craveonline

30 Seconds to Mars have earned their success the hard way—touring incessantly over the past four years in small clubs from Omaha to Orlando.  As a result, the band now has legions of dedicated fans, who are hungry for just about everything Leto touches.  The 35-year-old talked to CraveOnline recently from his room at New York's Gramercy Hotel about his newfound validation in the music world, his upcoming fall tour, dealing with the notion of his “celebrity” status while on the road and more.

CraveOnline: Congratulations on A Beautiful Lie going gold.  Did you ever think the band would get this big when you started up years ago?

Jared Leto: It feels really good.  When you work on something for a number of years, and people get it, that’s an undeniable feeling.  It’s been a very exciting past couple of weeks for us.  Virgin gave us our gold album, then the very next day we got our MTV Award.   It’s just really exciting to be able to do some of the things we’re able to do now—it’s a lot of fun.

CO: You wrote over thirty songs, and only ten ended up making the album.  What will you do, if anything, with the rest of the songs?

JL: We’re going to be putting together a special edition of the CD that we’re gonna release before the end of the year.  I doubt any of those [older] songs will actually end up on that [re-release] record—I don’t like to go backwards.  Certainly, there is a potential for new songs, but I don’t like to delve into the past too much.
 
CO: The record went gold a year after Virgin released it—was that a result of your constant touring or Virgin pushing the record—or both?

JL: Everybody worked really hard.  The record company believed in us, and we believed in them.  We believed in what we were doing but ultimately, the strong, committed fan base out there has been the biggest reason for our success.

CO: Speaking of touring, you guys have a big tour coming up next month. What cans fans expect to see when you headline this fall around the country?

JL: We’re super excited about this tour.  It’s going to be more like a festival than a tour.  We’re going to be able to do things that we’ve never been able to do before.

CO: Are you excited to play with Guns and Roses at [KROQ's] Inland Invasion Concert?  Are you, or were you a GNR fan?

JL: Definitely.  It’s gonna be a great time.  There are a lot of bands besides GNR that I’m excited to see, as well.

CO: Your first self-titled album was released in 2002 and A Beautiful Lie was released in 2005—why such a long time lag between releases?

JL: I tend to be focused on the music when I’m doing it and it’s not really a quick process.  I like to spend time, make sure things are right.  Everyone has a different way of doing things—[taking time to write songs] is just what works for me.
 
CO: You gained a lot of weight for your upcoming film Chapter 27, then lost the weight almost as fast as you put it on.  Was 30 Seconds to Mars touring while all of this was going on? 

JL: As soon as I finished the film, I hopped on the road and started touring, fasting and taking care of myself.  Touring was a great way to get in shape.  Just to get busy and stay healthy.

CO: You recently attended Marc Jacobs’ party at fashion week in New York and have a few clones out there now--do you consider yourself a fashion trendsetter? 

JL: No I don’t think about that so much.  When we are on the road I’m usually at Wal-Mart buying socks.

CO: At the after-party for Jacobs’ show, there seemed to be a very eclectic mix of people there.  Who did you spend time talking with?

JL: I was sitting next to Kanye West the whole time.  It was really interesting but I was actually DJ’ing [the after-party].  I just played basically the greatest prom hits of all time.  I just wanted to have fun with it.  I played everything from Rush, to Journey, to Depeche Mode to the Cure to Billy Idol to Kim Wilde.  It was a lot of fun.

CO: How do you feel about bearing the “celebrity cross” for 30 Seconds to Mars and how do you feel about the notion of how our culture deals with fame as someone who has seen success as an actor?

JL: I’ve been doing this for a long time so for me, it’s just something that I’m used to.  I don’t really think about in those terms because for me it’s just work.

CO: How did you come up with the concept video, based on The Shining, for “The Kill”?

JL: The concept is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.  The elements of duplicity and identity and some of the visual effects that are in [the video] is something I thought would fit nicely on top of the homage to The Shining.  Fortunately, it all worked very well and we ended up walking away with an MTV Video Award, which was cool.

CO: How important has the Internet been to your success?  Do you personally ever check your Myspace page and correspond with fans?

JL: I don’t have time to check it.  I know that at any given time there are like 10,000 people waiting to get added.  There are people who help us with that.  You know, I’m very interested in the Internet and I think it’s a great way to communicate with people.  Its given some power back to the artists and the bands to communicate with fans directly and I think that’s a good thing. 

CO: What are your five favorite bands right now?

JL: I like Sigur Ros.  There’s a band called the Nice that I like out of Sweden.  Head Automatica, Circa Survive, and Men, Women and Children.

CO: When will fans be able to buy a new studio record?

JL: That’s a really good question.  I’ve been writing some new songs, and the record has been out for some time now, but the majority of the people who have bought the record have bought it over the last three to six months.  It’s very new to a lot of people—and that’s exciting.  Fortunately for us, the songs still feel fresh and alive when we are touring.  We’re always exploring different avenues when we play those songs out live.  So I guess my answer for when you’ll hear new material is anywhere from three to ten years from now [Leto laughs].


Check out the CraveOnline 30 Seconds to Mars contest here.