30 SECOND TO MARS

30 SECOND TO MARS

30 Seconds to Mars (or Thirty Seconds to Mars, sometimes abbreviated to 30STM or TSTM) is a rock band from Los Angeles, California, featuring actor Jared Leto as the lead vocalist.

Formation
Created in 1998 by Jared Leto and his brother, Shannon, 30 Seconds to Mars began as a small family project. Things began to speed up quickly, and Matt Wachter later joined the band as bassist and keyboard player. After working with small revolving door 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.

According to an interview from Virgin Records, 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[sic] ' and he goes on to talk about the expediential 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.

30 Seconds to Mars (2002)
30 Seconds to Mars' first, self-titled album, produced by Kevin Najjar, was released in 2002 to mixed reviews and achieved sales of just over 100,000. Their sophomore album, A Beautiful Lie, was released on August 30, 2005. For this effort, the band traveled (during the course of three years) to four continents, to perfect their sound and also to allow for Jared's film career. The album was produced by Josh Abraham, whose producing credits also include Orgy, Velvet Revolver, and Linkin Park.

A Beautiful Lie (2005)
Because A Beautiful Lie was leaked five months before its release, the band decided to include two bonus tracks: "Battle of One" (an original song that was also set to be the album's title track when it was first announced) and "Hunter" (a cover of the Björk song). To further promote the album, the band also enclosed "golden tickets" in 12 copies, which granted their owners access to any 30 Seconds to Mars concert free of charge, along with backstage access.

On August 31, 2006, the band won the MTV2 Award for "The Kill" at the MTV Video Music Awards, one of their two nominations. The second nomination was for Best Rock Video; however, they lost to AFI's "Miss Murder". In the video members of the band reenact scenes from The Shining. A Beautiful Lie was certified platinum by the RIAA in January for distribution of over 1,000,000 albums.

In October, the band began their "Welcome to the Universe" tour, sponsored by MTV2. They were supported on this tour by Head Automatica, The Receiving End of Sirens, Cobra Starship, and several other bands including Street Drum Corps. The tour was "environmentally sound" according to a 2006 interview with then-bassist Matt Wachter. "Jared and Shannon put together this thing called Environmentour which is illustrating ways—alternatives—to kind of clean up some of the mess we leave behind. We fueled the bus with vegetable oil," he explains. On November 20, MTV2 premiered the video for "From Yesterday"; the video is the first American rock video ever shot in its entirety in the People's Republic of China. The music video is loosely based on the film The Last Emperor.

On April 29, 2007, the band performed at the Australian MTV Australia Video Music Awards, where they were nominated for three awards, winning "Best Rock Video" and "Video of the Year" for "The Kill".

As of Spring 2007, the band is supporting The Used as a part of the "Taste of Chaos" tour and have scheduled a string of dates in Europe supporting Linkin Park. They are also scheduled to play Roskilde, Rock am Ring, Pinkpop, Give It A Name Festival and Download. Following other commitments, they will begin working on their third album. The band should start work on their third album on the summer of 2008 according to interviews of band members.

Awards
Following the release of "From Yesterday" as a single, the band posted a link on their MySpace blog to vote for the next single from A Beautiful Lie. The choices available were "A Beautiful Lie", "The Fantasy", "Savior", and "The Story". Another vote was done later between the top two songs, "A Beautiful Lie" and "The Fantasy". On May 2, 2007, the band announced that "A Beautiful Lie" had won and would be the next single.

On August 8, 2007, Kerrang! announced that 30 Seconds to Mars has been nominated for two categories of the Kerrang! Awards 2007 - Best International Newcomer and Best Single - The Kill. On August 24 they had only won the award for 'Best Single,' which was The Kill. The other award was lost to Madina Lake. On November 1, 2007, the band won the MTV Europe Music Award for "Rock Out", one of the two catorgories they were nominated in.

On December 21st, 2007, 30 Seconds to Mars won Fuse's Best of 2007 Award. They beat out Korn and had amassed over 7 million votes. 31 other bands and artists such as Evanescence, Justin Timberlake, Gwen Stefani, Linkin Park and Avenged Sevenfold were also included in the contest. On March 22, 2008, the band were voted the 2nd greatest band in Kerrang!s 100 Best Rock Bands Ever.

A Kind of Homecoming: On 21 March 2008 30 Seconds to Mars performed at ‘My Coke Fest’ in South Africa, which saw the band back on South African soil since the inception and recording of ‘A Beautiful Lie’. At a Press Conference Jared describe the experience as deeply personal, with the added hope that some new material may see the light of day on African Soil. The band played to a sold-out crowd in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

The band's phoenix logo
The band's phoenix logo (which the band named "Mithra" bears the phrase "Provehito in Altum", the band's motto. Roughly translated from Latin, this means "Launch forth into the deep"; but a more stylized version would be "Rocket in(to) High(ness)". The logo was primarily used for promotion of the band's debut, whereas for A Beautiful Lie, the new Trinity logo was created consisting of three skulls, along with the band's name and motto.

The Echelon
The Echelon is a publicity street team for the band 30 Seconds to Mars, which helps in bringing friends to the shows, phoning local radio stations to request the band's songs, putting up posters, posting to band forums or related bulletin boards online, and maintaining magazines or websites dedicated to the band. It is also the name of one of their songs in the album 30 Seconds to Mars.

Current

• Jared Leto - lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboard/synth , Jared Leto (born December 26, 1971) is an American actor and musician. His first major acting performance was as Jordan Catalano in the television series My So-Called Life. This led to a growing film career, including a critically acclaimed portrayal of a drug addict in Requiem for a Dream. Additionally, Leto is the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and main songwriter of the alternative rock band 30 Seconds to Mars. Jared Leto was born on December 26, 1971 in Bossier City, Louisiana. During his childhood, Leto and his family — his mother, Constance, and his older brother Shannon Leto — moved frequently, living in Louisiana, Wyoming, Colorado, Virginia, and even Haiti.

When he finished school, Leto enrolled at Philadelphia's University of the Arts to pursue his interests in painting. However, he then transferred to New York City's School of Visual Arts after developing an interest in acting.

Born Jared Leto
December 26, 1971 (age 36)
Bossier City, Louisiana, U.S. Other name(s) Bartholomew Cubbins Occupation actor, musician, songwriter, director Years active 1994 - present

• Tomo Miličević - lead guitar, violin, keyboard/synth Tomislav "Tomo" Milicevic (pronounced Milichevich) (born September 3, 1979, Sarajevo Bosnia and Herzegovina), the younger brother of model Ivana Miličević, is currently the lead guitarist in the L.A.-based alternative rock band 30 Seconds to Mars. He is an ethnic Croat. His parents, Tonka and Damir Miličević relocated when Tomo was in 3rd grade to Troy, Michigan in the hope of a better life. He is quoted as saying “...I would be in the army by 16, fighting in the front lines by age 17” ([1]). By the time Tomo was 18 years of age, his parents had opened a restaurant in Los Angeles. In his teenage years, Miličević was standing outside his father's Dunkin Donuts in Michigan when an errant bullet hit him in the leg. He's quoted by saying "I didn't feel it, I just looked down and saw I was bleeding and I laughed." He wanted to keep the bullet, but the hospital wouldn't let him.

Born Tomo Miličević
Birth name Tomislav Miličević Born September 3, 1979 (age 28) Origin Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, formerly Yugoslavia Genre(s) Rock, Alternative Occupation(s) Musician Instrument(s) Guitar, violin Label(s) Virgin Records

• Shannon Leto - drums, percussion Shannon Christopher Leto (born March 9th 1970) is an American drummer and an occasional actor. Shannon Leto was born in Bossier City, Louisiana. He's been playing drums since he was eight years old, and he plays for the band 30 Seconds to Mars, and is the older brother of the band's singer, Jared Leto. Some of Shannon's favorite drummers include John Bonham, Stewart Copeland, Keith Moon, Nick Mason, and Lars Ulrich, all of whom he notes as influencing his own playing style.

With the band, he practices six to seven hours a day. In an interview with Modern Drummer magazine in February 2006, he stated: "Rehearsing that much has helped to build up my stamina and make my playing more precise". He has also said that he doesn't like playing to tape or to a loop, and prefers the more organic way of doing things, experimenting with electronics the band creates on their own.1

Bob Ezrin, who helped produce 30 Seconds to Mars' 2002 debut album, 30 Seconds to Mars, called Leto "one of the most inventive drummers I've worked with. He isn't satisfied with simply adding a beat; his drum parts are an integral part of the orchestration of the record. He's also a great live drummer who is lots of fun to watch, with a presence and energy level that are mesmerizing". (Modern Drummer Vol. 30, no 2).Leto describes his band's music as having the grandiosity of Pink Floyd and the energy of The Sex Pistols.[citation needed] His other musical influences include The Cure, the first two albums from Metallica, Led Zeppelin, The Who, early The Police, and Steely Dan. He appeared on a few episodes of My So-Called Life with his brother Jared before forming 30 Seconds to Mars in 1998 with the addition of bass player Matt Wachter and later by joined by friend Tomo Miličević on guitar.Leto is also a guitar and piano player. His interest in always learning more about the art of music, he has said, has made him want to continuously take risks and challenge himself.He also expresses interest in writing, Abstract art, progressive rock, self-interpretation, and is a professional photographer.For his drums he uses Sabian Cymbals, Vic-Firth 5an drum sticks, Remo Pinstripe heads, Sonor Drums, And DW Hardware.Shannon was recently signed to DW hardware.Leto played a small role in Highway, in which his brother starred.

Born
Birth name Shannon Christopher Leto Born March 9, 1970 (age 38) Origin Bossier City, Louisiana, Genre(s) Alternative rock Occupation(s) Drummer