Jesse Royal Carmichael (born April 2, 1979) is an American musician, best known as the keyboardist and rhythm guitarist for the pop rock band Maroon 5. He is one of only two remaining original members of the group, along with frontman Adam Levine. He also has a solo project called 1863 and a side project titled Circuit Jerks.
Biography
Early life and Kara's Flowers
Jesse Carmichael was born in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Carmichael first started playing piano at a young age, his father Bob getting him his own keyboard at age 7. The first songs he learned were Mozart and Bach tunes, with the two composers being some of his biggest influences even to this day. After the failure of The Fourth World, the band would slow down. Carmichael and Levine would attended Five Towns College in Dix Hills, New York. While in college, Carmichael turned his sights back on the keyboards.
Maroon 5
On March 9, 2012, Carmichael announced he would be taking a break from performing with Maroon 5 for an undetermined amount of time to focus more on his studies of "music and the healing arts". During his hiatus, the band's touring keyboardist, PJ Morton was promoted to an official member and took over Carmichael's keyboard duties to fill-in for his absence. However several months later, on October 10, 2012, Carmichael confirmed that he would be returning to the band after they completed their Overexposed World Tour, expanding the group's membership to six after Morton's promotion. He rejoined in time for the band to record their fifth studio album V (2014). After his return to the band, he began playing guitar in the band more often, in part due to him playing it more often during his hiatus, but also due to the addition of Morton and Sam Farrar. On August 19, 2020, their second son was born.
Carmichael was Adam Levine's best man at his wedding in 2014.
Carmichael spends his time trying to learn more about music. He attended Santa Monica College from 2001 to 2002, and again in 2005. Nowadays, he visits numerous teachers for his piano and guitar playing, as well as his vocal performance, and also takes orchestration lessons. He also released a solo EP under the name "1863", which was chosen due to it being the year Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.