Las Vegas – Maroon 5’s members cannot wait to begin work on the follow-up to their multi-platinum debut, “Songs About Jane,” but guitarist James Valentine told Billboard.com, “We just can’t beat the life out of this record yet.”
Since its early 2003 release, “Jane” (J Records) has sold 2.9 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and spawned the hit singles “This Love” and “She Will Be Loved.”
“As long as there are opportunities to go out and play, we’ll do that,” Valentine said. “But we’re tremendously antsy to get in the studio. We’ll be in there by next spring. We have a couple of months off when we’ll be doing some writing, but we’ve already got a handful of tunes we’re really excited about.”
Among them are “Can’t Stop” and “Wasted Years,” both of which have begun appearing in the band’s live sets. Valentine added the band has “been talking to a lot of producers,” but it was too early to reveal who would lend a hand in the studio. “I think we might work with a few different people, actually,” he said.
Maroon 5 won the digital artist of the year trophy at the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas Wednesday, having gone into the event with nine nominations. It’s an honor Valentine said was particularly noteworthy, “because it’s new technology. I’m personally a big fan of iTunes. That’s how I get most of my music, just because I’m traveling all the time. I can’t really carry around CDs anymore.”
The band’s remaining shows of 2004 will be at radio station-sponsored holiday concerts in New York on Friday, Minneapolis on Saturday and Sunrise, Fla., on Sunday.
Maroon 5 is also up for two Grammy awards, to be handed out Feb. 13 in Los Angeles. “She Will Be Loved” is nominated for best pop performance by a duo or group with vocal, while the band will battle Kanye West, Gretchen Wilson, Los Lonely Boys and Joss Stone for best new artist award.
