Friday, July 29, 2011

SECONDS TO MARS

The band's debut self-titled album, produced by Bob Ezrin was released in 2002 to positive reviews. The album produced two singles, "Capricorn (A Brand New Name)" and "Edge of the Earth". The former peaked at #31 on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart. Even though Jared Leto is a Hollywood actor, he prefers not to use this position to promote the band; in fact, he refuses to play at venues if they have used his name to promote the band. "[The band's name] actually comes from a thesis that the band found online that was written by a former Harvard professor. And one of the subsections of the thesis was titled 'thirty seconds to mars' and he goes on to talk about the exponential growth of technology that relates to humans and saying that we are quite literally thirty seconds to mars. What it means to us is, we thought it best described our music, in short." ""It represents a lot of things. This professor had a thesis. It was talking about where technology was going; the evolution of man and how that plays a role. A sub-category was 30 Seconds To Mars. It was like the exponential growth of humans. We are literally 30 seconds away from Mars. Everything is right here and right now; everything is just so crazy and fast." "For us, the name 30 Seconds To Mars has little to do with space, the universe or anything like that. It is a name that works on several different levels. Most importantly, it is a good representation of our sound. It's a phrase that is lyrical, suggestive, cinematic, and filled with immediacy. It has some sense of otherness to it. The concept of space is so overwhelming and all encompassing I doubt there is a song written that doesn't fall within it." Founded in 1998 by brothers Shannon Leto and Jared Leto, 30 Seconds to Mars began as a small family project. Matt Wachter later joined the band as bassist and keyboard player. After working with a number of guitarists (as the band's first two guitarists, Kevin Drake and Solon Bixler, left the band due to issues primarily related to touring), the three auditioned Tomo Miličević to round out the band's roster. To date, 30 Seconds to Mars have released three studio albums – 30 Seconds to Mars (2002); A Beautiful Lie (2005); This Is War (2009) and two extended plays – AOL Sessions Undercover (2007) and To the Edge of the Earth (2008). 30 Seconds to Mars is an American rock band from Los Angeles, formed in 1998. Since 2007, the band has been composed of actor Jared Leto (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, songwriter), Shannon Leto (drums, percussion) and Tomo Miličević (lead guitar, keyboards). Following the departure of Matt Wachter (now of Angels & Airwaves) in 2007, Tim Kelleher became the bassist for the group, performing live only with both Jared and Miličević recording bass for studio recordings, while Braxton Olita (keyboards) was added to the touring lineup in 2009. Previously, the group also featured guitarists Solon Bixler (now of Great Northern) and Kevin Drake.

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