Jared Leto’s Conversation with Ciara Dwyer

I live in Los Angeles, the city of angels. This morning I was awakened by the sound of a hawk that lives above the house. The cry of the hawk is very interesting. After that I heard the trash truck backing up down the street — I suppose it’s a nice representation of the dichotomy of this planet.

My house is like a laboratory. We built and paid for our own recording studio, which is downstairs in the house. That’s where we’ve been working for the last couple of years to record our latest record, This is War. There are a lot of people who work out of the house, and we have several projects going all day long. My assistant is also in the house, working away and helping me to realise some of the other projects.

From the minute I get up it’s pretty full-on. I make a shake for myself with a bunch of fruit and berries. Am I a health freak? I’m a freak for sure, and healthy at times as well. I start my day by looking at some emails and things that were left over from yesterday. There might be a business meeting then.

I’ve been making music since I was a kid. It’s been a consistent part of my life since I was very young. I was born in Louisiana. I crawled out of the muddy banks of the Mississippi. There were always people around making music, be it on a piano or a rusty guitar. My brother Shannon, who is in the band, started playing the drums when he was five. But really, the more consistent creative expression was visual art. We were around a lot of visual artists — painters and sculptors. Even though music was kind of there, we didn’t know anybody who did it professionally. After some tumultuous years I ended up going to art school. Then I transferred my major to filmmaking with a view to being a director. Eventually, I ended up getting work as an actor, but really my plan was to get work as an actor to help with my directing aspirations. The whole time I was making music, and it just became a bigger and bigger part of our lives until it took over, as music can often do. So it’s been a pretty long, natural progression. Our first record deal was signed in 1998, but we’ve been together a lot longer than that.

In 30 Seconds to Mars, we really try to encourage each other to stay true to ourselves and to march to the beat of our own drum. We’re not interested in being someone else’s band, or someone else’s idea of what we should be. I’m very focused and driven. I’m grateful to have the work in front of me, and I enjoy the process. I enjoy the writing, the recording and the touring. It’s a great thing to be able to do, and we enjoy seeing the world but, on average, as far as the day goes, it’s a lot of hard graft, rehearsing and having meetings with our production team making sure that everything will work right. The hour and a half on stage is the magical experience; the rest of the day is designed to support that, because our biggest concern is for the audience and providing them with an evening that they won’t soon forget.

I’m fascinated and inspired by our audience. A big part of 30 Seconds to Mars is that open-ended conversation we have with our audience all around the world. This is War is a very interactive record. We invited 1,000 people from around the world to come to a summit in LA to participate in the recording. They showed up and sang and chanted and played percussion. And we used that group of people as an instrument on the album. We did that in eight other countries. Then I got a Twitter message from someone in Iran who was frustrated that he couldn’t join one of the physical summits, and that gave me the idea of launching a digital summit. Kings and Queens and some of the other songs on the album now have this summit contribution from thousands of people all over the world, including Dublin. So, in a small way, it’s an Irish record as well.

I still make films, and doing that enriches my life in music. I’m able to take what I’ve learnt from great directors and apply that to my role as a director of our music videos, which are more like short films.

The Last of the High Kings was my very first film. It was an Irish movie, and I played a young man from Howth. I’ve had a long love affair with Dublin, and to be able to come back and play a show with my band in the O2 recently meant a lot to me. It was a pretty amazing experience being in Ireland for the film in 1995, and coming back in 2010 was great.

On the evening of a concert, we go backstage and get our gear on. I’m generally working up until the last minute, making sure that everything is right for the show. I’ll take some moments to have a bit of solitude and then I’ll warm up my voice. The lights go down and we march onto the stage — it’s one of the most magical things you could ever imagine doing. We always leave the door open for a surprise; it’s quite an adventure. It’s like when you’re on a rollercoaster and it’s going up, up, to the tallest part of the ride and you know you’re about to come down very fast: it’s that moment.

After the show, we’ll go out and talk to people and sign some things. I don’t go clubbing afterwards. I stay focused. The best part of the night is being on stage, and after that it’s about winding down and taking care of yourself so you can go on and be focused for the next show.

Sometimes it’s difficult to wind down. I’ll read a book, or do some work that needs to be done, like editing one of our short films. It is a lot of hard work but it’s nothing we’d ever complain about. It’s wonderful work to be able to do and we’re glad to do it. It’s what dreams are made of.

L

In conversation with Ciara Dwyer

‘This is War’ by 30 Seconds to Mars is out now

- Ciara Dwyer

Sunday Independent – source