Happy Valentine day: 10 minutes with Maroon 5's guitarist

MANILA, Philippines - That’s all we got, really  a scant few moments before the big, sold-out concert at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. In a sadly appropriate analogy, you could make a case that it was like being at a, well, payphone booth and finding yourself fresh out of coins to make that call last just a wee bit longer.

James Valentine, guitarist for the biggest band of the moment, Maroon 5, strode in with his long hair and kempt beard to field a handful of questions before being hustled out of the small room where the press people had been holed up. We were rudely treated by a guard at the South Gate of the complex, and a burly man later warned those with Maroon 5 paraphernalia that Valentine would be signing nothing. “Baka mapahiya lang kayo (You just might be embarrassed).” Excuse me? Maybe when you’re handling the biggest band of the moment, you tend to take things for granted, but one could argue that success should come with humility. It’s tragic that a band that has the good humor and humility to name its new hit album Overexposed in self-deprecation should be represented like that.

Thankfully, Valentine himself was so painfully pleasant one could almost overlook (emphasis on almost) the injustice of the ill-timed presser and its irritants, along with the fact that when all was said and done we were unceremoniously ushered out the premises sans access to the show.

“The (album) title came about… when Adam’s face in the US was everywhere because of the new season of The Voice,” he shared. “You couldn’t get away from his face — it was on buses and billboards. At that time we were definitely overexposed… Now the success of the new record has meant some of these songs are getting overexposed, too (laughs).”

Admittedly, Valentine, who joined the band prior to making the Songs About Jane album (reissued with a 10th anniversary edition), heard something in Adam Levine’s voice that convinced him “they were going places.” In effect, he maintains, he was one of the fans of the band formerly called Kara’s Flowers.

Even as Maroon 5 rides the crest of immense popularity (the third concert here reportedly sold out in weeks), its members have also learned to step back.

“When Adam did the (show), it gave the rest of us a little bit of time to do other things. For the last 10 years, we’ve been all Maroon 5 all the time,” Valentine said. “I had these songs which I had been working on… we finally had time to finish the record.”

Valentine is referring to his side project, JJAMZ (juh-jamz) — its name an acronym for the band members from various bands: James (Maroon 5), Jason Boesel (Rilo Kiley/Bright Eyes), Alex Greenwald (Phantom Planet), Michael Runion, and Z Berg (The Like). The rock group recently released its debut album Suicide Pact.

“The only sad part is that they’re on tour right now without me,” Valentine rued. “I have an understudy — a Mini-Me — who goes out and plays my parts when I’m not there.” He conceded with a smile that JJAMZ is “a confusing, stupid name, we shouldn’t have picked up… everyone advised us to change the name but we stuck with it.”

James declared his “main goal was to make a living as a musician,” learning to play guitar at the peak of the so-called grunge scene, and a surfeit of good music from Seattle. “Nirvana, Soundgarden and especially Pearl Jam… It was a great time to start playing guitar because it’s great music to learn,” he said.

As for Maroon 5: “We’ve always been interested in the craft of making pop songs — a tradition that goes back to the Beach Boys and the Beatles. We happen to enjoy making music that appeal to a lot of people that also happens to appeal to a lot of different people, which is I think good for us, but you’re always in danger of overstaying your welcome.”

Clearly, James Valentine, despite soaring great heights, knows how to put things in perspective, and keep his feet on terra firma.