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Rochester music interviews
We hit up the artists on their way to the ROC
We hit up the artists on their way to the ROC
Jesse Carmichael has a message for Maroon 5 fans eagerly awaiting the band's third album, due out in the spring. "There's a chance that there's going to be a magnetic shift on the planet and we might not even be around past May, so we have to get it out by then," the 30-year-old keyboardist jokes. "And if the cosmic shift does happen, all you need to worry about is staying in a state of love, as opposed to fear."
Carmichael's playful nature is indicative of the euphoric state the members of Maroon 5 have been in over the past few months. In July, the band headed to Switzerland to work on its yet-untitled album with legendary producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange. Carmichael says the experience, detailed in a recent series of YouTube videos, was a lot like summer camp.
"It was beautiful," he says. "There are a lot of distractions in L.A. For everybody to be in one place with nothing to do, other than play music or go into the hills and yodel, was nice. We all had a big bonding experience."
But now it's back to business, as Maroon 5 embarks on a college tour — which stops at Rochester Institute of Technology Friday, Nov. 6 — before putting the finishing touches on the new album, the follow-up to its two multi-platinum predecessors, Songs About Jane and It Won't Be Soon Before Long.
While he didn't give too many specifics, Carmichael did reveal that, stylistically, the new release veers more toward the live-instrument feel of Songs About Jane rather than the '80s synth-pop of It Won't Be Soon Before Long.
Fans' first glimpse of what the guys have been working on will come during the tour: Carmichael says Maroon 5 will play its new song "Last Chance" for the first time live.
"There's the same cohesive feel as the first two albums, but sonically it's taken a step up from both," says Carmichael, who credits Lange with pushing Maroon 5 to new heights. The British producer has helmed career-defining albums for everyone from AC/DC and Foreigner to Def Leppard and, perhaps most notably, his soon-to-be ex-wife, Shania Twain.
"He brought out the best in everybody," says Carmichael. "I would find myself playing the piano, and I would think that this is a Mutt Lange record. So I guess I better play like this is going to be a super-successful album."
Carmichael says that after the band gets back together with Lange in December to finish the new album, it'll do some more touring. Maroon 5 remains one of the biggest rock bands in the world, having sold more than 20 million records worldwide. And while the band's schedule has been dominated by touring for most of the decade, Carmichael insists band members aren't burned out.
""We've really sort of figured out how to balance our lives," he says. "There's a certain amount of struggle that goes into it, but it's all good in the end."
