised the song was credited to Kara's Flowers because they sounded completely different from the band he had heard while at Warner Brothers.

Berkman encouraged Diener and Boxenbaum to fly out to Los Angeles to watch a showcase gig at The Viper Room for the four-piece Kara's Flowers. After watching Levine onstage, they were convinced. Berkman told HitQuarters he believed what the band needed was a "fifth member to play the guitar and free up the singer, so he could be the star I perceived him to be." Octone immediately insisted that the band change its name to break with its pop 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. On his joining the band, Valentine commented: "I became friends with them and we sort of started jamming together, it was very much like I was cheating on my band, we were having sort of an affair and I eventually quit my other band to join up with them."

James Valentine attended Berklee College of Music with John Mayer in 1996, where they developed a rapport. In 2002, the two reconnected at a Mayer radio appearance. After Mayer heard their album, he was so impressed (particularly by "This Love", which became the most successful release off the album and propelled the band to superstardom) that he invited them to open for him during his early 2003 tour.

On June 9, 2005, the band performed at the American Film Institute's tribute to filmmaker George Lucas. Lucas himself had selected Maroon 5 for the event, as they were his children's favorite band at the time. Over the years of touring with the band their drummer, percussionist and backing vocalist Ryan Dusick had been suffering from the touring life. The strains of non-stop touring aggravated an old sports injury. After several absences from the tour with Ryland Steen and Josh Day taking his place, Dusick officially left Maroon 5 in September 2006. Matt Flynn, the former drummer of Gavin DeGraw and the B-52's, joined the band as Dusick's replacement.

Levine stated that he believed the band was reaching its peak and may make one more album before disbanding. He explained: "Eventually I want to focus on being a completely different person because I don’t know if I want to do this into my 40s and 50s and beyond, like the Rolling Stones".

On March 9, 2012, Maroon 5 announced that Jesse Carmichael would take a break from performing with the group for an undetermined amount of time to focus more on his studies of "music and the healing arts" (spiritual healing).

On April 15, 2014, Jesse Carmichael confirmed that his hiatus from the band was complete and he reunited with the band in time to record for V.

Adam Levine has stated: "[E]verything that's written and performed and put together pretty much comes from us. I just think people would be surprised to know that we’re a self-contained unit. We’re a band that does their own thing. There’s no puppet master."


Band members
Main article: List of Maroon 5 band members
Current members
Adam Levine – lead vocals, lead and rhythm guitar (1994–present)
Jesse Carmichael – keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals (1994–2012, 2014–present; on hiatus from 2012 to 2014)
Mickey Madden – bass guitar (1994–present)
James Valentine – lead and rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2001–present)
Matt Flynn – drums, percussion (2006–present; a touring member from 2004 to 2006)
PJ Morton – keyboards, backing vocals (2012–present; a touring member from 2010, up to 2012; filled-in for Jesse Carmichael from 2012 to 2014)
Former members
Ryan Dusick – drums, percussion, backing vocals (1994-2006; officially replaced by Matt Flynn in September 2006)

Discography
Main articles: Maroon 5 discography and List of songs recorded by Maroon 5
Songs About Jane (2002)
It Won't Be Soon Before Long (2007)
Hands All Over (2010)
Overexposed (2012)
V (2014)