Maroon 5 is an American rock band. Since debuting in 2002, the band has sold over 10 million albums in the United States and nearly 15 million worldwide. While they were in high school, the four original members of Maroon 5 played in a garage band called Kara's Flowers, which was active from 1994 to 2001. In 2002, the band members reformed as Maroon 5 and released their debut album Songs About Jane, but the album first topped Billboard charts in the US in 2004. Songs About Jane contained four hit singles: "Harder to Breathe", "This Love", "She Will Be Loved" and "Sunday Morning".

Original drummer Ryan Dusick left Maroon 5 in 2006, citing injuries, and was replaced by Matt Flynn. Maroon 5's second album It Won't Be Soon Before Long came out in 2007, with singles "Makes Me Wonder", "Won't Go Home Without You" and "Wake Up Call". The band performed throughout the summer and fall of 2007, including a North American tour with The Hives. They followed that with a world tour with New Found Glory. Beginning March 28, 2008, they toured with Counting Crows and Sara Bareilles. In 2005, they won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist.

Kara's Flowers and formation of Maroon 5 (1994?2001)

The four original members of Maroon 5 have known each other since attending Brentwood School together 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 garage/grunge band. The name was taken from a girl that the band had a "collective crush" on. The band played its first gig at Whisky a Go Go on , 1995. While they were playing a beach party in Malibu, indie producer Tim Allen heard them playing and offered to manage them, which eventually led to their deal with Reprise Records and producer Rob Cavallo. Very early on, their sound was what Carmichael called "Fugazi and System of a Down meets Sesame Street ". However, by the release of The Fourth World (album) in 1997, they had morphed into band reminiscent of 1960s Brit pop. 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. Levine and Carmichael went to college in Long Island, New York, while Madden and Dusick stayed home in L.A., and attended a semester of college at UCLA. In the interim, Levine and Carmichael were exposed for the first time to the gospel, hip-hop and R&B of their largely African-American schoolmates. Levine credits the period with informing the band's new style stating:

“I spent a lot of time in New York where I was exposed to an urban and hip-hop culture in a way that had never happened to me in L.A. It turned me on to an entirely new genre of music which has had a profound impact on my songwriting.”
When the two returned in 2000, they brought those influences with them. Sam Farrar (bassist for Phantom Planet and former roommate of Levine and Valentine) says that the Aaliyah song "Are You That Somebody?" affected the band and influenced the song "Not Coming Home." Jordan Felstein, a friend of Levine's family and a junior agent at ICM, stopped by one of the band's rehearsals and was so surprised, by what he heard, that he quit his job in order to manage the band full time. The band put together a demo that was rejected by several labels, before falling into the hands of the executives at Octone Records--James Diener, Ben Berkman and David Boxenbaum. Especially impressed with song "Sunday Morning", Berkman encouraged the other three to fly out to L.A. to observe Kara's Flowers at their showcase gig at the Viper Room. After watching Levine onstage, they were convinced, and Kara's Flowers became the new label's first act.

Octone immediately insisted that the band change its name to break with its pop-rock 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. Even still, the only songs of their repertoire that showcased the band's new direction were "Sunday Morning" and the soon-to-be-written "She Will Be Loved" ? neither of which the label approved of as a first single. The band toured for a full year before entering the studio with producer Matt Wallace. Levine's frustration with Berkman's demands for a lead single inspired him to write just that ? a song called "Harder to Breathe".

Maroon 5 was constantly on tour, after releasing their album in mid-2002. Their first major tour was the 2002 Jeep World Outside, a "grassroots" summer festival tour with such acts as O.A.R., Ziggy Marley, Train and headliner Sheryl Crow.

Valentine attended Berklee music school 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") that he invited them to open for him during his early 2003 tour. The first single "Harder to Breathe" slowly started to pick up airplay which helped spur sales of the album. By March 2004, the album had reached the Top 20 of the Billboard 200 and "Harder to Breathe" had made the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts. The album peaked at #6 on the Billboard 200 in September 2004, 26 months after its release; this was the longest period between an album's release and its initial Top 10 appearance since SoundScan results were included in the Billboard 200 in 1991. Mayer invited the band to open for him again in 2004.

Over the next three years, the band toured virtually non-stop, including visits to seventeen countries. During this time, the band toured with Michelle Branch, Nikka Costa, Vanessa Carlton, Graham Colton, and The Rolling Stones. Others they have toured alongside include Gavin DeGraw, Matchbox Twenty, Sugar Ray, Counting Crows, Phantom Planet, The Hives, Dashboard Confessional, Big City Rock, The Like, Simon Dawes, Jason Mraz, The Thrills, Thirsty Merc, Marc Broussard, The Donnas, The RedWest, Michael Tolcher and Guster.

Songs About Jane eventually reached #2 on the Australian albums charts, while "Harder to Breathe" made the Top 20 singles charts in the US and UK, and Top 40 in Australia and New Zealand. The album also eventually climbed to #1 in the UK and #2 in Australia. The second single, "This Love", reached #5 in the US, #3 in the UK, and #8 in Australia. The third single, "She Will Be Loved," reached the Top 5 in both the US and the UK, and went to #1 in Australia. The fourth single, "Sunday Morning," reached the Top 40 in the US, UK, and Australia.

Maroon 5 also played Live 8, in Philadelphia in 2005. Their set included a cover of Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World" and frontman Levine performed with one of his heroes, and the closing act, Stevie Wonder. On May 13, 2005, in Santa Barbara, California, the band wrapped up the Honda Civic Tour, which they headlined. 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.

Before I took my first break from touring, I lived with the daily anguish of knowing that it was just a matter of time before my body would give out on me. Every show was a rush of adrenaline and pain, excitement
 

Over the years of touring with the band, percussionist and back-up vocalist Ryan Dusick had been suffering from the touring life. The strains of non-stop touring aggravated an old sports injury. After several absences of tours with Ryland Steen of Reel Big Fish and Josh Day taking his place for a couple of tours, Dusick officially left Maroon 5 in September 2006 with Matt Flynn, Gavin DeGraw and The B-52's former drummer, assumed the position initially temporary, but then permanently.

After recording for most of 2006, in May 2007, Maroon 5's second album, It Won't Be Soon Before Long, was released worldwide by A&M/Octone Records. According to Levine, the follow-up to Songs About Janeis "sexier and stronger", gaining inspiration from iconic 80s artists such as Prince, Shabba Ranks, Michael Jackson and Talking Heads. Before its release, "Makes Me Wonder" was the #1 selling single and video on iTunes. It was also the #1 selling album, with more than 50,000 digital pre-sales. After its release, the album broke iTunes sales records its week of release, selling over 101,000 albums. The first single, "Makes Me Wonder," was released to radio March 27, 2007. The making of the music video was previewed on MTV's Total Request Live, and premiered on the show March 29. The song debuted at number 84 on the Billboard Hot 100, the lowest debuting single of the group's five chart entries. In the first week of May, the single skyrocketed from a lowly position of #64 to #1, the biggest jump in Billboard history at the time. "Makes Me Wonder" has also achieved #1 on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs, Pop 100, and Hot Dance Club Play charts.

To support the album, the band performed on a "six-date club tour" in which they visited small venues in Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Miami, and New York City in early June 2007. They followed with a concert that streamed live via MSN Music in mid-June. On July 10, they opened for The Police, in Miami, and followed with an acoustic performance at the Miami club, Studio A, the next day. Their 2007 It Won't Be Soon Before Long world tour began September 29 in Detroit and concluded November 10 in Las Vegas. The Hives, as the tour's special guest, performed on all of the dates while Sara Bareilles, Kevin Michael, and Phantom Planet each performed in a portion of the tour. They are currently touring with Dashboard Confessional in their world tour and, beginning March 28, 2008, they will tour with OneRepublic, Brandi Carlile, and Ry Cuming. They have also performed "Makes Me Wonder" on season 6 of American Idol and "If I Never See Your Face Again" on season 7 of American Idol. The re-release of the album featured a new duet version of "If I Never See Your Face Again" with Rihanna; the new version of the song also appeared on the re-release of Rihanna's album Good Girl Gone Bad. Recently, they have released as the album's 5th single "Goodnight Goodnight" which will be reaching the radio soon.

Next studio album (2008-present)
Levine has stated that he believes the band is 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." The band hopes to have a new album ready by early 2010.

The band will also perform in Salt Lake City for the Omniture conference. They have revealed titles of three songs from the forthcoming album; "How", "I'm Never Gonna Leave This Bed" and "Don't Know Much About That". Jesse has stated in an interview that another one of the songs on their next album is "Wasted Years", a song from their live album, Live - Friday the 13th.

2008–11: Hands All Over

Levine has stated that he believes the band is 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." Maroon 5's third studio album was recorded in 2009 in Switzerland, where the band were joined by record producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange. The album, titled Hands All Over, was released on September 21, 2010. The album's first single, "Misery", was released on June 22, 2010. Maroon 5 toured with Train for the summer of 2011, from July 22 to September 24. Christina Aguilera is featured on Maroon 5's single "Moves like Jagger". It premiered live of The Voice on June 21, 2011 and reached the number one position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in September 2011. Adam Levine was also featured in Gym Class Heroes' song "Stereo Hearts", which peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100. On September 8, 2011, Jesse stated that the band is likely to begin recording their next album within the year. On October 1, the band performed live at the Rock in Rio concert in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Maroon 5 was a last hour addition, chosen to fill the vacant spot left by Jay-Z after he cancelled his appearance for personal reasons believed to be a diary clash, but rumored to be a performance in a poll for bands the audiences wanted to see in the festival. The band launched a Snapple flavor named "Tea Will Be Loved" in support of Feeding America.

Maroon 5 performed "Moves Like Jagger" and "Stereo Hearts" with Travie McCoy on November 5, 2011 on Saturday Night Live. They also performed "Moves Like Jagger" and "Stereo Hearts" with Christina Aguilera and Gym Class Heroes on November 20, 2011 on the American Music Awards, where they won their first AMA for Favorite Pop Band/Duo/Group. The band also performed "Moves Like Jagger" at the 2012 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. During a promotion by Coca-Cola in the March of 2011, the band participated in a special studio session during which, with the help of musician (keyboardist and background vocalist) PJ Morton, they had 24 hours to write a completely original song. After their time was up, the song "Is Anybody Out There" was released on the Coca-Cola website for free download. Morton, who has played with the band in concerts and other live performances since 2010, is now temporarily replacing Jesse Carmichael, who has currently taken a longer break from performing with the band - this was officially confirmed by the group in March 2012. In 2012, the band recorded a song for The Hunger Games soundtrack, called "Come Away to the Water" featuring Rozzi Crane. At the 54th Grammy Awards, on February 12, 2012, the group performed alongside Foster the People and The Beach Boys in a medley of Beach Boys songs to celebrate their 50th anniversary.

2012–13: Overexposed

On March 9, 2012, Jesse Carmichael announced would take a break from the band for an undetermined amount of time to focus more on his studies of "music and the healing arts" (spiritual healing). Carmichael will return to the band in time for the fifth album. The band continued to work on their fourth studio album Overexposed released on June 26, 2012, with the help of their touring member PJ Morton. Levine stated the album is their "most diverse and poppiest album yet". On April 16, 2012, The band premiered the first single from the album "Payphone" featuring American rapper Wiz Khalifa, on the reality competition television show The Voice, in which Levine is one of the judges and coaches. The song debuted number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, before being peaked to number two. The second single "One More Night", was released on June 19, 2012. The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, managed to beat Psy's "Gangnam Style" and stayed in the chart for nine weeks consecutively, making the band's most successful single to date and tied with Carly Rae Jepsen's hit single "Call Me Maybe".

At the start of their Overexposed World Tour in South America, Maroon 5 introduced the newest addition in the band to the audience: their old and close friend Sam Farrar on guitars, occasionally on the bass guitar, backing vocals, turntables and providing samples and other special effects (using the MPC). Farrar co-wrote and co-produced a few of the band's songs on all of their studio albums and also remixed one of their songs, which is called "Woman", on Call and Response: The Remix Album, released in 2008. On August 31, 2012, during a show in Argentina, Farrar filled-in for Mickey Madden on the bass guitar for the very first time. He subsequently filled-in for Madden on the next few shows of the tour.

On November 27, 2012, the band released "Daylight", the third single from the album. To promote the song, the band has launched a video project called "The Daylight Project". The project encouraged fans to film their own segments for inclusion in the official music video for "Daylight", directed by Jonas Åkerlund. "Daylight" was performed for the first time as a single on November 8, 2012, during an episode of the American version of The Voice and the official video was released on December 10, 2012.

On April 1, 2013, the band announced that they will headline the 12th Annual Honda Civic Tour with special guest, Kelly Clarkson. The tour began on August 1, 2013, at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Maryland Heights, Missouri and ended on October 6, 2013, with a concert at theHollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. On May 14, 2013, the band released the fourth and final single from the album "Love Somebody". The band first performed the song of The Voice on May 20, 2013, while the music video was released the day after and is directed by Rich Lee.

In February 2014, the band performed "All My Loving" and "Ticket to Ride" at a tribute concert entitled The Night That Changed America, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Beatles.

2014: Fifth studio album

In April 2013, James Valentine said the band was in the studio recording songs for the upcoming fifth studio album: "The stuff we're working on now, it definitely has gone maybe a little darker in its sound, maybe back a little bit more to what we kind of did on Songs About Jane, but at this point we do have all kinds of different songs and it is early".

Band members

Adam Levine - lead vocals, rhythm guitar 
Jesse Carmichael - keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Mickey Madden - bass guitar 
James Valentine - lead guitar, backing vocals 
Matt Flynn - drums, percussion 
Former members
Ryan Dusick - drums, percussion, backing vocals