How Maroon is now?

LA rockers Maroon 5 are currently brewing up a storm in the States on the back of their Chili Peppers flavoured hit single, ‘Harder To Breathe’. Indeed, such was the impact of the tune that the group’s debut album, Songs About Jane – an intriguing mix of rock, r’n’b, soul and even hip-hop influences – has recently been certified platinum, and the band have undergone the pop-cultural graduation ceremony that is the US chat-show circuit, including hugely coveted slots on the David Letterman and Jay Leno shows.

Their hometown, of course, has bequeathed us any number of classics in the fields of music, film and literature, with that potent Los Angeles mix of glamour and sadness informing the work of, amongst many others, Bret Easton Ellis, James Ellroy, X, The Doors and Raymond Chandler. Do Maroon 5 themselves recognise the city as its portrayed in, say, David Lynch’s sublimely atmospheric, psycho-sexual headfuck Mulholland Drive?
“Absolutely, I love that movie,” agrees Mickey Madden, Maroon 5 bassist and alumni of Jim Morrison alma mater (and home to perhaps the world’s most famous film school) UCLA. “There’s definitely a lot of heartbreak and strangeness lurking beneath the surface. And, trust me, when you’re driving through the Hollywood hills at night you can definitely pick up on that vibe.
There is this superficiality to the city; it’s the seat of the entertainment industry and it has this bleached-blonde kind of image in popular culture, but at the same time, it’s the city of film noir, of The Doors, Love and Jane’s Addiction, all of whom explored the darkness and corruption of the place. And to me that’s a very inspiring lineage of artists.”
As mentioned earlier, Maroon 5’s own music has been drawing favourable comparisons with perhaps the most-famed modern-day purveyors of Californication, the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Does Mickey feel that Anthony Kiedis and co. are a fair reference point for describing the band’s sound?
“Yes, definitely,” he replies. “Bloodsugarsexmagic is a record that we all really love and revere. For me personally, that’s like their crowning achievement – I’m not too crazy about the stuff they’ve done before or since – but that record is undeniably important to us. It’s one of the best sounding rock records ever made, and they managed to blend together a lot of the genres and influences and that really appeal to us. And also, I was about 12 or 13 when that album first came out, and I remember that the full-on sexuality of it was pretty jaw-dropping.”
Finally, with ‘Harder To Breathe’ garnering so much attention and Songs About Jane climbing up the charts, Maroon 5 themselves may not have to wait too long to join the Chilis in rock music’s heavyweight division. Are the band aspiring to U2-like levels of fame?
“Well, we certainly wouldn’t mind,” replies Mickey. “Regardless of our aspirations towards fame and success, I think we’ve always felt that the kind of songs we write are palatable to a mainstream audience; they’re melodic, they’re hooky, they appeal to a broad range of the record-buying public. And so if you have that potential to really reach a lot of people, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t pursue it to the hilt. Certainly, we’ve already got past those initial obstacles that scupper so many bands, so if it all ended tomorrow I don’t think we could complain. But, y’know, right now we’re on the path, so there’s no end in sight for us just yet.”

Songs About Jane is available now. Maroon 5 play Whelan’s in Dublin on March 19