He is best known as the secondary guitar player and keyboardist for the Grammy Award winning band Maroon 5 . In 1994 , he joined with Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine and Micky Madden , current basist , and formed Kara 's Flowers . All of the Kara 's Flowers members eventually met up and formed Maroon 5 , with the addition of guitarist , James Valentine .