ZERO ii Infinity∞

Brandon Boyd interviews Jared Leto of 30 Seconds to Mars

As other bands strip away the layers in pursuit of a raw, ragged sound, 30 Seconds To Mars are busy piling layers on, with their atmospheric self-titled debut (Immortal/Virgin). Here front man, actor Jared Leto, sheds some light on the forward-thinking of the band’s evolution.

Brandon Boyd: Did you guys start out in L.A.?

Jared Leto: Yeah. We used to play shows in and around California and we would change our name every night because at that point we were just doing it for ourselves. We were signed in ’99 but we never thought we would make a CD.

Brandon Boyd: I have a question about your name, 30 Seconds To Mars. Is that like a “quickest way to the sky” metaphor, or is a “colonization of a fertile planet” metaphor?

Jared Leto: I think the first is the closest to the truth. It’s something that was referred to in a thesis we found on the Internet, that a professor at Harvard wrote. It was a subsection in the thesis about the impending advancement of science and culture and how it’s happening quicker and quicker and we’re almost literally 30 seconds from Mars. You thought it was something sexual, didn’t you?

Brandon Boyd: No! [laughs]

Jared Leto: In a lot of ways, this band is a reaction and a way for us to deal with our frustration with music, because we’re such music fans. We wanted to build something that had depth and substance, something that wasn’t disposable.

Brandon Boyd: You want to write music that you had yet to hear and were wanting to hear.

Jared Leto: Yeah. It’s like the perfect amalgamation of everything we’ve always wanted to hear and music inspired by albums we grew up with, like Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin or the Who – or even bands like Yes or Rush, or the Cure and U2. Bands that had weight.

Brandon Boyd: That’s funny, because I can hear Rush in your music.

Jared Leto: Oh, shit. [laughs] We’re caught.