Asked why these songs and his current crop of “Unorthodox Jukebox” tracks have clicked with fans, Mars points to the trust that he, Levine and Lawrence have built in seven years of working together.
“I may say, ‘Yo, I like this song,'” he says. “But if Ari or Phil say it’s the corniest shit they’ve ever heard, I trust them. And the other way around. We all know when we’re onto something, like with ‘Locked.’ It was, ‘Man, there’s a good pocket on this song right now. Let’s keep it going.’ We also know when something’s not jelling. And that’s the thing you pray you will always have. You can’t believe that everything you do is hot.”
Levine points to the musical influences the three of them share, including the Beatles, Police and Motown to Earth Wind & Fire, Michael Jackson and disco. “It’s about finding ways to mix the classic we all love with modern songs,” he adds. “That’s why people connect to the music on multiple levels: It’s familiar-sounding but new-classic songwriting and instrumentation with a little twist.”
And there’s also the fearless factor. In addition to the Smeezingtons, Mars personally asked such producers as Mark Ronson and Jeff Bhasker to collaborate with him. “It’s not about what’s hot on the radio or the fastest way to make a buck,” Mars says. “These guys are fearless, doing the music they want to do.”
While melody and lyrics are important, Mars remembers the biggest lesson he was taught when he started writing songs focused on rhythm: Does it make you move? Make you dance? Whether the song is upÂtempo or a ballad, Mars says, “there has to be a heartbeat in back of it. There needs to be a pulse in the song.”