Still rockin' and rakin' it in

MANILA, Philippines - Maroon 5 lead guitarist James Valentine has one regret about his last visit to the Philippines. He did not get to stay longer after the band performed to a sold-out crowd at the Araneta Coliseum in 2008.

“I had a great time in Manila,” he recalls in an exclusive phone interview. “There was a great, great crowd over there, the best crowd participation we’ve had in our entire career! I wish I could stay longer in the country. I won’t mind going there again sooner or later.”

Too bad the closest he will get to Manila this year is when he and his band go to Japan to promote their third and latest album, Hands All Over (MCA Music, Inc.).

And the album will be his — and the Grammy winning band’s — way of keeping in touch with fans who shrieked and screamed their way to their concert two years ago.

The fans will have a field day once the album is released on Monday, Sept. 20.

“We try to challenge ourselves to make it better,” Valentine says. “Now, we have great help, this time around from a great producer, Mutt Lange.” The Grammy-winning record producer and songwriter, crows Valentine, gave Hands All Over “a rock sort of direction.”

Lange, after all, is known as one of the most successful producers in rock history. He has produced the albums of Def Leppard, Billy Ocean, Bryan Adams and The Corrs.

And Hands All Over, if we are to take it from Valentine has the old familiar Maroon 5 blend of rock, pop, funk and R&B and more.

“You want to make sure you’re still relevant every time you make a new record. And it’s exciting,” he adds.

So they took their time in coming up with the album.

“We’re on the road for a very long time and this is no exception,” reveals Valentine. Hands All Over, he goes on, took about a year to make because “we’d like to take our time and make sure it’s the best when we release it to the world.”

It all started in 2007, when the group wrapped up its world tour for its Grammy-nominated album It Won’t Be Soon Before Long. Several months after, the band got a call from Lange, who offered to produce the album he heard Maroon 5 is planning to make.

Rolling Stone magazine reports that the quintet flew all the way from their hometown in Los Angeles to Lange’s studio in Geneva, Switzerland. It was here, amidst the quiet beauty of the Swiss Alps, where the band created the tracks of Hands All Over.

Rolling Stone describes the result as “the band’s brightest-sounding and poppiest yet.”

Keyboardist Jesse Carmichael says, “Mutt really helped us play to the best of our ability. And it drove us to be bigger and better than ever. Everything he does is huge.”

Having a songwriter for a producer has other pluses. Lange’s catchy hooks is all over the new album.

A well-made album deserves a just-as-riveting video. Valentine is proud of how Maroon 5 is “maximizing new technology and spreading word about our music,” now that the video of the album is out on YouTube.

“The album doesn’t sound like anything we’ve done so far,” he reveals. The hard-rocking title track is heavier than anything the band has come up with. Out of Goodbyes is a country ballad. Don’t Know Nothing that is “deeply groovy” and Misery has the signature Maroon 5 funky guitars and melody.

After three Grammys and 15 million albums sold around the world, Maroon 5 must know success like the back of its hand. But then, what is it really for this quintet composed of vocalist/guitarist Adam Levine, keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, bassist Michael Madden, Valentine and drummer Matt Flynn?

Does the merry ring of cash registers in record stores spell success for them? Or do they measure it by something more personal — the joy they get every time they give birth to a song or album?

Valentine puts it this way: “The way we measure success is by how many people are coming out to see us perform live. When people come out and see us play, we know the album is resonating with them.”

Judging by the way he talks about Hands All Over, fans can expect the listeners to again latch on to the good old Maroon 5 formula of pulsating beats and melodies. It will be like the good old days once more, when Maroon 5’s rock, pop, funk and R&B vibe made people sway to the beat and sing to the melody any which way they can.