30 Seconds to Mars - Consummate Pot Luck Hosts
By: Jennifer Wagner |
Tuesday September 20, 2005 |
| "Do you know Jared Leto? Is he in there?! Can you get me an autograph?" |
| Most of the band wasn't there yet when I knocked on the tour bus door, but Matt the bass player was and he opened up real friendly like. I was instructed by the tattooey and equally nice tour manager to get off the bus and wait somewhere close by for twenty minutes then come back for the interview so that's what I did. I stepped off of the bus and much to my surprise there was a svelte and sprightly Gary Busey tampering with the luggage storage below. He was putting something in there. It appeared to be some sort of noodle casserole, in a glass pan with tin foil. Sensing my presence he spun quickly from his task, wailing as he scuttled away, "He said to bring a covered dish! Leto said it was a pot luck!!" I lit a cigarette to dull the stench of Busey's tuna surprise or whatever it was, and leaned sort of near the bus on a signpost. There were girls, all kinds of girls. Take that back, actually - there was only
one kind of girl but there must have been eighty of them milling around. They were pretty, they were awkward, they were trying hard to be rockers, they wore too much makeup and they were like twelve years old. A few saw me get off the bus and approached cautiously. I held my meanest face still, feeling my lower lip protrude like an inner tube around my Camel Light. "Do you know Jared Leto? Is he in there?! Can you get me an autograph?"
"No, no, and, uhhhh, no. But I hear Gary Busey may be around somewhere?" I had a difficult time deciphering if the rebuttal was "Ewwww!" or "Who?", but in the end it was the same for GB, so who cares. It was time to get back to the bus. The five of us settled into the back lounge area where I simply held up empty hands and exclaimed, "Okay, I sort of need everything from the beginning..." and off we went. Jennifer Wagner: You released your first self-titled in 2002, is that right? Jared Leto: Yes? How did you feel about the success of that? JL: Very happy; my brother and I started playing music together when we were kids...our only intention (on the first album) was to have a collection of this neo prog art rock...when we got signed we had this demo with like 9 minute songs on it...pure experimentation and pure art rock with no real results in mind. And that was just the two of you (Jared and Shannon Leto) at first? JL: Yeah, it was the two of us for the first record, me playing all the instruments besides the live drums which Shannon played, and he played a little guitar here and there as well. (Looking at Shannon) You actually did a vocal on that too? Shannon Leto: (shocked) Did I? Matt Wachter: You did that intro thing from The Art of War Ah, the ancient Chinese... JL, SL: Yeah. That's right. So, (indicating Shannon) you don't normally sing I take it. SL: That's right. JL- Yeah, I take care of all the singing and screaming. SL- He has that covered. He does that very well. And you do that both on and off stage? JL- (smiling) Yeah exactly. I'm a screamer. - As challenging as it was to move on from that mental image, I begrudgingly segued. It was time to find out who these other two handsome fellows in the band were. MW: I joined the band about three, three and a half years ago, like right after the first record was being completed. Actually I met you guys when it was being mixed. Tomo Milicevic: And I joined about two and a half years ago. (to Jared and Shannon): Was there any kind of revolving door in getting these guys on, or was it, you know, 'we found the right guys' and ? JL: No. Shannon and I were always really particular and the thing that happened the first time around was that we were looking for bassists and guitarists and could never find the right people. I looked down one day and I was playing bass, but with these guys. We all share a vision and it feels good. So with these guys, since you found the right fit it wasn't too difficult to give some of that creative control up, or were you sort of picky about-  MW: He makes our job easy because he's a great songwriter. We can sort of add our color to the palette; it's a very smooth working relationship. JL: There was a map already, but we did veer off and make a record that was dramatically different than the first record. We threw a lot away? MW: A little frightening. Yeah? Frightening in the cathartic sense? ML: Well yeah; any time you throw away something that was worked, to some degree it's a little frightening. It's change and change is frightening. JL: Especially when you've created a world, I mean?we have a very, very, very dedicated fan base, albeit small, but incredibly committed. We're very fortunate in that regard...so there's an audience out there, and when you kind of, not necessarily turn your back on what you did before, but when you have to let go of your past, sometimes you're going to leave people behind. One of the themes of this record (A Beautiful Lie) was definitely change, change, change. We recorded the record in four different continents, and five different countries, all over the place. Oh yeah, I read like seven or eight studios? JL: Yeah, it was all over. MW: Over the course of two years. JL: All these experiences we've had added up to this record; it's called A Beautiful Lie. - We got into file swapping a bit later in the interview. In reference to the first single "Attack", which hadn't yet been released. MW: If you look in the right places you'll find it - the shows that we've been doing the past month, the kids have been singing all the words to all the songs, and it's a great feeling but at the same time it's like, 'now how could they know that song?' You know that's a different thing to talk about. It wasn't on my list but I would really like to get your perception on file-swapping and 'creative' downloading. JL: It's inevitable. It's a part of cultural experience now. Is there any resentment there? JL: No. The only resentment is against the dinosaurs of the music industry who refuse to embrace change, refuse to embrace Napster, and fraught out with their arrogance and their old school politics and business world sense. They didn't see it coming, and you know what? They're all paying the fucking price for it. Their arrogance is what it was, their 'we know best', you know it's never going to change, there's always going to be music exchanged via the digital world, and they're just going to have to play catch up. But it's not our job to worry about how many records to sell or how to sell them, our job is just to make the best and most pure, truthful music we can and to hopefully be rewarded for that creatively and have some fun doing it. Any weird, I have to get the 'blah blah blah' in such-and-such city? SL, TM, MW: The nachos in Toronto. (laughter) JL: The corn on the cob in New York...this Cuban place called Café (Ibeta) SL: And that sushi. Where was that sushi that we loved? Uhhh, that wasn't sushi, Shannon. (laughter) SL: (glaring at me, not laughing) You're funny. JL: (looking out the bus windows) I've never seen a group of cool kids having less fun in my life. You have to look out here. - Outside the scene had altered slightly from the heaving prepubescent mass of girl it had been moments ago. Now little pods of four or five kids of both genders scraped the curb with nice-priced kicks and looked anywhere but the bus windows, which rendered the effect of them looking nowhere but the bus windows... Well, being cool decidedly involves not having fun. JL: You know, I'm going to steal that. But, you know, it's rock and roll. We can get as heavy as we want, as cerebral, it's music, and it's about sharing something whether that's joy or pain or happiness, it's the oldest thing in the world, just sitting around a campfire telling a fucking story. And when you guys did Kiss, did you do makeup or no? SL: I think I did do makeup. And I remember in first grade I had the Kiss Destroyer album, and they're standing on top of this mountain and the city is burning around them, and I was so proud of it and I loved it so much. I would stare into it and picture myself walking through the city. And I brought it for show and tell and the kids brought their bunnies, and the kids brought their favorite toy or whatever, and here I am with long hair, with this album cover with these guys with makeup and long hair and I remember describing it like 'Yeah, and then I walk into this place or that, ' and I swear to god, people were staring at me like I was Eddie Munster. (laughter) We wrapped things up quite literally when Jared whipped out a bandana a fan in Japan had made him. He painstakingly tied the thing below his left knee and exclaimed, "I'm going to go straight up Motley Crue on this one!" We all agreed he looked quite winning in the rag, and as I made my way from the back of the bus I distinctly felt two fingers slide languidly down my left butt cheek. Shannon looked away just a bit too quickly. Huh. I grabbed a margarita and a smoke nearby, and then caught their act as part of the Q101 Block Party. They played an impressively energetic set. They'd changed their clothes too. Sort of military snazz with flashes of bright red here and there. Power, man. That's what that red is saying. You just ask. Anyway the set was very theatrical, really in motion, musically quite on target. The fan base was small. But devoted. Fists in the air, some hyperventilation, singing along to all the words on unreleased songs like Matt had mentioned, a solid six rows deep of those girls I'd seen earlier. Lucky bastard. I say bastard singularly because it was clear that all that young stuff was laying itself out there just for Jared. Maybe if I created a world and tied a bandana around me knee or something? The quick set was nearly over and as I made my way to the exit gates I recognized my buddy Eric in the crowd. He headed toward me with an atypically rapid gait and as he got closer I noticed his face held an expression of absolute rapture. He is a happy guy, Eric, but this was pure beatitude. "Wagner! You'll never believe it! Gary Busey is here and he's giving out hand jobs! He's behind the beer tent diddling anyone who can pull down his pants! Happy day!!" Concurrently I caught a glimpse of Jared on stage, shaking his fist in the direction Eric had indicated. When I turned that way myself I saw only a little cloud of dust settling on a quilted oven mitt. |
