30 Seconds to Mars in South Africa?

5FM and M-Net are excited to announce that leading rock bands Thirty Seconds to Mars will be returning to South Africa headlining two dates on 19th November at the Coca-Cola Dome Johannesburg and in Cape Town on 21st November at the Grand Arena, GrandWest.
Thirty Seconds to Mars are a world class, arena crushing rock trio featuring Jared Leto on lead vocals/guitar, Shannon Leto on drums and Tomo Milicevic on guitar. Together they have sold over 3.5 million albums worldwide and have been viewed over 100 million times on youtube.
In 2002 they released their self titled debut album. This was followed by ‘A Beautiful Lie’ (2005) which produced two Top 5 Modern Rock singles in ‘From Yesterday’ and ‘The Kill’ which set a record for the longest running hit in the history of Modern Rock radio when it remained on the national airplay chart for more than 50 weeks following its No. 3 peak in 2006.
Their latest release ‘This is War’ (2009) has been called their strongest and most accomplished work to date spending 12 weeks on the 5FM Top 40. For this they enlisted two of the most influential producers in the world: Flood (U2, Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, Smashing Pumpkins) and Steve Lillywhite (U2, Rolling Stone, Peter Gabriel) who gave the band freedom and confidence to explore different sound, textures and ideas. The album represents the result of an 18 month creative battle, fought ferociously, but privately inside a studio in the Hollywood Hills. The result: a triumphant sound that builds on the vision laid out in their previous releases.
“5FM is thrilled to be welcoming 30 Seconds to Mars back to South Africa!” says Aisha Mohamed, Station Manager for 5FM, “We’re excited to deliver yet another amazing experience for our listeners. Their recent single ‘Closer to the Edge’ is climbing the 5FM chart rapidly and is very much in line with 5fm’s diverse offering! ”

Fri 19 Nov 10 9:00 PM
Coca-Cola Dome, Johannesburg

Sun 21 Nov 10 8:00 PM
Grand Arena, Grandwest Casino and Entertainment World, Cape Town

Call of the wild - 30 seconds to mars

Jared Leto and his band hope their music will set us free, writes Annie Stevens.

JARED Leto has a dire assessment of where he would be without music. ''I'd be homeless,'' he says.

Leto asserts that 30 Seconds to Mars, the US band he started in 1998 as vocalist and guitarist with his brother Shannon on drums, is what keeps him in the latest skinny-legged jeans. But he is perhaps better known to the masses as a Hollywood actor for his roles in films such as Fight Club, Girl, Interrupted, American Psycho, Requiem for a Dream and Alexander.

In Melbourne this week, Louisiana-born Leto is reluctant to talk about Hollywood and his acting career, which was initially only meant to be an aside to his music.

''I feel pretty lucky to be able to make music and tour. It's been an incredible year so far,'' he says, looking the part of the actor/musician with the remainder of the bleached mohawk he sported at the Paris haute couture collections earlier this year.
His band is in Australia for their Into the Wild tour, which will take the band everywhere from New York to Budapest this year.


Leto's notable experience of Melbourne so far has been limited to a somewhat lucid dream on the plane on the way here.


''I had this dream about this seagull with these really long teeth and then it turned into the size of a dog. I was swinging it like crazy to try to get it off my arm. That was the deepest sleep I've gotten in a while,'' says Leto.


''Plane dreams are the best,'' adds his brother, Shannon.
Lead guitarist Tomo Milicevic, the third member of the band, joined in 2007.
The closeness of the trio is evident in their continuous bantering and teasing. Despite the confines of touring together, there hasn't been any Oasis-style tension between the two musical brothers and Milicevic.


''[We] have a really good time and we're too focused to have petty nonsense going around,'' says Milicevic.


There's also no need to trash hotel rooms to prove their credentials as rockers.
''We like to trash the stage instead for release,'' says Shannon.
This is War, the band's third album, with its title track featuring on the soundtrack of the video game Dragon Age, was created in a particularly trying time. For much of the creative period, the band's record label was in the process of suing them for an alleged breach of contract.


''It's been difficult,'' says Jared, of the legal struggle, ''but it's helped make a stronger record. There's been a lot of magical moments.''


The band hope their fans will get some kind of connection with their music.
''To feel something, to connect in some way, to have a great time, to lose their minds and have a moment of total freedom,'' says Milicevic. ''Well said, squire,'' says Jared, nodding.


30 Seconds to Mars are at Festival Hall tonight at 8.

this week's feature 30 Seconds To Mars’s Jared Leto Talks Business

Want to know a little bit more than you may already know about 30 Seconds To Mars lead singer, rhythm guitarist, and sole songwriter Jared Leto? Well, here is your chance…
Cheeky: Do you feel that you’re recognized more for one talent over another when it comes to your songwriting, singing, and guitar playing?
Jared Leto: “I love the process of songwriting,” Leto admits. “I love creating, writing, and touring. I love being in the studio, playing the guitar, bass, synthesizer, and programming.”
Cheeky: What is the writing process like for you and how does it begin? Acoustic guitar? Piano? Lyrics first? Tough/easy?
JL:“Every song has its own rules; a beginning, middle, and end,” explains Leto. “Quite often, I write most of our songs sitting in front of the piano, which was the first instrument I ever learned to play.” Leto goes on to say that, “I will hear a melody and work on it in my head for weeks and weeks.” A few of the songs that Leto has written for 30 Seconds To Mars were composed with the lead singer sitting in front of a computer. Leto says that “Stranger In A Strange Land” was written entirely in front of a computer.
Cheeky: How did you first learn to play the guitar and piano?
JL: “We had a beat up old piano in our house,” recalls Leto while reminiscing about his childhood with drummer brother Shannon Leto. “It was rescued from a junkyard, or some place like that. It was an upright piano that had broken keys and was completely out of tune.” Leto says that he remembers “constantly hammering away on the piano” to the point where he could play familiar tunes and write his own songs with the skills he had acquired.
Cheeky: What do you sing and/or play around the house? Any under-the-radar artists that you’re listening to who people should hear and know about?
JL: “Right now I am listening to Jónsi from Sigur Rós,” says Leto. Doing a little research on Jónsi, I discovered that he is the guitarist and vocalist for Sigur Rós, a band from Iceland now taking “an indefinite hiatus.” In addition to his recently released solo album Go, Jónsi performs together with his boyfriend/partner Alex Somers as an art collaboration called Jónsi & Alex. “I’m really into Fever Ray’s new album [Fever Ray] and have been playing a lot of M83,” Leto says.
Cheeky: How involved are you in the decision-making process of licensing your songs to films, television shows, and commercials?
JL: “It is unbelievable. People just use it [any song of the group's]. That’s not even licensing!” exclaims a frustrated Leto. “We have to email them [those who use the band's songs without permission] and ask, ‘Why didn’t you ask us?’ It recently happened to us,” says Leto regrettably. “But people make mistakes,” Leto says reluctantly. “Depending on the country, we don’t even have a choice in the matter,” Leto tells me.

credit: jared leto online

Vegas Rocks April 2010 – Magazine Scans

http://www.jared-leto.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?album=824&pos=0
credit : jaredletoonline