INK 19 / ITW par jen cray

30 Seconds To Mars

by Jen
Cray


On their way to the Orlando date of their
tour with Audioslave and Seether, the guys in 30 Seconds to Mars were
left stranded on the side of the interstate when the transmission in
their tour bus blew out. This inconvenience, coupled with certain
bandmembers' obsessive all-night viewing of the TV series Lost,
had left them all delirious from sleep deprivation. Still, they were
kind enough to invite me into their dressing room, backstage at the Hard
Rock Live, and give me a little insight into their world.
The name of your band... I read that you got the
name from a book, Argus Apacase. So what is that book, I couldn't
find any information on it?



Jen Cray

(L-R)
Tomo Milicevic, Jard Leto, Shannon Leto, Matt Wachter

Jared Leto: Argus Apacase� it's a weird name,
we're all mispronouncing it, actually. It's a really rare manuscript,
it's hard to find.

And the name is a
reference within the manuscript?

Jared:
It's a reference -- a rough translation, so who knows. I think the idea
is interesting, it's a metaphor for the future. It's a silly metaphor
on one hand, but it's an idea that is being proven -- I think -- every
single day. "Thirty seconds to mars" -- the fact that we're so close to
something that's not a tangible thing/idea. Also Mars being the God of
War makes it really interesting, as well. You could substitute that in
there, but the thing that's nicest about the name and what's important
for my brother and I when we were thinking about all of this, is that it
be imaginative and really represent the sound of our music in as unique
a way as possible. I think that it does that. It's different... It was
either that or "Boiled Hard."

Boiled
Hard?! That kind of takes you in a whole different direction. [To Jared
and Shannon Leto] You guys started the band initially and you used to
play under a different name every night. Do you remember any of those
original names?

Jared: Yeah, well,
there was Boiled Hard, Boiled Egg, Boiled Cabbage, and just Boiled
Boiled. You'd get those fans that'd come out for Boiled Boiled and
they'd be like "Hell, what the hell happened here, man?"

Jen Cray
Jared Leto

Now you'll see fans making t-shirts that say "Boiled
Boiled."

Jared: Boiled Harder...which
is our sequel.

Matt Wachter:
The rebirth. Shall rise again.

Jared:
Reboiled... Hardest. You didn't know you could reboil something, but if
you try hard enough. Reboiled, the name of record, The
Hardest Boil yet. [This went on for a few minutes as the four
deliriously tired guys entertained themselves with "Boiled" jokes until I
changed the subject].

Aside from the
name, the symbols that you use, where do they come from? Is that an
homage to Led Zeppelin?

Jared: Not
really an homage, but I think that symbols and signs and icons, you
know, represent things in a different way. Music being this auditory
experience, I guess it's nice to have a visual representation of those
things. I always loved bands, when I was a kid, like Pink Floyd where
you not only got the music but there was a visual world there that you
could see, whether it was the artwork or in the films that they made
that really took things to another level. So that was a goal for us in
the very beginning as well. Zeppelin had that, um, The Who certainly had
that...

Shannon Leto: [bursts
out laughing uncontrollably] Sorry... Our bus broke down, and we didn't
sleep.

Jared: I got about 23
minutes.

Matt: We were thumbing
it on the side of the highway with tractor trailers just whipping by
[laughs].

Well, I'll take it easy on
you guys... So what was it like writing and recording in Africa? How did
that change the direction you took with the album?

Tomo Milicevic: Incredible.

Matt: Had we done the entire writing and recording
process in L.A. it would be a much different record. I think it took a
change of scenery, and a change of physical location to kind of capture a
different kind of feeling and theme for the record.

Jared: Just being away from everything you know, kind
of forces you to think of everything differently.

Matt: You fall into that mundane, routine existence
and we're not about that. We're a band that's about changing, and
getting inspired and -- for us -- we had to travel halfway around the
world to do it.

Jared: We
probably would have made a record that we were proud of anywhere, but at
least now we had a really interesting experience making it, as well. We
also recorded all over the United States. We did some stuff in NY, up
in Chicago, a few things in L.A. and you know, in 3 different production
locations... It was nice to have that as part of your life experience.

Jen Cray
Shannon Leto

Who would each of you say is your biggest musical
influence?

Jared: His [pointing to
Tomo] is obvious.

Tomo: Zamfir.
He's the panflutist from the Galapagos Islands. Just the melodies are
incredible. And then came Morbid Angel.

Matt: If Joe Strummer and Johnny Rotten had a child
that would be my baby.

Shannon:
That wouldn't be yours, it'd be theirs.

Matt: It would be mine. I am held by no laws.

Did you ever get to see Joe Strummer?

Matt: Unfortunately not, he passed away before I ever
got a chance to.

Jared: He
probably didn't give a flying rat's ass if you got to see him. [everyone
laughs]

Matt: That's the
beautiful thing about him -- he didn't give a fuck.

[To Jared] Well, how 'bout you, who's your big
influence?

Jared: Probably... It's a
toss up between Menudo... [I laugh loudly]

Matt: He's serious...

Jared: ...and, uh...[long pause]

You can't really top Menudo... Well, you know Ricky
Martin just came out with a new CD last week.

Matt: Really?!

Jared:
No one shakes their bon-bon like I do, except Ricky.

Shannon: Yeah, Jared really can shake it with the best
of 'em.

Jen Cray

Thirty Seconds to
Mars

Shannon. Musical
influence?

Shannon: Do you remember
Tiffany? [everyone laughs]

Jared:
What about the blond one, before her? Debbie Gibson.

Shannon: Or Taylor Dayne... I like all sorts of music.
I don't really have one influence, it's different people at different
times in my life.

Not even one
drummer who first got your interested in playing?

Shannon: No, different drummers at different points in
my life.

Jared: That's the
thing, there's not just one...

Matt:
It's like saying 'What's your favorite band?' -- it changes.

Jared: I think Robert Smith may have influenced my
guitar playing, and maybe Kurt Cobain as well. The fact that you could
be completely average -- technically -- and have your talent and
artistry be the most important thing. I think that changed music the
most -- he probably changed music for most of us, saying that anyone
could do it. You just had to believe in what you were doing...

Matt: ...and it has to be good.

Jared: It doesn't have to be, but even bands before
[Nirvana] like Mudhoney -- who obviously influenced Kurt Cobain -- I
loved Mudhoney, and that whole scene.

[To
Jared] Do you find it easier to get inside a character within a song
you've written as opposed to within a character for a film?

Jared: There is no character.

I guess that was a bad choice of words. When you lose
yourself in the writing, when you create that world, is that a
different mindset then for a movie role?

Jared: It's as different as you writing this article,
and then taking photographs of the show. Which you do both.

Yeah. They're very different.

Jared: They both come from the same place, but they're
different processes.

You also studied
painting and filmmaking.

Jared: I went
to school, I wanted to be a painter or a graphic designer. Large
format, very graphic, visual 3-dimensional art I've always found really
interesting. Like Damian Hurst's "Shit Smears" was an interesting show,
and "Millenium Portraits"... It seems like a lot of the great art really
does come out of England. I keep trying to get back there to look at
it.

Do the rest of you have any other
creative passions outside of music?

Tomo:
Of course. We all have other interests.

Jared: Video games...

Tomo: I love to cook.

Jared ...Cracker Barrel... [Tomo starts making fart
noises with his hands] ...fart noises with our hands...

Tomo: I could actually never do that, that's my first
time.

Jared: Just now?

Tomo: Yeah!

Matt:
Tomo's just a man of many talents. He can do the [popping noise with
his finger in his mouth]. I can't even roll my tongue. [everyone starts
rolling there tongues]

Shannon:
Can you turn it upside down?

Jared:
Can you burp out your colon in the Ganges River?

Can you what?!

Jared:
Exactly... Burp out your tongue in the Ganges River.

Matt: I think Buddhist Monks can.

30 Seconds To Mars: www.thirtysecondstomars.com