Singer Adam Levine and his Maroon 5 bandmates recorded its new album, “It Won’t Be Soon Before Long,” in the same haunted house where the Red Hot Chili Peppers recorded “Blood Sugar Sex Magik.” Just before launching the tour that brings them to Chicago next week, Levine and guitarist James Valentine talked about ghostly encounters and choosing Swedish rockers the Hives as their opening act.
Adam, you wrote many of the songs on “It Won’t Be Soon Before Long” by yourself. Did that have anything to do with the supposedly haunted house where you worked on the album?
AL: Well, no. Although that definitely kept me away from the house when I wasn’t working, because of the strange spiritual goings-on.
Did you have an encounter?
AL: I didn’t. I didn’t care to have one. That’s why I wasn’t there very often. James did.
James Valentine: Yes, actually, one night when I was there alone … I was the only one who really stayed there the full time, because I was homeless at the time, so I had nowhere to go …
AL: Aw.
JV: [Laughs] So one night I saw a figure walking up the stairs when there was nobody else in the house, except for my girlfriend at the time. I was so certain that I’d seen someone that I called out to this … thing. Then I went up to the room that it had walked into, and there was nobody there. I don’t know how to explain it, but that’s what I saw.
Did you guys handpick the Hives as the opening act?
AL: They’re the best Swedish band; we’re the best American band. [Laughs].
Well, are you guys looking forward to learning some Swedish from them during the tour?
JV: Swedish is hard.
AL: Swedish is tough. Swedish is beautiful, though — I think mostly because the Swedish people are beautiful.
