Have you attended a 30 Seconds to Mars concert? Either previous or recently? If you'd like to donate your photos, e-mail them to me. Don't forget to include your name, date and location of concert. Full credit will be given.
Adopted: October 26, 2008 Launched: November 9, 2008 Site Name: Jared Leto Fan Webmaster: Jen - Contact Staff: Val - Contact Version: 4 Layout by:Papercut Productions Hits: Online: Listed at:IMDB • CL • MC • CE
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This is just a little extra read for everyone, I found it at the Blog of Randomness. Enjoy reading it!
CURRENTLY JUGGLING: dry Law stuff, panda eyes, my curly roots that are making a comeback ( and I am pretending that it is not), over with the Detox Diet and up with occasional fasting days, more on my growing curly hair, overstuffed Organizer, idiotic computer battery, not watching American Idol live as I am stuck here, The Sister’s 8th birthday, a secret project, hosting more events, organizing a rushed post-party of the following event, holding back my cravings of vanilla cupcakes and my growing affection (or obsession?) towards….HOLD IT..HOLD IT…
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JARED LETO
Oh, I’m sorry. (I really am- cue fake tone) FOR LETTING YOU SEE HIS EFFING HOT BODY THAT IS. Can’t help it, really. If only guys at my street walks around half-naked like him. Sigh. Now this image people, is the very first image I saw from some tabloid and I was in awe with his um, (how to say this in a non-pervertive way??Sigh.) delicious beautiful body. And I was like ‘Who the hell is this dude?!’ And he was, of course, Jared Leto. And few years later, I learned that he had a band called 30 Seconds To Mars, and they made epic songs and I was so in love with their live performances and from then on I knew he is such an awesome being. No scratch that, he is a BREATHTAKING human being.
And he is a vegetarian, which is oh-so-sexy. (Ok fine, irrelevant point, but how many rockstars you know are eating healthily?) And probably that explains why he looks so delicious young when he is actually turning like what, 38 this year?
I saw this rad performance during the MTV Latino event on MTV, and, and, and HE IS SO GODDAMN HOT. And music-wise, such an awesome performance. Now which rockstar wore a fedora hat and aviators and paired it with a chic scarf around his neck? Hello? Anyone? Right. Nobody.
And yes, he has amazing pipes there.
Not to forget, an impressive video clips to match. Like this one, entitled From Yesterday, they shot it in China, somewhere at the Forbidden City (or was it at Forbidden City?) AAAANYWAY, his blue eyes are just too striking, to say the least.
Besides being a musician, he is also an actor, and honestly, I never watched any of his movies and I deserved to get punched immediately, I think. Nevertheless, he is a terrific actor, so to speak, based on these two trailers below. First up is a trailer of his latest movie Mr. Nobody and the second is a movie based on the man who killed dear John Lennon (played by him of course), entitled Chapter 27.
A SCENE FROM MR NOBODY
CHAPTER 27 TRAILER
Now, don’t bother to read the rest of this post if you do not have the slightest intention to press play the two vids above. I AM NOT KIDDING. He even looked somewhat appealing in Chapter 27 in various twisted ways. Well, enough of me babbling about this delicious talented man. So can I see a show of hands, who’s with me to hop on the Love Leto wagon????
The path from film star to pop star is a well-trodden and notoriously rocky one. But 30 Seconds to Mars are far more than just an ego massage for Jared Leto – they’re a massive million-selling success.
By Elisa Bray
At a 30 Seconds to Mars gig, you could divide the audience members into two categories. There are the 20 and 30-something fans of frontman Jared Leto from his incarnation as teen heart throb Jordan Catalano in the mid-Nineties drama series My So-Called Life and his portrayal of a junkie in the art-house film Requiem for a Dream. But these will be far outnumbered by the young fans who are there for the music. Such is the success of Leto’s band that they sold more than two million copies of their last album, A Beautiful Lie, worldwide, and sold out a show at Wembley Arena last week.
We are here to talk about 30 Seconds to Mars’ new album, This is War – their third – although Leto, now 38, still feels there are people who don’t take his band seriously.
“A lot of people have given us more than a fair shot and it’s been great, and a lot of people have given me a really hard time. And they still do. In the beginning it was really tough. People didn’t come to see us because I was in Requiem For a Dream – we played shows when there were 20 people there. It wasn’t until the music connected with people that we started having some success. That’s interesting to see. You can’t count on success in one area just because you happen to have a little in another. It doesn’t work like that. People can sense a sham after a while.”
It certainly wasn’t a particular success for other Hollywood stars, to name but a few: Keanu Reeves, Russell Crowe, Kevin Bacon, Eddie Murphy, Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton. But 30 Seconds to Mars’ alternative rock and elaborate stage shows have secured them a solid fanbase around the world.
“We’re playing Wembley Arena. And when that happens, who cares? Let people say what they say. You can’t please everyone, whether you’re Damien Hirst or Björk. How much do you need before you’re OK with being who you are?”
Leto may be OK with who he is, but there’s a sense that he would quite like to rid himself of the acting associations altogether when he is in rock star mode. In order to avoid being known as Jared Leto’s band, when they were signed in 1998 concert promoters were not allowed to use Leto’s name on posters and there were no photographs. Even now, for the music videos he has directed for 30 Seconds to Mars songs, he goes under a pseudonym. “When I first started doing them it was a way for me to disappear – and hopefully for people to be able to experience it maybe a little differently than they would if they thought that I had anything to do with it at all. Especially in the beginning, me being in the band, having made some films, seemed to be a real distraction for a lot of people.”
There’s no doubt that 30 Seconds to Mars have put in the effort to reach their level of success. They toured extensively following the release of their 2005 sophomore album and took off in America, while their online connection with fans catapulted them to worldwide stardom. In a bid to involve their fans for This is War, the band held a “summit” where they invited fans to provide backing vocals. At the first, in Los Angeles, people showed up from all over the world, so they repeated the summit in eight countries, from Japan to Germany. When Leto received a Twitter message from a fan in Iran disappointed they were unable to make it, they were inspired to hold a digital summit. And, for the album, Leto invited fans to submit close-up shots of their faces in order to make 2,000 different individual covers.
But there’s another key to the band’s success: perhaps the difference between other actors- turned-rock-stars and Leto’s million-selling band is that Leto was playing music long before he was acting. Born on a commune in Louisiana, he spent his childhood on the move with his brother Shannon (the band’s drummer) and photographer mother, with spells living in Alaska, Florida and Wyoming, Haiti and Brazil, before finding himself in Washington DC as a teenager, where he enrolled at the Corcoran School of Art. He still paints today, large, abstract works. Next he studied film-making at the School of Visual Arts in New York.
His first musical instrument, aged four or five, was a broken-down piano and he grew up singing classic rock, from Pink Floyd to Led Zeppelin. He claims to have not become very proficient at the piano because “I’m less interested in technique and more in other things – emotion. For me it’s about gut and feel. I want to keep things simple. I want the primal side.”
That primal sound can be heard on the new album, whose title was inspired by their battle with their record label, Virgin, which ended in the high court. If you’re looking for proof of the band’s commitment, you only have to look at their fight against a record label’s attempts to sue for not fulfilling their contract.
“It was brutal. There were days where we thought, ‘what if we went all the way and lost?’ How does that affect us, the band mates? We certainly don’t have deep pockets. For them, they’re used to lawsuits. We’ve never had a lawsuit. It became about survival, really.” During the making of the album there were more globally affecting issues which inspired the themes of battle and change.
“We started making the record and the world fell apart. There was the situation with our label, the world was dealing with global-citizen-versus-earth issues, there was the economic meltdown, the house- price collapse. We were making this record and all these really impactful, tense things were happening. We were holed up in a house in the Hollywood hills, paid for the record ourselves, hired a producer and just went and did it.” Peppered with grungy growls and lyrics such as “We will fight to the death to the edge of the world”, it’s not the lightest sounding album.
Leto is surprised. “I thought that I was making the brightest record that I’d ever made. It really feels that way to me. I do think there are moments of optimism, celebration and joy that had been missing from the past. I don’t mind a rainy day, but I like a sunny one as well.”
While Leto, who has worked with film directors David Fincher, Darren Aronofsky and Oliver Stone, has made the seamless transition from actor to rock star, he is still a working actor, and appears in this year’s Mr Nobody, a film about a man waking up as the oldest man in a world in which everyone is immortal. With a successful career in both music and film, can he say which art form he prefers?
“Making a film is really the most interesting part for me. I love the research. I love the building of a character. I also don’t need to make five movies a year – I’m not after being the person who makes the most films. I want to have a rewarding, challenging experience so I tend to do more art house type films, not big blockbuster movies. It’s interesting to be able to be a smaller piece of a bigger puzzle.
“With music you’re much more responsible for everything. As the songwriter, as a person who’s behind some of the creative ideas, you are the director, writer, editor, producer and the actor, so you have a much bigger contribution.”
While it seemed that struggles with their record label would lead to the end of 30 Seconds to Mars, the Los Angeles-based rock band made sure that this wouldn’t get them down and marched on to record and release ‘This Is War’ in 2009. Following 2005’s ‘A Beautiful Lie,’ the new album showed fans just how much the band has grown over the years and that they still had something to say.
“It’s an accurate depiction of the interests we have at this time in our life,” 30 Seconds to Mars frontman Jared Leto told Spinner when the band stopped by our NYC studio. “It’s really what we wanted to say in musical terms, and that’s what’s great about making music — you have an opportunity to redefine, rediscover, to reinvent, and we’re really excited about the songs.”
Taking two years to record the album, the band didn’t only just lock themselves up in the Hollywood hills and write songs, but they also invited fans to sing on the album when the band hosted its “Summit” last year. With more than 701,000 MySpace friends and over 79,000 followers on Twitter, the band is more than thankful for the dedicated fanbase they’ve had over the years.
“I suppose, when you think about the fans, the audience around the world, it’s like this amazing dysfunctional family — just a sense of gratitude and awe, respect, pride, a lot of great people around the world that we’ve been able to share this journey with,” Leto said. “We’re very blessed.”
The band is currently on their world tour, ‘Into the Wild,’ which kicked off in the UK in February. However, there’s one city in particular that the Leto is very excited about. “It’s the biggest tour we’ve ever done,” he said. “We’ve sold out Wembley arena, and those milestones are really just a lot of fun. It’s surreal that we’re playing these legendary places.”
With three albums under their belt and sold-out shows all over the world, 30 Seconds to Mars aren’t doing too shabby. But there’s one still on thing they’d like to do. “I would really like to hear Barack Obama on a 30 Seconds to Mars song,” Leto says. “He’s got the voice. He’s got the timbre.”
Check out video from the exclusive interview below.
Hannah Lawrence posted a blog with photos of her 30 Seconds to Mars concert experience in Paris.
We watched as Jared Leto went to New York Fashion Week, got a mohawk at the end of fashion week, reunited with Claire Danes, and now we’ve followed him all the way to Paris to catch a glimpse of him and his band, “Thirty Seconds to Mars” on their tour. [photos via cobrasnake]
There are many phases to putting on a concert, as any musician will tell you. Phase one can simply be called, “prep.” This involves testing your earpiece, taking to the sound guy and gal, and making sure your whites are at their whitest and your reds are at their reddest.
Phase two is “introduction.” This is when Jared and his bandmates greet the fans and give a quick rundown of what they can expect to see during the show. But they’re careful to warn them they will not be served an in-flight meal. That’s just not part of the deal.
Make your way over to Guest of a Guest for more photos and more about Hannah’s experience!
I live in Los Angeles, the city of angels. This morning I was awakened by the sound of a hawk that lives above the house. The cry of the hawk is very interesting. After that I heard the trash truck backing up down the street — I suppose it’s a nice representation of the dichotomy of this planet.
My house is like a laboratory. We built and paid for our own recording studio, which is downstairs in the house. That’s where we’ve been working for the last couple of years to record our latest record, This is War. There are a lot of people who work out of the house, and we have several projects going all day long. My assistant is also in the house, working away and helping me to realise some of the other projects.
From the minute I get up it’s pretty full-on. I make a shake for myself with a bunch of fruit and berries. Am I a health freak? I’m a freak for sure, and healthy at times as well. I start my day by looking at some emails and things that were left over from yesterday. There might be a business meeting then.
I’ve been making music since I was a kid. It’s been a consistent part of my life since I was very young. I was born in Louisiana. I crawled out of the muddy banks of the Mississippi. There were always people around making music, be it on a piano or a rusty guitar. My brother Shannon, who is in the band, started playing the drums when he was five. But really, the more consistent creative expression was visual art. We were around a lot of visual artists — painters and sculptors. Even though music was kind of there, we didn’t know anybody who did it professionally. After some tumultuous years I ended up going to art school. Then I transferred my major to filmmaking with a view to being a director. Eventually, I ended up getting work as an actor, but really my plan was to get work as an actor to help with my directing aspirations. The whole time I was making music, and it just became a bigger and bigger part of our lives until it took over, as music can often do. So it’s been a pretty long, natural progression. Our first record deal was signed in 1998, but we’ve been together a lot longer than that.
In 30 Seconds to Mars, we really try to encourage each other to stay true to ourselves and to march to the beat of our own drum. We’re not interested in being someone else’s band, or someone else’s idea of what we should be. I’m very focused and driven. I’m grateful to have the work in front of me, and I enjoy the process. I enjoy the writing, the recording and the touring. It’s a great thing to be able to do, and we enjoy seeing the world but, on average, as far as the day goes, it’s a lot of hard graft, rehearsing and having meetings with our production team making sure that everything will work right. The hour and a half on stage is the magical experience; the rest of the day is designed to support that, because our biggest concern is for the audience and providing them with an evening that they won’t soon forget.
I’m fascinated and inspired by our audience. A big part of 30 Seconds to Mars is that open-ended conversation we have with our audience all around the world. This is War is a very interactive record. We invited 1,000 people from around the world to come to a summit in LA to participate in the recording. They showed up and sang and chanted and played percussion. And we used that group of people as an instrument on the album. We did that in eight other countries. Then I got a Twitter message from someone in Iran who was frustrated that he couldn’t join one of the physical summits, and that gave me the idea of launching a digital summit. Kings and Queens and some of the other songs on the album now have this summit contribution from thousands of people all over the world, including Dublin. So, in a small way, it’s an Irish record as well.
I still make films, and doing that enriches my life in music. I’m able to take what I’ve learnt from great directors and apply that to my role as a director of our music videos, which are more like short films.
The Last of the High Kings was my very first film. It was an Irish movie, and I played a young man from Howth. I’ve had a long love affair with Dublin, and to be able to come back and play a show with my band in the O2 recently meant a lot to me. It was a pretty amazing experience being in Ireland for the film in 1995, and coming back in 2010 was great.
On the evening of a concert, we go backstage and get our gear on. I’m generally working up until the last minute, making sure that everything is right for the show. I’ll take some moments to have a bit of solitude and then I’ll warm up my voice. The lights go down and we march onto the stage — it’s one of the most magical things you could ever imagine doing. We always leave the door open for a surprise; it’s quite an adventure. It’s like when you’re on a rollercoaster and it’s going up, up, to the tallest part of the ride and you know you’re about to come down very fast: it’s that moment.
After the show, we’ll go out and talk to people and sign some things. I don’t go clubbing afterwards. I stay focused. The best part of the night is being on stage, and after that it’s about winding down and taking care of yourself so you can go on and be focused for the next show.
Sometimes it’s difficult to wind down. I’ll read a book, or do some work that needs to be done, like editing one of our short films. It is a lot of hard work but it’s nothing we’d ever complain about. It’s wonderful work to be able to do and we’re glad to do it. It’s what dreams are made of.
Jared Leto thinks being a film star is more interesting than making music.
The ‘Fight Club’ actor – who also fronts rock band 30 Seconds to Mars – enjoys both aspects of his professional life but finds movie-making more “rewarding”.
He said: “Making a film is really the most interesting part for me. I love the research. I love the building of a character. I also don’t need to make five movies a year – I’m not after being the person who makes the most films. I want to have a rewarding, challenging experience, so I tend to do more art house type films, not big blockbuster movies. It’s interesting to be able to be a smaller piece of a bigger puzzle.”
While Jared prefers the challenge of the film industry, the 38-year-old hunk also enjoys the responsibility he has producing music, writing songs and coming up with ideas for the band – also consisting of Tomo Milicevic and Shannon Leto.
He explained: “With music you’re much more responsible for everything. As the songwriter, as a person who’s behind some of the creative ideas, you are the director, writer, editor, producer and the actor, so you have a much bigger contribution.”
30 Seconds To Mars recently stopped off in Dublin as part of their world tour for new album ‘This Is War’. Linda McGee chatted to lead singer Jared Leto about touring with his brother, balancing his acting and music careers, getting an “ass-kicking” and why he never looks back (sorry ladies, no reminiscing about his days as Jordan Catalano in ‘My So Called Life’!).
Linda McGee: How has touring the new album ‘This Is War’ been so far?
Jared Leto: It’s been wonderful. We’re five shows deep and it’s been the tour of a lifetime. It’s great.
LM: When you release new material are you always itching to go on tour with it and feel firsthand the crowd reaction to the songs?
JL: Yes, it’s the celebration part of the process. It really is. It’s the most fun, it’s the most visceral, it’s the most rewarding because you’re giving away every night, you know. It’s not so much about what you get. It’s about what you give away.
LM: In terms of the creative process, what type of headspace do you like to get in to? Do you open yourself up to lots of different influences or do you lock yourself away?
JL: I do lock myself away a bit. I’m influenced a lot by books, by paintings, by artists. I don’t listen to a lot of music while I’m working just because I’m making music all day, the last thing we kinda want to do is listen to music. So, we had an amazing time making this record. It took about two years. We were in a studio carved into the side of a house in Hollywood Hills and we had our quintessential California West-Coast experience making a rock album.
LM: In terms of experimentation, do you like to try something different every time you approach new work?
JL: I do. I enjoy doing things that haven’t been done too many times before. That’s exciting. To walk upon new earth, so to speak. It’s just taking the road less travelled. I like it.
