30 Seconds to Mars - Round Two

	by Courtney Campbell
	Virgin recording artist, 30 Seconds to Mars is back with their sophomore release A Beautiful Lie that will see the light on day on August 30th. The first single "Attack" is receiving airplay but according to drummer Shannon Leto it almost didn't make the album. That definitely would have been a shame. The band is currently out on the road with Chevelle and Taproot with an opening slot on the Used tour waiting in the wings. This isn't a flash in the pan band that is riding on the coattails of their singer's other career. These guys are hardworking musicians and out there giving it their all each and every night. The new album has a stripped down sound that will just draw you in and while many of the artists today are just bringing out a sound that was popular 20 years ago, these guys meld their influences into something that is their own. Earplugsrequired.com caught up with drummer Shannon Leto and bassist Matt Wachter before their show in Philadelphia on July 29th. We chose to interview these two because these are who we interviewed for the previous album. The last interview was quite interesting with them making a sandwich out of the interviewer. They definitely started this interview where they left off the last time. One just doesn't ever know what type of responses you will get from these two; it's just amazing how truth and fiction just blend together at times. Shannon: You don't mind if I smoke, do you? ER: No Shannon:(talking to the recorder) Do you guys mind in this general electric cassette recorder? Do you? ER: (laughing) I'm lucky the damn thing is working. Shannon: Matt, they are giving me attitude. Matt: I feel that. ER: Wait a minute. Shannon: (interrupting) Why you gotta be, why you gotta be giving me attitude? ER: (laughing)Who gave whom attitude the last time? Shannon: Huh? ER: (laughing) Who gave whom attitude the last time? Matt:: That was. . . Sue: Was it him? ER: It was the two of them Sue: Oh both of them! Shannon: Hey! ER: Did you not? Shannon: I don't remember. Matt: I think attitude might be misconstrued as . . . Shannon:(interuppting) I know grudges can wear you thin. Matt: Sometimes attitude can be confused with honesty. Shannon: Yeah! Honesty. Exactly. Matt: There's a fine line there. Shannon: I think so. ER: Okay.(getting on subject at hand) New tour, new album. Matt:Yes Shannon: New tour, new album, that's right. ER: And now everybody is involved with writing Shannon: yes ER: because before it was just Jared and you and that's it. Shannon: Uh, huh. ER: What was different with this album in putting it together? How did you guys end up writing all the songs? Shannon: Well it varied. We wanted to throw out the old album and our ideas pertaining to writing and so on and so forth. We just wanted to totally abandon it and try something totally new. With that came ideas from Matt, Tomo and myself and it helped the new sound. But Jared is responsible for a lot of the writing. Matt: He's the one that brings the song to the table and we just add the colors. Shannon: Yeah we put our little flavors in. ER: So it's black and white first Shannon: That's right. Matt: It's more of a sepia tone, I'd say. We add the red, green and blue. Shannon: It works well. ER: So how many songs were written? Shannon: About 40. ER: Originally there were 10 tracks on there. Shannon: Now there are two bonus tracks. Matt: Well there may or may not be bonus tracks. Shannon: there are two bonus tracks ER: There may or may not? Don't do that! It may push the release date back again! Matt: There are two bonus tracks. It's one of those things where we got inspired at the last minute to add a little something special on there. So, we were in Chicago and we just went in the studio for two days and banged out two new songs. Shannon: Yep. ER: Why put a cover song on there? Shannon: Why not? ER: It's like the "in" thing to do. Shannon: Is it the in thing? ER: It had been for awhile. Shannon: I don't really think it is. ER: At least it wasn't released as a single. Matt: Well going into it we wanted to choose a song that we felt best represented what we tried to accomplish here in music. Bjork was an obvious choice. And she's not an obvious choice for . . .(Shannon is just looking over at Matt while he explains this) Matt: Everyone knows. Shannon: Do you know the cover?(asking us) ER: Yeah. Matt: Yeah, it's out. Everyone knows. Shannon: I didn't know. I thought it was a secret. I wouldn't tell. I haven't been telling anyone since Chicago. ER: There are no secrets. Shannon: Okay everyone knows. And the other one is Lynyrd Skynyrd so. . . Matt: Dude they are already hunting for it on the internet. Kids are looking for it in file swapping, they won't find it though.. ER: A lot of people have been downloading the album. Shannon: That's fine as long as they buy it. Matt: Yeah it's inevitable. Shannon: And most of our fans will buy it. They tell us they have the album but "we're going to buy it; we're excited". ER: You have to buy it for the artwork. Shannon: Yeah, it's something tangible. Matt: Basically what it comes down to is kids are downloading music because they are fans of the band and if they continue to do that and it keeps progressing the way it has been progressing, we're not going to be around anymore. Downloading is fine but in the end it hurts the band. Shannon: The thing is, the bottom line is the record labels fucked up. They really did. ER: We talked about this before. Shannon: Yeah it's the same old converstation. ER: They didn't jump on the bandwagon when they should have. Shannon: Yeah, you know. Matt: They will figure it out eventually and it's going to be the hard way. ER: Some have now where you can buy single tracks now. Matt: Yeah absolutely. Shannon: That's right. Matt: They are catching on, it's ten years too late though. Shannon: We'll see what happens. ER: With this album you used a different producer. Shannon: Yeah. ER: How did you decide on Josh (Abraham)? Shannon: Josh Abraham is a friend of ours and I worked with him a long time ago. He's the same age; he's a guy that we could relate to in a lot of ways and he made this album I'm a Robot which I was a fan of, and I like that sound. We all like that sound and we just went with him. ER: What would you say was the biggest difference between him and Bob Ezrin who did your first album? Shannon: The person that did the first album is legendary; he did The Wall. He did KISS Destroyer, he did some Peter Gabriel work; he's just a legend and he's very very musical. He's a musician himself and he just gets in there. Josh is more like he lets the band figure it out Matt: He's more like a big picture guy. Shannon: Yeah a big picture guy. He lets the band figure out what they want to do, puts his two cents in once in awhile. Matt: He pushes us in the right direction. He's the reason "Attack" is on the record. If it wasn't for him that song wouldn't have ever Shannon: That's right. Matt: He brought it back from the dead. Shannon: That's right. Matt: We definitely owe him that one. Shannon: Thanks Josh! ER: It seems like Josh isn't like, you know how with a lot of producers you can hear an album and tell who the producer was; Matt: Yes. ER: But with his, it's not that way. Matt & Shannon: Right. Matt: He doesn't fall into that cookie cutter producer category, which is great. That's another thing that kind of drew us to him, he's done like everything from I'm A Robot to Staind to Shannon: Korn Matt: Yeah he has a wide variety of styles of music. That was something we thought of going into this. We didn't want to get thrown into the cookie cutter machine. ER: Compare and contrast this album to your first album. Shannon: Nothing like the last album. This is more stripped ER: I love this better than the first album. Shannon: Thank you! It's more stripped down. ER: It's not overproduced. Shannon: Yeah. It's more raw. Exactly. Matt: Actually it's a lot more stripped down. Shannon: It's a lot more personal and I think it's more honest in a lot of ways. Matt: It's more revealing, especially lyrically. Jared went out on a limb on this one. Shannon: Yeah. He did really. Matt: He let his guard down. ER: That's a scary thing. Matt: It is a scary thing, totally. ER: It's scary for any artist. Shannon: It's also a rebirth of sorts. It's getting it all out there, you know. Matt: Yeah this album was all about how little can we do. Which is a really difficult thing to do. Like you want a lot of layers and you think that would be more work but no. It's when you are trying to see how little you can do it's so much harder for myself definitely. When it came to laying down the basses, I wanted to put all these notes in, look how fast I can play; it was like whoa slow down. It was a hard lesson to learn but it's a valuable one. ER: It seems like there are so many bands that put out amazing albums but they cannot reproduce it live without playing to a track. Matt: Right. Shannon: It's two different animals. It's a recording process how it sounds on the album, for us anyways, and how it translates live. It's totally two different things and luckily we do the live thing really well. I can honestly say. Matt: Definitely throughout the whole recording process we were very conscience of that fact. How we going to be able to pull this off live? Are we going to be able to, so Shannon: Yeah. Matt: that's why I think we went more the direction we did, more stripped down, because we wanted the songs to translate live so that what you hear on the record is completely different from what you hear. There's still going to be differences live, there had better be. Shannon: Oh there are. Matt: If I'm going to a show I want to see something a little extra. ER: Oh yeah or you could just stay home and play the CD. Matt: Exactly. ER: That's the way live music should be. Matt: Yeah. That's the kind of attitude we have with our live shows: blood, sweat and tears. If a pint of blood is not left on the stage, we didn't do our job that night, in that half hour. ER: I want to see that tonight. Shannon: I kind of tend to play like it's a new experience every time. Anyway, that's how I look at it. If I was to play the same thing, I mean there's a general beat that I follow a lot but then there's a lot of improvising that I do to make it more fun for myself. I think people read that as well while they are watching and the guys do the same thing and it just makes it more exciting. Matt: It's different every night. Shannon: Yeah. ER: (to Matt): Do you ever just turn around and go what are you doing? Matt: (laughing) Not so much that. Shannon: No it flows. ER: You could see that happening if all of a sudden he goes off on a tangent. Shannon: Yeah, it's not like that. ER: Drums and Bass go together. Shannon: Not like that. Matt: We don't go off on tangents but it's Shannon: little things Matt: little things here and there that some people might not even notice; just to keep us on our toes. Shannon: Exactly. ER: I think with the stripped down sound I think the critics are going to like this better. Matt: That's great if they do. You know what, if they don't, we're not out to please the critics. We make music for ourselves. If it's accepted, that's great, but if it's not, ultimately, we are happy with the record that we made. Shannon: Sure we would like people to go "Oh my GOD!" but really Matt: You can't please everyone Shannon: but really at the end of the day we worked our asses off. It took three years to make this album; we traveled everywhere, five different countries ER: What was the deal with that? Shannon: because we could. We had the opportunity and we took it. You know we worked our asses off. At the end of the day we can all sleep at night saying we made a really amazing record. So that challenge is over and now there's other challenges that we face and we kind of have the same attitude. We just keep plugging away. Keep doing all our work. Just doing the grind, working our asses off. At the end of the day, yeah we are stressed, yeah we are a little overworked but we are feeling good, we really are and that's what keeps us going. And as far as the critics, it's just like Matt said, it really doesn't matter. If we were in this for money I would be really really depressed right now. Matt: We just want to pay our rent. If you listened to every single thing that every single critic said out there you would go crazy. Shannon: Yeah. ER: Do you read the CD reviews? Matt: Yeah occassionally. I try not to read every single one because then you begin that endless routine of self examination like "should we not have done that", "should we have done it". It's like, let it be. We did what we did and we are happy with it. Why question it? ER: It's only one person's opinion anyway. Matt: Exactly. ER: That's why I hate doing CD reviews. It's so difficult. Shannon: I'll read ones, like I'll read yours because there's some sort of connection during the interview or right before the interview, you know little things that happen in conversation in interviews when I remember them. Matt: I read reviews but generally I stay away from reviews that are of our music. It's a weird thing. ER: So will there be a video for "Attack"? Shannon: Yes. Actually . . . ER: Can you tell us about it? Shannon: No. I can tell you that we will be shooting it in a week. ER: And then when will it be ready? Matt: Probably soon. Shannon: Really soon. Matt: We were supposed to have it done like three months ago. ER: Okay on your website there's a dated entry from like a year ago stating that the album was 80% done, what happened during the year? Matt:(laughing) A lot of things. We had the luxury like Shannon said of spending two to three years making this record and recording and during the course of this two to three years we all did a lot of growing, both personally and artistically so (laughs) you know you write like 10 songs and you know we recorded just a shit load of demos and it's like a year later we are like those aren't so good. That might have been what we were feeling at that time but things are a little different; either we are different or the song has changed Shannon: And recording those demos lead us to finalizing these 10 songs for the CD. So there was a reason for it all. Matt: It was a roller coaster. ER: The fans are like, okay what's going on, where are they? Matt: We knew it was going to be kind of, it's risky for any band to disappear for that long. It's a long time. ER: Especially now. Matt: Yeah everything is so disposable. People forget about you. Luckily we have a very strong fan base and we are very lucky in that respect. They stuck around. ER: They are very loyal. Shannon: Yeah. ER: From the beginning they were getting the tattoos. Matt: Yeah they still are. Shannon: They still are. We even have these Japanese fans coming over. Like four of them would come over, rent a car, follow the tour bus, give us gifts, fly back over and a new group would come over. It's awesome. ER: When are you going to tour over there? The European fans are asking when are you coming. Shannon: I don't know. Matt: We need to go over there. We never really did, we did one show in London. We did some press over in France and Germany. Hopefully that is definitely in the works. ER: That would be good. Matt: I would love to go over there. ER: Everyone says that the Japanese fans are great. Not a lot of artists get there and the fans are passionate. Matt: that's one of my definitely highlights. I want to go to Japan. ER: now I saw you guys open for Incubus, Our Lady Peace, Sevendust, now Chevelle and then the Used. Some strange combinations. Shannon: Yeah we are trying to reach a different, a variety of audiences really. And the Chevelle and the Used crowd, they are different. But what's really cool is the Chevelle crowd, they do get our music. Which is really good. Matt: Yeah both crowds. It's a weird position for us to be in . We're not trying to be, we are so this, but we are in that position where our music doesn't really fit into one certain genre Shannon: It's weird. Matt: I mean you could just say hard rock or rock, it's a big genre but it's not like this is metal so you are going to play with metal. There's kind of some grey area there. It gives us the opportunity to play with a lot of different types of bands. ER: You should get the opening spot on the Depeche Mode tour. Matt: Oh, that would be amazing. (whispering to Shannon) Should we tell them about the Nine Inch Nails? Shannon: (to Matt) Or U2? No, not yet. Shannon: (to use) We can't tell you about the NIN. Shannon: Next record, I mean next question. ER: Yes Sir! He's a little smart ass, isn't he? Shannon: Hey! Take it down a notch babe! Matt: You're batting around 80 and you usually bat around 50 so **** very hard to hear this line on the tape*** ER: A lot of bands are using My Space Shannon: Yeah ER: Are you actually interactive with that? Shannon: We do have a My Space page, Tomo set it up. He interacts with some of the fans. I'm not sure, that's his ER: It's his thing. Shannon: It's his little thing that he likes to get involved with. But yeah we have it. Matt: We used to be more hands on with our message board and all things web related but it's tough when we are on the road. We don't have internet access and we can't keep up with that. Plus there is just so much going on. We are still trying to finalize certain things about the record and getting this record out. ER: Is it really going to come out that date? Matt: We hope so. That's what we are shooting for. Shannon: No really it will this time ER: All the posters have the other date. Matt: Yeah first it was the 16th and then it was the 30th Shannon: yeah September 19th that's the date. Matt: It is! Shannon: I just said September 19th (laughing). Shannon & Matt: August 30th. Matt: August 30th is the release date. Shannon: People can buy our single. Matt: Yeah our single is out. Our album is actually on pre-sale which is kind of a cool thing. Shannon: it's really cool. itunes Matt: There's a special little thing if you go to our website. A special little limited edition thing you can get if you pre-order the album. Shannon: I can't believe we did that. It's pretty amazing. Matt: For all you special edition little hunters out there. ER: Now you guys did the yearbook, any thought of a DVD? Matt: Yep! Definitely in the works. ER: Have you been filming things all along? Shannon: All along. Matt: Yep we have seriously over 4 or 5 hundred different video tapes. We have filmed every show and just like have other non music related stuff that we do. ER: That's the cool stuff fans like. Matt: Yeah ER: The real you. Shannon: Yeah we have a lot of footage of the real us. ER: (laughing) that's scary. Matt: Yeah it is scary. I don't know if we can release it in the States. (Door opens, it's Jared saying hello and goodbye) (All of us laughing) Matt: He just pokes his head in. ER: Okay, going to ask this, not really taboo.. A lot of people cross over careers, right now Jada Pinkett Smith is getting a lot of shit. What kind of advice would you give? Shannon: Well first of all good luck! Because let me tell you something, you have to work your ass off to have, first of all to have a respectable career, a certain career ER: One career Shannon: one career you know. And then you really have to work your ass off on the other side to gain respect. I mean it''s a lot of work and it's 24/7 no lie. It's not just show up and play music. It's not like that. You have to map out, you have to back up and look at the big picture and see what you really want to do. I mean it's tough. And you have to show up places you don't want to play and you have to do things you don't really necessarily want to do. Just go for it. So I mean any advice, Matt: You know, just be prepared to work doubly hard and don't be afraid to pursue more than one thing. When did it become tabu in this country to be good at more than one thing. Shannon: Yeah! What is the fucking deal? Let's just be multitasking. Why can't we do several things at once? I understand people have done it poorly in the past Matt: The precedent hasn't been ER: It's changing. Shannon: Yes it's changing. Matt: It's not like it was the first time around, when we toured on the first record. A lot of that hard work that we did paid off. People know it''s not a hobby. It's the real deal. Shannon: Let me just, I'm going to say something. Someone that turns down millions and millions of dollars and movies that you have seen that have made millions of dollars, to turn that down and make no money. To turn all that down, and that's a huge risk, there's something to be said of all that. And spends hours and hours a day writing and just creating this 30 Seconds to Mars, there's something to be said about that. The bottom line, my brother's living off 20 dollars a day per diem right now. You know, there's something to be said about that. Matt: Whatever. It's all talk. At the end of the day the music speaks for itself. Shannon: but then again, people don't know. People don't know what it actually entails. ER: Not until they come out and see a show Shannon: That's right. And then when they come see us they are like okay we get it. Matt: There's no studio trickery. We are a real band. ER: You mean it's not a mannikin up there? Matt:(laughing) Robots! Shannon: We write all the songs. No one comes in. Matt: Yeah there's no writing team involved. It's fine, artists can do that. That's fine for them, it's not for us. Shannon: Yeah. ER: I just saw Ozzfest and Jada Pinkett Smith was there with her band. Matt: Ozzfest? ER: Oh yeah, Wicked Wisdom is on Ozzfest. They are metal. Shannon: What? Matt: Jada? ER: Her band is now a metal band. She's on the side stage at Ozzfest. Matt: She's on Ozzfest? ER: Yes Matt: No ER: She's getting a lot of flack for it. Getting things thrown at her, booed off stage. Matt: Is she good? ER: They are better than some of the bands out there but not as good as some of the others. But I think the fact that it's a black woman fronting a metal band is what is getting her a lot of flack. And Will Smith is there. Not in the band, but he's there. Matt: more power to them. That takes some balls to do that. Shannon: Yeah. ER: That's what I said. She's out there doing her thing, give her a break. Shannon: Yeah. Give her a break. ER: She's put her movie career on hold. Sure it was easier for her to pay the 60,000 to play Ozzfest but Shannon & Matt: Yeah ER: But she's still out there every day playing her set no matter what. Shannon: Good for her. ER: Okay, so last time you didn't answer one of my questions. Matt: Which one? Shannon: We might not answer it again. Careful! ER: It's the future, you open up the Rock & Roll Encyclopedia, what do you want it to say under 30stm? Matt: Oh I remember. That's just one that takes some Shannon:(interrupting) They came, they saw, they kicked some ass! Matt: The Rock & Roll Encyclopedia Shannon: I don't know. I guess we will find out what they write. Matt: I don't know. I just want to be remembered as a band that constantly reinvents themselves and doesn't do the same thing twice. ER: You definitely did that with this album. Matt: As cliche as that may sound I think we all kind of share that vision. Shannon: Yeah it's cliche Matt but a lot of bands do say that but they don't do it. The thing is, we are doing it. And that takes a lot of work and I want to be remembered as that too. Constantly changing, reinventing, not being stuck in a corner. Not being allowed to do something, I don't want to be that band either. Matt: Pushing the envelope. Shannon: Pushing the envelope.