After the break up of Kara's Flowers, Levine, along with Carmichael, left Los Angeles to pursue further studies in New York.[21] On MTV News, in 2002, he said: "That's when I started waking up to the whole hip-hop, R&B thing. We had friends named Chaos and Shit. It was not Brentwood High".[29] After dropping out of Five Towns College, in Dix Hills, Long Island, New York, where he and Jesse Carmichael spent a semester,[30] they reunited with Mickey Madden and Ryan Dusick to form a band once more.[31] They experimented with several styles, including country and folk, before deciding groove-based music would become their genre.[14] Levine explained the need for a makeover for the band: "We were just so sick of being a typical rock 'n'roll band ... I felt like I needed to look elsewhere for vocal inspiration."[21] The band put together a demo that was rejected by several labels, before falling into the hands of Octone Records executives James Diener, Ben Berkman, and David Boxenbaum.[27] Following Berkman's advice, the band added a fifth member, James Valentine, and was renamed Maroon 5. In an interview with HitQuarters, Berkman explained that Levine "seemed to be a very shy, shoe-gazing type ... a fifth member could play the guitar to free up the singer [Levine], so he could be the star I perceived him to be".[24]