Maroon 5 is working on new music, but “no pressure,” says keyboard player

Erika Goldring/Getty Images

Erika Goldring/Getty ImagesThanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, Maroon 5’s plans for the near future seem to be on hold. The fate of their planned summer tour with Meghan Trainor is currently up in the air, but the good news is that the band is continuing to make new music.

Late last year, Maroon 5 had started working on a new album, the follow-up to 2017’s Red Pill Blues. Keyboard player PJ Morton — who’s also a Grammy-winning solo artist — tells ABC Audio that that work is going on, despite the coronavirus.

“No pressure right now,” is how PJ describes the process. “Y’know, we have ‘Memories’ right now out as a single, it went to number one, it’s doing very well. And we’re working on music. I’m the only one in New Orleans — they’re all in L.A. — so we’re working remotely. But, like I said, loosely.”

“Memories,” inspired by the death of Maroon 5’s manager, topped Billboard‘s Pop Songs chart and reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100.

Last year, speaking to Florida’s Broward Palm Beach New Times, Maroon 5 guitarist James Valentine said that because “Memories” is a mournful song about loss, he hoped it might be an indicator that the band is ready to sing about something other than love and romance.

“I think every single that we’ve released has been about relationships gone wrong or that sort of subject matter, and I think ‘Memories’ might be the first single we’ve released that’s not just about that,” James tells the paper.

He adds, “I think schematically, hopefully; lyrically, hopefully, it might open us up to include a wider range of topics. We’ll see — we can never really predict where the creativity will go.”