Kara’s Flowers – Doyle’s Space: Music Hall of Fame – Shining Star Award

Kara’s Flowers was the Los Angeles band that became the starting point for what would eventually be Maroon 5, but musically the group was quite different from the polished pop-rock band that later became famous. The story began while the members were teenagers attending Brentwood School in Los Angeles.

Adam Levine, Jesse Carmichael, Mickey Madden, and Ryan Dusick formed the group in the mid-1990s, with Levine handling lead vocals and guitar, Carmichael playing guitar and providing backing vocals, Madden on bass, and Dusick on drums. Sources differ slightly on the exact formation date, with some placing the formation in February 1994 and others identifying September 1995,

but the surviving chronology establishes that the quartet was already performing publicly by 1995. The name Kara’s Flowers reportedly came from a girl at their high school who was the object of a collective crush by the band members. Before settling on Kara’s Flowers, the teenagers had experimented with other names, including Edible Nuns, Mostly Men, and The Rondabouts. The group developed its identity through the Los Angeles club and party

circuit while its members were still in high school. Their first documented live performance came at the Whisky a Go Go in West Hollywood on September 16, 1995, and they subsequently became a familiar presence on the local scene. Their early music was rooted in alternative rock, power pop, British pop-rock and the guitar-driven sound of the 1990s rather than the soul, R&B and funk influences that would become central to Maroon 5. The young band recorded an

independent album called …We Like Digging? in 1994, along with various early demos, including the Room #222 material. These recordings were circulated in extremely limited quantities and are now primarily of interest to collectors and fans trying to trace the band’s development. The important turning point came when independent producer Tommy Allen heard Kara’s Flowers performing at a Malibu party in early 1995. Allen and songwriter John DeNicola

subsequently became involved with the group and helped them record an 11-song album. Their recordings attracted attention from the management organization associated with producer Rob Cavallo, whose work with Green Day had made him one of the major producers of the alternative-rock boom. Cavallo became involved with the band, and Kara’s Flowers ultimately signed with Reprise Records. The label relationship gave the teenagers an opportunity that few high-school bands ever receive:

a major-label recording contract and a professionally produced debut album. Cavallo produced the record, with Jerry Finn involved in engineering and mixing, and the result was The Fourth World.

The Fourth World was released by Reprise on August 19, 1997. The album contained eleven songs, including “Soap Disco,” “Future Kid,” “Myself,” “Oliver,” “The Never Saga,” “Loving the Small Time,” “To Her, With Love,” “Sleepy Windbreaker,” “Pantry Queen,” “My Ocean Blue,” and the nearly six-minute “Captain Splendid.”

The album demonstrates just how different Kara’s Flowers sounded from the Maroon 5 that would emerge several years later. There are catchy melodies throughout the record, but the dominant musical language is youthful alternative rock, power pop and pop-punk, with guitar-driven arrangements and a distinctly 1990s sound. Levine’s songwriting was also considerably different from the

relationship-centered pop and soul material that would eventually make him famous. In a contemporary interview, he explained that much of his early writing was based on visual imagery and ideas that did not necessarily have a literal narrative meaning. “Soap Disco” was released as the album’s only official single on July 22, 1997, backed by “Captain Splendid.” Written by Levine and produced by Cavallo,

the song is an especially useful example of the distance between Kara’s Flowers and Maroon 5. It is short, energetic and deliberately eccentric, combining power-pop and alternative-rock elements with a playful, almost nonsensical lyric. It did not become a commercial success, and the album itself failed to attract the audience Reprise had expected. The band did receive significant promotional exposure, however, including an appearance on Beverly Hills, 90210, where Kara’s Flowers performed “Soap Disco” in the episode “Forgive and Forget.” A music video was also produced for the song. The commercial disappointment of

The Fourth World was a major setback. Contemporary and later accounts indicate that the album sold only around 5,000 copies, an especially disappointing result given the expectations surrounding the young band and the involvement of Cavallo. Reprise eventually dropped Kara’s Flowers, and the members were left in the unusual position of having had a major-label album before they had really established themselves as a touring act. Rather than simply disappearing, however, they continued writing and recording. Their post-Reprise material is particularly interesting because it documents the transition from

the teenage alternative-rock group into the band that would eventually become Maroon 5. During 1998 and 1999, Kara’s Flowers recorded additional demos, culminating in Stagg Street Recordings. Recorded at Stagg Street Studios in Los Angeles during 1999 and released independently later that year, it was more of a demo collection or EP than a conventional commercial album.

It included “If You Only Knew,” “The Fog,” “Simple Kind of Lovely,” “The Great Getaway,” “Good at Being Gone,” “Not Falling Apart,” “The Kid With the Velvet Eyes,” “As Things Collide,” “Everyday Goodbyes,” and an outtake of “A Day in the Life.” The recordings were produced by Ken Allardyce and were distributed in very limited quantities, including through the band’s own channels and to radio stations.

Unlike The Fourth World, Stagg Street Recordings has become important to listeners interested in hearing the group’s musical transition. Kara’s Flowers did considerably more live work than their tiny commercial discography might suggest. After their early Los Angeles performances, they supported The Fourth World with shows around the United States in 1997.

Their concert history includes appearances at venues such as the Whisky a Go Go, the Roxy Theatre, the Troubadour, Irving Plaza in New York, and Toad’s Place in New Haven. They also appeared on bills with acts including Goldfinger, Save Ferris, Reel Big Fish, The Aquabats, K’s Choice, Creed, Marcy Playground, Dishwalla and Phantom Planet. One particularly notable date for Georgia fans came on December 10, 1997,

when Kara’s Flowers appeared with Reel Big Fish and The Aquabats at the Coca-Cola Roxy in Atlanta. Their touring history illustrates that the band was part of the late-1990s alternative-rock and pop-punk club circuit, even though the major-label push behind The Fourth World did not produce a commercial breakthrough.

The band’s evolution was accelerated when Levine and Carmichael left Los Angeles to attend Five Towns College on Long Island. Their exposure to New York’s music scene changed their musical interests substantially. They became increasingly interested in R&B, soul, gospel and hip-hop, and Carmichael moved away from being primarily a guitarist and

became increasingly focused on keyboards. Levine also began experimenting with a more soulful vocal approach, influenced in part by Stevie Wonder. Meanwhile, Madden and Dusick remained in the Los Angeles area while continuing their musical activities. The four members eventually reunited, but the sound they wanted to pursue was no longer the guitar-heavy alternative rock of Kara’s Flowers. The final step toward the next chapter came with the

addition of guitarist James Valentine. Carmichael shifted to keyboards while Valentine became the group’s second guitarist, and the band adopted the new name Maroon 5. Although the name change effectively ended Kara’s Flowers, the transition was not a complete break with the past: four of the five members of the original Maroon 5 lineup were the same musicians who had recorded The Fourth World.

The new musical direction, however, was radically different. The lessons learned from the failure of The Fourth World, the members’ exposure to R&B and soul, and their subsequent songwriting ultimately produced Songs About Jane in 2002. Kara’s Flowers therefore occupies a fascinating place in music history. On its own, the band had one major-label album, one official single, several extremely scarce independent recordings and a relatively short but active live career.

Yet the group is historically significant because it captures Adam Levine, Jesse Carmichael, Mickey Madden and Ryan Dusick before they became Maroon 5. The Fourth World is not simply an early Maroon 5 album under another name; it is a snapshot of four teenagers pursuing a completely different musical identity. The later discovery of R&B and soul, Carmichael’s move to keyboards, the addition of James Valentine and the change to Maroon 5

transformed the group’s musical direction so thoroughly that listening to The Fourth World alongside Songs About Jane makes the evolution especially striking. Kara’s Flowers failed to achieve the success that Reprise had anticipated, but that failure became one of the important steps in the development of one of the most commercially successful pop-rock bands of the 2000s.