Maroon 5 strikes serious, sexy balance

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If there were any question that Maroon 5’s fans were eagerly awaiting their return after such a long absence, it was quickly answered when “Makes Me Wonder” jumped 63 spaces to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, setting a record for the biggest leap. That supersonic rocket to the top eased nerves the band, which also includes keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, bassist Mickey Madden and drummer Matt Flynn, didn’t even know needed soothing.

“When we started to get that feedback that the single was doing well, there was a sense of relief. I was like, ’Oh, maybe I was feeling the pressure deep down inside,’ Valentine says.

“It definitely takes this huge edge off,” agrees Levine.

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But the recording process didn’t come easily. The band holed up in Harry Houdini’s mansion in Los Angeles to write the album, a residence that Valentine swears was haunted after he mistook a ghost for his then-girlfriend one night.

“If there were spirits there, they were benevolent and we came out with some good songs, so they must have helped us out,” he reasons.

Then after spending eight months with Elizondo and Spike Stent in two Los Angeles studios, the band worked with producers Mark Endert and Eric Valentine over an additional five months.

“We had to hedge our bets,” admits Levine, given the high stakes.

In person, Levine is refreshingly candid and often hilariously profane, but his salty language can’t hide his decent core. At the end of the interview, he apologizes for slightly poking fun at “Idol” contestant Blake Lewis, whom the band has known for years, during the interview; as if the notion he may have said something demeaning has been weighing on him the whole time. Or maybe he’s just afraid that his innocent comment will be taken the wrong way.

Regardless, he and Valentine say they gave up worrying what other people think a long time ago, whether it is about the band’s music or about Levine’s alleged trysts with everyone from Jessica Simpson to Kirsten Dunst to Lindsay Lohan. Levine jokes that he only has to shake hands with an attractive woman for tabloids to assume they are getting horizontal. He finds the whole thing quite amusing and slightly flattering.

“The one thing I take issue with is sometimes they call me a floozy,” he says. “They think I’m an idiot, that I’m just whoring myself out for whatever reasons, and that’s hurtful. But what are you going to do? You put yourself out there; I can’t let it control me.”

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