Carmichael was born in Boulder, Colorado, United States on April 2, 1979. He went to Five Towns College with the rest of his band mates. While he was in college he began getting interested in playing the piano and keyboards. He then joined Kara's Flowers and released the album "The Fourth World" in 1998. Kara's Flowers then disbanded and re connected years later in 2002 and began recording material with Maroon 5.