A deranged looking Adam Levine is shown at the start of Maroon 5‘s latest video “Payphone.” Portrayed as a Jekyll & Hyde character, the video paints the picture of Levine as a man on the run and a sophisticated bank employee.

At the start of “Payphone” Levine is seen torching a car and then making a phone call. Soon after, the video cuts to his life as a bank employee just moments before the bank is robbed.

In an interview with E! Online, Levine explained the concept behind the video.

“The video we made for ‘Payphone’ was almost 100% my idea. I wrote this treatment down on paper,” he said.” I love to write creatively and freely, that’s my favorite type of writing. The type of writing I always excelled in as a child and was penalized for in high school because you don’t have any structure and of course there needs to be five paragraphs, intros and conclusions and all that garbage that I never paid attention to. But, I did love to do creative writing.”

Levine said he thinks writing treatments for music videos is the best outlet for creative writing.

“It’s so much fun to tell a story that way,” he said. “I wrote this wacky, nuts, over-the-top, crazy, idea. My childhood fantasy which is to be in a crazy situation where you have to act fast and people are shooting at you.”

Sam Bayer directed the video which includes a dilapidated old bank and intense police chase. Levine did most of the stunts himself and said all the clothes worn were from Men’s Warehouse.

“I didn’t want any of it to seem stylized,” he said. “I wanted it to feel as much like it was really happening as possible.”

- Annie Reuter CBS Local