Maroon 5 sets pace by work of Levine

Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine keeps busy not only playing with the group but also judging contestants on “The Voice” and tending to other business pursuits.

Levine’s full plate, though, has allowed the band to downshift from a frenetic pace to a manageable one.

The Los Angeles septet’s new album, “Red Pill Blues,” is its first in more than three years, even though the band remains busy, guitarist James Valentine said.

“Our schedule is definitely different,” Valentine, 39, said by phone from Los Angeles.

“It’s all kind of dictated by Adam’s TV schedule, so we’re constantly working but much less busy than it was. We were working at a pretty frantic pace for the first decade of existence. We were constantly on the road or in the studio. And it’s funny — the TV show has kind of allowed us to take it a little bit easier, but we’re always doing stuff.”

Nothing seems to hamper Maroon 5’s upward ascent. Since the band’s massively successful debut with “Songs for Jane” (2002), all six of its studio albums — the last was “V” (2014) — have debuted at No. 6 or better on the Billboard 200, with two reaching No. 1 and “Red Pill Blues” bowing at No. 2.

Maroon 5 has logged 16 Top 20 hits, leading the charts with “Makes Me Wonder” (2007), “Moves Like Jagger” (2011) and “One More Night” (2012). The group also has won three Grammy Awards.

The level of success is one that Valentine, Levine and their bandmates did not anticipate 15 years ago, Valentine acknowledged.

“I’m just so grateful we’ve been able to keep the band together the whole time,” he said. “It’s a hard thing to keep a band going.”

That’s especially true when one member eclipses the band itself, as Levine has, whether he’s appearing on television, making Mezquila with Sammy Hagar or acting, as he has in “American Horror Story” (2012) and “Begin Again” (2013).

Levine’s work, Valentine said, is something that he and the rest of the band have learned to accept.

“You know, even before ‘The Voice,’ it was very clear that Maroon 5 was a band fronted by Adam Levine,” the guitarist said. “A lot of bands run into problems, or break up, because there’s a couple of guys in the band who want to be that guy, and we were all very comfortable with Adam being the focal point from Day One. So that was never really an issue.”

The situation does, of course, leave the rest of Maroon 5 plenty of time to focus on the band’s music.

“Red Pill Blues,” Valentine said, “definitely continues what we were doing on ‘V’” — which means collaborating with hot producers and songwriters under the direction of executive producer J Kash. The lineup includes Benny Blanco, Diplo, Charlie Puth and more, and the album also features guest appearances by Lunchmoney Lewis, Julia Michaels, A$AP Rocky, SZA and, on the deluxe edition, Kendrick Lamar.

“We’ve always wanted to be part of the conversation of what’s going on in contemporary music,” Valentine said. “We’ve been that way since the beginning, so we’re continuing that. It’s the same sort of approach, which was, ‘Let’s get together some of the best producers, all the best producers in the world.’”

But there is a sonic switch on “Red Pill Blues” — one that, by design, is more ambient and chilled-out than that of its predecessors.

“I really think there’s something to be said that we’re certainly not spring chickens anymore, and that laid-back vibe, to me, sort of feels more mature,” Valentine said “It’s a little minimal — definitely more minimal than, say, ‘Overexposed’ (2012), which was us really going all-out in a full, Technicolor-pop, kitchen-sink sort of approach on every track. A lot of these tracks are pretty sparse, as far as what’s going on.

“But there certainly are some tracks that have more of a kitchen-sink approach, too,” he continued. “But mostly we wanted to keep that sparse minimalism that’s the sound of the trip-hop and R&B records and allowing that space for Adam’s voice.”

That approach, he said, had a marked effect on Levine’s singing throughout the album.

“It’s using a lower part of Adam’s voice, which he’s really loving exploring right now,” Valentine said. “He’s known for his really high, reedy tenor in, like, ‘Makes Me Wonder’ and anything like that — and on this album, he’s exploring the lower end of his range, which he’s just really enjoying singing.

“So he’s gravitating toward those sorts of keys and that sort of vibe.”