Anyone who is passionate about their craft is inspiring, and people who are selfless with their time and doing charity work—bringing awareness of climate change to the world and tackling the problems of inequality. Tell me more about —your solo project. How did that come about? Where did the name come from? I have been so lucky with Maroon 5, to have financial stability in my life. So that everything I do with a side project is only motivated by a need to express something.
In that sense, it feels like a very free realm for me. I am interested in pursuing a type of freedom within myself that will then hopefully radiate outwards in my interactions with other people. How would you describe your—at this point, long-term—relationship with Adam Levine? Adam is one of my musical heroes and I am so grateful that I got to grow up with him, and I am really looking forward to what kind of music we will make together as a band moving forward.
After a lot of intense efforts on our part and transitions in the band where we started to work with outside songwriters for the last couple albums, there seems to be a time coming where we will all be more settled in our homes and with our families and less busy on the road.
It is possible that some future Maroon 5 music will be a little more collaborative and experimental. In the meantime, we already have some new songs coming together for a new album, a continuation of the super-catchy, forward-thinking pop music that we have been focused on for the last couple albums.
The production design for the stage, lights, video, and pyrotechnics is really exciting. So I think that could surprise a lot of people. What advice do you have for students or up-and-coming musicians who want to follow in your footsteps? We always were so focused on how much we love music. Jesse also has a younger sister, Annie. He first started playing the guitar in junior high, rather than the keyboards for which he is known in the band Maroon 5.
In , they released their debut and only album, The Fourth World. The album found little success and, after the demise of the group, Carmichael and Levine attended Five Towns College. While in college, Carmichael began to play the keyboards. However, two years later, Levine and Carmichael dropped out and headed back to California.
All of the Kara's Flowers members eventually met up and formed Maroon 5, with the addition of guitarist, James Valentine.
But what does it take to keep a pop rock juggernaut running at full tilt? We sat down with Jesse to discuss his musical origins, the necessity of personal and artistic growth, and the stories behind all five of his elegantly unpredictable GUITAR RIG 6 presets. Read on to the end to check out exclusive video demos of each signature sound. How did you get started playing music, and when did you discover the guitar? I started on the piano when I was about seven, and at that point in my life, I was really into classical music.
So it started with the basics, like easy Mozart, easy Bach, the music books. I got Sgt. I got really into Pearl Jam and Nirvana and Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, all these bands that just kind of spiraled out in all directions. Right around that same time. And it just kind of expanded from there to Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Costello, and Fugazi, all these bands from these different worlds that just became part of our inspiration for making music.
All throughout high school, I was going back and forth between guitar and keyboards. And then another chunk, it sounded like the Black Crowes. And then Oasis. And we ultimately ended up with a record contract when we were in high school. It was the same day that we had recorded our very first demo, and I had this fresh tape with three songs in my pocket.
All throughout our eleventh grade year, we made this album. And when it was done, we decided we should shop it around to major labels. And somehow we got a connection to a management team in L.
Their friendship and artistic relationship has endured over an illustrious career. Maroon 5 has sold over 36 million albums, 48 million singles worldwide, and earned gold and platinum certifications in more than 35 countries. It was a thrill to be onstage putting on our best show and showing people sides of the band they might not have heard.
We were happy to have been able to put on a performance in these divisive times that focused on Love and Unity. I think it was when I was about seven. I started playing the piano, an electric piano my parents got. Then my sister started to play guitar—I loved the sound of the guitar and started to take lessons in seventh grade.
Adam was already a good guitar player, and he started to show me more and we started to write songs together. We were in 10th grade. It was the day that we recorded our first demo tape. We played at a beach party in Malibu that night and a producer was walking his dog on the beach and heard us; he came up and I had a [demo] tape in my coat pocket and gave it to him.
The next day, they gave us a recording contract. We went on to record our first pass at an album and we had switched to a major label by the time we were done with high school. We thought we were going to be a big band because it was a major label—but it was a shifting time in the music world and we sounded like Green Day meets The Beatles.
At that time, Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears came out, no one really wanted to hear [our kind of] music anymore. I fell in love with the college; I thought all the teachers were great. We came from a school that aimed at getting kids ready for Ivy League college experiences; a lot of people who went to our high school went on to schools like Harvard.
It was a very inspiring time.
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