Maroon 5 will play the Smith Center tonight at 8pm as part of their Back to School tour of college campuses. WRGW News’ Jesse Regis talked with guitarist James Valentine about the tour, the band’s upcoming album, and what he would say if he could speak to dolphins.
Read the transcript below, or check out the complete interview here: Maroon 5’s James Valentine on WRGW
I’m Jesse Regis from the fishbowl. We’re joined by James Valentine, the guitarist for Maroon 5. Maroon 5, of course, will be performing live at the Smith Center on Friday night, James so good to be with you.
Where are you calling us from?
I’m on the highway right now. I’m in the back of our tour bus. We’re driving to Connecticut now from New York.
So tell me about the college tour. What’s it all about?
We decided to do some touring this year because we’ve been in the studio all year so it’s kinda been time off for us. We tour a lot but this whole entire year we haven’t done any touring. So we thought a good place to start would be colleges. When we first started touring we spent a lot of time on campuses and we sort of missed it and wanted to come back. We like you college kids, we have the most fun playing for you.
What’s a college age audience like? It must be different than playing arenas or anywhere else.
There’s just an energy there that’s not there in the general admission crowd. We love all our fans, of course, but there’s an energy on the campuses that you can’t match anywhere else.
What type of music are you playing? Are you playing some of your more recent stuff, are you trying out new material?
We hope to play more of our new songs. We’re also treating this as a warm up to get some of these new songs into shape because we have to play these songs live, a lot of times, before they start to really evolve and take shape because the live arrangements of our songs will generally be pretty different from what you’re playing on the record. But we’re not done with our record yet so we don’t even really know what songs are going to go on there so we’re not playing as many new songs as we thought. We’re playing songs off of our first two records.
Yeah, and I wanna talk about the new record because you went to of all places, Switzerland. What are you doing in Switzerland?
The producer that we’re working with, this guy named Mutt Lange lives out there and his studio is out there. We basically had to go out there if we wanted to work with this guy. It’s a huge privilege and an honor to be working with Mutt Lange so we went out there. It was good for us because we usually record in Los Angeles and there’s a lot of distractions for guys like us so he was good to take us out of there. We were just on a bunch of property out there, which was pretty remote. There were no distractions and we could just focus on working on the music.
Could you see a difference in the music you were making in Switzerland versus a studio in Los Angeles?
I think what we do is what we do. I think the main difference is that we just did it for longer hours. We were working harder and longer.
The album’s coming out in 2010. Any specific date yet?
I think it’ll come out late winter, early Spring.
What’s the motivation for the record? What’s the focus? Is it going to a dark record, is it going to be a more mature record, a poppy record?
It’s the next step forward for us. I don’t think the fans will be too mystified by what they hear. It’ll sound like a Maroon 5 record but we’re always pushing forward a little bit.
You do tons of live shows. You must have a few kinks in there at some point, have you ever had a problem, a broken string or something where you can’t go forward.
Oh, yeah, we’ve had all kinds of things go wrong. I fell off stage once - that was fun. There was a curtain that was sorta hiding the fact that the stage ended. I was jumping around and I fell off. Lots of stuff happens you just have to keep going. We’ve played so many shows over the years, we kinda know how to cover things before they go horribly wrong.
You guys still got crazy fans coming up on the stage?
Occasionally fans try to get up there but I think our fans are somewhere in between the Jonas Brothers hysteria, you know they’re not as crazy as those kids, they’re a little older so I think they’re a little more mellow. We played a radio festival with [the Jonas Brothers] once and our fans aren’t quite that crazy. And they’re not as intense as they’d be at a Metallica show. So they’re somewhere in between the Jonas Brothers and Metallica.
Speaking of other artists, do you have any interest in collaborating with other artists in the future? What types of bands do you admire that you’d really like to make a track with?
Since we’re in the DC area how about Fugazi? Maybe we could do something with them. I don’t know if they’d totally be down for that though.
You gonna have any time to sightsee when you’re in the DC area? Or are you guys just kinda running around and won’t have any time for that?
No, we’ll have a little bit of time. We were out there pretty recently. We were out there for the inauguration, actually.
You were out there in the cold?
Yeah, I was out there. I was in front of the White House. I actually saw the inauguration. The rest of the guys in the band actually gave up on getting in because it was crazy on the streets and people who didn’t have tickets were trying to get in and the security machine at our gate broke down, but I struck around and persevered and I finally made it in, which was such an amazing experience. We played the Presidential ball, we played a couple other balls, which was the coolest thing we’ve ever done.
And you went out on the [National] Mall just as a private citizen, just waiting in line with everyone else?
Yeah, yeah, it was awesome.
There’s this rumor out there that I want to talk about from my highly reliable source, Wikipedia that says this might be the last Maroon 5 record for awhile, is there any truth to that?
It says that on Wikipedia? I think that might stem from something Adam said in Rolling Stone awhile ago.
That the band had reached its peak and might be disbanding…
Yeah, and probably not. I think we’ll probably make a couple more records, but you never know. I would say the money is on probably a couple more records, for sure.
We want to have a little bit of fun with you. It’s our speed round. I’m gonna throw some questions at you, you’re going to give me the first thing that comes into your head.
Ok, Yeah this could be dangerous.
Yeah it could ruin your career. I’m just kidding, we’re gonna have some fun with it. If you were a side dish, what would you be?
Mac and Cheese
What’s your favorite type of sock? Tube sock guy, low cut sock guy?
I like Thorlos tennis socks.
Oh, that’s right you’re a big tennis player…
Yeah.
Favorite Muppet?
Animal.
Oh yeah!? But he plays the drums though…
Do you know the name of the guitar playing Muppet because I don’t
I don’t, we’ll look into it. Your favorite breakfast food?
Frosted Flakes.
Are you a fan of MC Hammer?
Yes. I mean, that was everywhere. I memorized all of it. My music hits you so hard, makes me want to say oh my Lord, Thank you for blessing me. With a mind to rhyme and two hyped feet.
Do you own a pair of parachute pants?
I don’t own a pair of parachute pants, unfortunately.
If you could speak to one animal, what would it be?
A dolphin.
What would you say to the dolphin?
I’d be like “what’s up, why you guys so smart?”
What’s your favorite member of the Beatles?
Let’s go with Paul, because nobody ever says Paul.
Do you think Elvis is really dead?
Yes.
Tupac?
Yes.
Twitter of facebook, which do you prefer?
Facebook.
Favorite founding father?
Jefferson.
Oh well, your friends at Thomas Jefferson University will appreciate that.
I was just saying that just to annoy you guys.
Guitar Hero or Rock Band?
How about picking up a real guitar and learning how to play it?
Would you rather be dead…..or alive in a box?
I’ll be alive, I would rather be alive, wherever I am.
We’ll have to leave it there. Can’t wait to see you tomorrow.
I can’t wait either, I’m gonna be intimidated. George Washington, you guys are, like smart, that’s a good school, it’s not that easy to get in there. They just don’t let just anyone in. If it’s going to be a smart audience we’re going to have to play our most high-brow stuff.
The show starts at 8pm tonight and tickets are still available at the Marvin Center Ticketmaster. Tickets are $30 for students and $33 for faculty, staff & alumni.
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