T: You guys toured extensively the last few years…what was the coolest place you played and where to you hope to never have to go back to?

JV: (Laughs) I love spending time in Europe. London and Paris…amazing! Japan is also amazing, it’s a completely different world over there. I would just feel bad if I was gonna talk negatively about any place in the world and I’d be afraid it might get back to them, so I’m not gonna do that.

T: Where is one place you’d love to play that you haven’t yet?

JV: Oh, man. I would love to play in Dubai. I hear it’s crazy over there.

T: Yeah, I hear the streets are made of gold.

JV: I would love to see that!!

T: So, I was watching American Idol this season 'cause my buddy Blake made it onto the show…he did a few of your tunes on Idol and they were dope…how do you guys know him?

JV: Blake beatboxed his way onto our bus when we played in Seattle a long time ago. It was crazy. He went up and started beatboxing for our merch guy and he was so impressed he brought him back to do it for us. It’s really funny that was like four years ago when we first started touring.  He kept in touch with our drummer Ryan over the years but we hadn’t talked to him for a while and then all of a sudden it was like, “Hey isn’t that…B-Shorty!?!” That’s what he used to call himself, so it was cool he got on the show and got to do the song. 

T: Are you planning to maybe work with Blake on his solo debut?

JV: I think Ryan has been talking to him about it but I dunno, I don’t wanna talk before anything happens but maybe it’ll happen.

T: First single, Makes Me Wonder is on fire…what’s the next single?

JV: It’s Wake Up Call.

T: Is that the one where Adam murders someone?

JV: Yeah. It’s cool. It’s different for Adam. Usually he writes about girls and relationships and stuff and this one is just a story. 

T: So, he finds somebody messing with his girl and decides to start shooting?

JV: Yeah…but as far as I know Adam has never committed double murder.

T: When’s the tour?

JV: September and October. The dates should be up soon on Maroon5.com.

T: Openers?

JV: Too early to say but we have some pretty exciting ideas about some of the possibilities. 

T: Anything you wanna say to your Canadian fans who’ve been waiting for this new CD?

JV: I’m sorry it took so long…but it’s here, so go buy a couple copies!

Thick: Finally, a new album…It Wont Be Soon Before Long. Seems like it’s been forever…are you guys stoked its finally out?

James Valentine: Yeah, nobody is happier than we are. We were getting sick of playing those old tunes. 

T: Songs About Jane sold about a billion copies and you guys had some massive hits off that album…it took a while to catch on initially right?

JV: We released our debut on a tiny indie label and didn’t have the resources that we have now, so we went out and played where we could. We were out for almost four years for Songs About Jane and yeah, it took a while. Most people don’t know this but it took a few years for people to actually hear about us. We had to go out on the road and earn it. 

T: The vibe on this new CD is different even with Makes Me Wonder. I like how you guys went out of the box on this one and took more risks musically…the Maroon 5 sound is there but it's not just a Songs About Jane Part 2, it's funked up a little bit.

JV: We always wanna try new things and it’s been a long time since we made the last record.  We’ve grown a lot as musicians since 2002…2003…when the first record came out.

T: Little Of Your Time is slammin' and puts you in a good mood…it’s got a very crazy feel to it.  Have you been getting that kind of response?

JV: Yeah, I’m glad you like that one. That one was one of my favourites that we did on the record for sure. That was definitely one of the most fun to make. We’re getting a great response, man, it feels great! You know one thing like Little Of Your Time is an example of one of the new tunes.  We wanted to bring some tunes that were a little more upbeat and fun. Songs About Jane was all kind of in a mid-tempo, sort of groovy-jazzy vibe and we wanted some songs that were faster and more fun to play live.

T: One of the most powerful songs on the CD to me is Better That We Break.

JV: That was one of the songs we didn’t write before we actually went in the studio, you know it just sort of came in the middle of the process. Adam was going through some stuff with his girl at the time and then that song came out and we were like, “sorry that you’re going through that but that’s a great song.”

T: I see you guys have Mike Elizondo producing some tracks…he's done some cool Hip-Hop projects.

JV: It was great to work with Mike because he’s an amazing all around musician and I mean anybody that was involved on those Dre records, we’re gonna wanna have involved with ours.

T: Tons of people in the Hip-Hop community like Jay-Z…Nas…Timbaland…they say they dig Coldplay and Maroon 5…do you guys get that a lot?

JV: That’s awesome to hear, man. It’s cool Adam’s been able to do more of that Hip-Hop stuff like the Kanye record. That was huge. That’s a great record. I was really happy that he could be involved with that and that means a lot to us.

T: Does Adam write everything or do you guys kinda collaborate and toss ideas back and forth?

JV: Adam writes all the lyrics but the music comes from all of us. No song is ever written the same. Somebody will start with an idea and then everybody will just kinda vibe out and figure out where it's gonna go.