30 Seconds to Mars

In 2006, CONFRONT Magazine’s first featured article (Feature Pres. 30stm) began with the phrase: “Amidst the chaos and frenzy of decision making, phone calls, more decisions, picking colors, taglines, sleepless nights and hair pulling disagreements, one thing was unequivocally certain; we wanted 30 Seconds to Mars to be CONFRONT Magazine’s first cover.”

Jared Leto - 30 Seconds to Mars

Five years later, in the face of a complete site redesign and restructure, not much had changed.  Though the chaos, frenzy and hair pulling disagreements haven’t been quite as marking, one thing was still unequivocally certain: we wanted 30 Seconds to Mars to be the new CONFRONT Magazine’s first cover!

While heading to the venue on May 6^th, memories of my first interview with Shannon Leto had me feeling a little nervous.  I remembered the impact the band’s drummer had had on me then, embarrassingly, and was determined to retain my cool this time around.  I was escorted through the venue’s backdoor, down the familiar narrow flight of stairs that lead to the Metropolis’ grungy looking basement and dressing rooms, in the furthest of which Shannon sat waiting.  “Hey” I said walking in, ready to extend my hand to shake his but was instead greeted with a smile and open arms.  After a quick hug and introductions to the few people in the room – including Bam Margera, who had come down from Philadelphia for the Montreal and Quebec City shows – Shannon pulled out a chair for me so I could sit facing him as he plopped down on the low black loveseat.

“The last time we interviewed you was five years ago for the launch of our publication…” I began, wanting to ask him to give me a quick resume of those past years.

“It’s been a long time.  I remember you too.  That’s great.” He said before I could ask and suddenly my cheeks were blazing.   Was this memory of me a good or a bad thing? Had I made an impression because I was so giddy the first time we met or because of my journalistic prowess?  Was it simply that the man has the memory of an elephant and I have a memorable… face?  Or did he remember the effort I had put into my research and subsequently my questions?  It’s a difficult rope to balance that of fan and journalist; especially when it comes to sitting down for a chat with a member of your favourite band.  There are so many things that as a fan of the band you want to ask but wouldn’t as a journalist simply because it might seem a little unprofessional; and on the flipside, as a journalist you have to fight the urge to ask easy or flattering questions.

When finally I managed to get the full question out, Shannon gave me their career bullet points to the best of his ability.

“Five years ago was [the album] A Beautiful Lie.” He answered after a long whistle.  “Really, that’s so long ago.  But then not, you know!?!  When you are so busy, time just moves really quickly.  (…) [The video for The Kill had just come out.] That was an important video for us.  We were at a point in our career where we needed, in the radio world, The Kill to do something; and when that video came out it just… I mean things changed for us.  It showed people who we were.  Just before that, we weren’t really showing our faces in videos and we weren’t doing many interviews.  That was the first time people got to see us.  And that was really important.  And the rest is history.  We shot videos in China, 200 miles into the Arctic Circle; we shut down streets in Los Angeles for Kings and Queens.  New York was similar; we shut down streets there [for Hurricane].  There’s been so many amazing videos.  And touring and places we’ve visited.  And I think from the last album to this album, we’ve really grown as a band.”

The band isn’t the only thing that has grown since that premiere issue.  Their fans have exploded in quantity following the release of 30 Seconds to Mars’ third studio album, This is War.  For our first article, we had spent almost a week attending 30stm shows, shadowing them at organized signings and  sitting on the sidelines as they spent hours outside talking and taking pictures with fans outside the venues.  This had lead me to write our first exposé, ‘What’s the Fascination with the Echelon?’ ( Exhibit A Echelon ) an article that took an in depth look at the band’s fanbase as well as the way the band interacted with their fans.

Shannon Leto - 30 Seconds to Mars

Back then, I had asked Shannon about all the time they spent interacting with the Echelon and pointed out that there might come a day when it may no longer be possible to do so should they continue to get more popular.

“My brother and I have been doing it ever since we started playing live.” Shannon had told me, adding: “It’s become a communal thing now. What’s going on with 30STM is just a natural way of doing things for us. There is no other way.  And when we get bigger we will have more security around and maybe an area or something just ‘cause there are psychos out there. Fan comes from the word fanatic, we all know what happened to John Lennon and yes there are people like that and we will have to adjust accordingly as time goes on but we will always be with people. We just like being with people who like our music.”