Adam Levine is not one of those songwriters who cranks out a bushel of songs every time his band, Maroon 5, is due to write a new CD.
In fact, songwriting is not one of the easier parts of the job for Levine, singer and a key writer in the band.
"I don't consider myself to be very prolific at all, actually," Levine said in an interview in advance of this Saturday's show with Counting Crows in Mansfield.
"It's a really big struggle for me to write a song. Songs take either 30 seconds for me to write or a year or two to piece together, depending on the song and how I'm feeling on any given day. I don't really like to write music at all unless I am completely unbothered by touring."
With two hit albums to the band's credit, though, it's clear that a large percentage of the songs Levine does write strike a chord with the band's large audience.
Maroon 5 debuted in 2002 with "Songs About Jane," which produced three hit singles and sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. The May 2007 album, "It Won't Be Soon Before Long," hasn't been quite as big a blockbuster, but it did debut at No. 1 on the Billboard magazine album chart and has rather quietly sold nearly 2 million copies.
The CD was recently reissued in a deluxe format with five B-sides and a DVD that includes a full concert shot in Montreal last year.
Before Maroon 5, Levine, keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, bassist Mickey Madden and drummer Ryan Dusick (who left the band due to arm and shoulder injuries and was replaced by Matt Flynn) were in a band called Kara's Flowers. That band was signed to Warner Bros. Records and released the 1997 CD, "The Fourth World."
The album, which featured a straight-ahead pop-rock sound, bombed. So the foursome split with Warner Bros., put Kara's Flowers on hold and enrolled in colleges. When they regrouped later, an interesting transition had occurred in their songwriting.
This time around when the band started writing new songs, the music morphed into a decidedly distinctive mix of pop and R&B. The musical shift was so significant that the band members (with James Valentine joining on guitar) renamed themselves Maroon 5 and started the gradual journey to major stardom.
Even if "It Won't Be Soon Before Long" isn't coming close to matching the sales of "Songs About Jane," Levine said the band's strong touring base will keep the band thriving. This summer's tour has them co-headlining with Counting Crows.
Levine said he has great respect for the kind of heartfelt and genuine music the Counting Crows make. He said the two bands share a philosophy of playing authentic live shows that don't rely on recorded backing tracks and other gimmicks to cover for any lack of musicianship or instrumentation on stage.
"There are so few bands at this point that are touring bands that are for real," Levine said. "There's a lot of smoke and mirrors these days, so it's nice. I think we both have the same touring ethic in that we both go out there and hit the road and do it the old-fashioned way still."
