Lincoln native part of Maroon 5's red-hot success
BYL. KENTWOLGAMOTT
Six years ago, James Valentine sat in the Village Inn at 28th and O streets listening to Lincoln native Bob Marlette, now a successful producer, talk about life in the music business in Los Angeles while encouraging Valentine's band, HappyDog, to move there.
"I remember Bob Marlette telling us about all the things in L.A. - having hit songs, gold and platinum albums and stuff. But I could never really believe it happened to anybody," Valentine said. "We had a couple tough years out there, completely broke. It was pretty discouraging. You get the idea nobody ever makes it. Then it starts happening, and it blows you away."
Success didn't happen for Happy Dog, which changed its name to Square shortly before moving to Los Angeles in 2000.
Instead, Valentine left his Lincoln bandmates behind after a couple of years in Los Angeles and joined a band called Kara's Flowers.
Kara's Flowers changed its name to Maroon 5.
Now one of the hottest rock bands going, Maroon 5 has seen its debut album, "Songs for Jane," sell nearly 2 million copies in the United States alone.
Last month, Maroon 5 released the live acoustic EP "1.22.03" and began opening for Valentine's good friend John Mayer on a summer tour that will be at Kansas City's Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre on Tuesday.That's the closest Maroon 5 is likely to come to Lincoln in the foreseeable future.
"I've been trying so hard to get our agent to book us something in Lincoln or Omaha,"Valentine said in a telephone interview. "I kind of get now why I had to drive to Denver or Chicago to see concerts. Routingwise, Nebraska's kind of out of the way." Looking back, Square did well in its first months in Los Angeles, winning an important contest and recording a disc with Marlette that attracted some major-label interest. But the band didn't get signed and found itself struggling to be noticed among the hundreds of other bands in southernCalifornia.
Valentine and the rest of the guys in Square had become friends with the guys in Kara's Flowers after a show.
"They really dug my guitar playing," Valentine said."They came to our house to hang out, probably because we were with some really cute Orange County girls they wanted to meet."
Valentine started jamming with Kara's Flowers but remained a member of Square.But he and Square frontman Sean Beste were not getting along, and the band was struggling. Kara's Flowers singer Adam Levine wanted to focus on his vocals and get away from playing guitar.So the band of old friends from Los Angeles asked the Nebraskan to join, and Valentine said yes.
"I was literally sick because I had to tell the guys in Square I was going to move on with these guys," Valentine said. "Despite the fact we weren't getting along, it was a hard decision."
As soon as Valentine joined, the band changed its name to Maroon 5 and went to work writing songs in the backyard studio of a Los Feliz,Calif., house the band shared with musicians from other groups, including Phantom Planet. He contributed the jazz-based guitar work he learned in Lincoln to an R&B-rooted sound. But getting that distinctive sound together wasn't easy.
"There were different opinions about whether we should have a straight-up R&B sound with the expected beats or have more raw energy because we were a rock band," he said. "There was a lot of fighting in the studio.It was tense at times. But we were all really happy with the way things turned out.It was between those two sounds."
"Songs About Jane" came out onOctone Records in 2002, and Maroon 5 hit the road.The band played 270 shows in the first year after the record was released.
"We'd play in L.A., and people would come see us," Valentine said. "But nowhere else did people know who we were. In the South, I remember playing Starkville, Miss., to the bartender and his girlfriend. Then you wonder, 'What are we doing?'"
Town by town, however, Maroon 5 built a following. And assorted radio stations around the country started playing "Harder to Breathe."That slow build eventually got the single a national push, and it became an overnight hit - 18 months after it was released.
"Harder to Breathe" reached No. 4 on the Top 40 charts. Its followup, "This Love," was No. 1 simultaneously at Top 40 radio, MTV and VH1, and it became the first song certified as a platinum download.
With the hits, Maroon 5 became an in-demand band, playing "The Tonight Show" twice, "TheToday Show" and all manner of other national TV programs. It has also headlined its own shows along with opening for the likes of Mayer, whom Valentine befriended when they both attended a weeklong guitar summer school at the Berkley School of Music in Boston in 1996.
Shortly thereafter, Valentine tried to talk his friend, who was then an outstanding blues guitar player but hadn't started writing songs, into moving to Lincoln.
"I really tried hard to get John to move out to Lincoln,"Valentine said. "He was in Fairfield,Conn., living with his parents and working at a gas station.I knew 'Baby' Jason (Davis) and knew he was looking for another guitar player, and I tried to get John to come out and join his band."
Mayer, obviously, declined the offer.But he and Valentine have remained good friends, and an opening slot on a Mayer tour was part of what propelled Maroon 5 from obscurity to success.
Having played more than 500 shows since "Songs About Jane" was released two years ago, Valentine is more than a little road weary.
"We left town in February 2002 and essentially haven't been off the road since then," he said from Portland, Ore. "I just recently got an apartment. But until then, I was just floating. Being on the road for 2½ years has taken its toll. I'm definitely ready for a vacation. I'm looking forward to not having to pack and unpack all my possessions every day."
Once it finishes its summer tour, Maroon 5 will be taking a month off before recording its second album.Valentine said he feels no pressure about matching the success of "Songs About Jane" because he believes the band has written even better songs for the second album, and two years on the road have fused Maroon 5 into a very tight outfit.
Even though he's getting tired of touring, Valentine is having the time of his life, living out dreams he never believed would come true.
"What's really bizarre is that with Square,I wrote this song, '26 or Else,' which was the time limit I'd given myself for pursuing music as a career,"he said. "Iturned 26 this year.It's bizarre that all this happened in the final year. I'mreally happy."
Reach L.Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@;journalstar.com.
Six years ago, James Valentine sat in the Village Inn at 28th and O streets listening to Lincoln native Bob Marlette, now a successful producer, talk about life in the music business in Los Angeles while encouraging Valentine's band, HappyDog, to move there.
"I remember Bob Marlette telling us about all the things in L.A. - having hit songs, gold and platinum albums and stuff. But I could never really believe it happened to anybody," Valentine said. "We had a couple tough years out there, completely broke. It was pretty discouraging. You get the idea nobody ever makes it. Then it starts happening, and it blows you away."
Success didn't happen for Happy Dog, which changed its name to Square shortly before moving to Los Angeles in 2000.
Instead, Valentine left his Lincoln bandmates behind after a couple of years in Los Angeles and joined a band called Kara's Flowers.
Kara's Flowers changed its name to Maroon 5.
Now one of the hottest rock bands going, Maroon 5 has seen its debut album, "Songs for Jane," sell nearly 2 million copies in the United States alone.
Last month, Maroon 5 released the live acoustic EP "1.22.03" and began opening for Valentine's good friend John Mayer on a summer tour that will be at Kansas City's Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre on Tuesday.That's the closest Maroon 5 is likely to come to Lincoln in the foreseeable future.
"I've been trying so hard to get our agent to book us something in Lincoln or Omaha,"Valentine said in a telephone interview. "I kind of get now why I had to drive to Denver or Chicago to see concerts. Routingwise, Nebraska's kind of out of the way." Looking back, Square did well in its first months in Los Angeles, winning an important contest and recording a disc with Marlette that attracted some major-label interest. But the band didn't get signed and found itself struggling to be noticed among the hundreds of other bands in southernCalifornia.
Valentine and the rest of the guys in Square had become friends with the guys in Kara's Flowers after a show.
"They really dug my guitar playing," Valentine said."They came to our house to hang out, probably because we were with some really cute Orange County girls they wanted to meet."
Valentine started jamming with Kara's Flowers but remained a member of Square.But he and Square frontman Sean Beste were not getting along, and the band was struggling. Kara's Flowers singer Adam Levine wanted to focus on his vocals and get away from playing guitar.So the band of old friends from Los Angeles asked the Nebraskan to join, and Valentine said yes.
"I was literally sick because I had to tell the guys in Square I was going to move on with these guys," Valentine said. "Despite the fact we weren't getting along, it was a hard decision."
As soon as Valentine joined, the band changed its name to Maroon 5 and went to work writing songs in the backyard studio of a Los Feliz,Calif., house the band shared with musicians from other groups, including Phantom Planet. He contributed the jazz-based guitar work he learned in Lincoln to an R&B-rooted sound. But getting that distinctive sound together wasn't easy.
"There were different opinions about whether we should have a straight-up R&B sound with the expected beats or have more raw energy because we were a rock band," he said. "There was a lot of fighting in the studio.It was tense at times. But we were all really happy with the way things turned out.It was between those two sounds."
"Songs About Jane" came out onOctone Records in 2002, and Maroon 5 hit the road.The band played 270 shows in the first year after the record was released.
"We'd play in L.A., and people would come see us," Valentine said. "But nowhere else did people know who we were. In the South, I remember playing Starkville, Miss., to the bartender and his girlfriend. Then you wonder, 'What are we doing?'"
Town by town, however, Maroon 5 built a following. And assorted radio stations around the country started playing "Harder to Breathe."That slow build eventually got the single a national push, and it became an overnight hit - 18 months after it was released.
"Harder to Breathe" reached No. 4 on the Top 40 charts. Its followup, "This Love," was No. 1 simultaneously at Top 40 radio, MTV and VH1, and it became the first song certified as a platinum download.
With the hits, Maroon 5 became an in-demand band, playing "The Tonight Show" twice, "TheToday Show" and all manner of other national TV programs. It has also headlined its own shows along with opening for the likes of Mayer, whom Valentine befriended when they both attended a weeklong guitar summer school at the Berkley School of Music in Boston in 1996.
Shortly thereafter, Valentine tried to talk his friend, who was then an outstanding blues guitar player but hadn't started writing songs, into moving to Lincoln.
"I really tried hard to get John to move out to Lincoln,"Valentine said. "He was in Fairfield,Conn., living with his parents and working at a gas station.I knew 'Baby' Jason (Davis) and knew he was looking for another guitar player, and I tried to get John to come out and join his band."
Mayer, obviously, declined the offer.But he and Valentine have remained good friends, and an opening slot on a Mayer tour was part of what propelled Maroon 5 from obscurity to success.
Having played more than 500 shows since "Songs About Jane" was released two years ago, Valentine is more than a little road weary.
"We left town in February 2002 and essentially haven't been off the road since then," he said from Portland, Ore. "I just recently got an apartment. But until then, I was just floating. Being on the road for 2½ years has taken its toll. I'm definitely ready for a vacation. I'm looking forward to not having to pack and unpack all my possessions every day."
Once it finishes its summer tour, Maroon 5 will be taking a month off before recording its second album.Valentine said he feels no pressure about matching the success of "Songs About Jane" because he believes the band has written even better songs for the second album, and two years on the road have fused Maroon 5 into a very tight outfit.
Even though he's getting tired of touring, Valentine is having the time of his life, living out dreams he never believed would come true.
"What's really bizarre is that with Square,I wrote this song, '26 or Else,' which was the time limit I'd given myself for pursuing music as a career,"he said. "Iturned 26 this year.It's bizarre that all this happened in the final year. I'mreally happy."
Reach L.Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@;journalstar.com.
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