STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Interview with Shannon Leto & Matt Wachter at The Metro in Chicago, IL
April 1st, 2006
Interview & photos by Rachel Jablonski
5:30pm, April Fool’s Day in Chicago, IL. Outside The Metro I wait to interview Shannon and Matt of 30 Seconds to Mars. Though it is 7 hours before the band will take the stage that night, I’m eager for the show – my first chance to see the band live since my first encounter in 2002. After a short wait I step on the tour bus and am greeted by Shannon, wearing a furry Russian-like hat, and Matt, wearing a black and white horizontal striped shirt and a black ski hat, very much resembling some kind of thief.
Rachel: Alright, we’re taping over a GWAR interview here. Ok here we go. So this is your first headlining tour and fourteen of your first fifteen shows are sold out. Congrats! What do you attribute such success to at the moment?
Shannon: Hard work, hard work. We started touring, let’s see my brother and I were signed in ’98, we completed the album in 2002, right?
Matt: No, 2001. It came out in 2002.
Shannon: Ok, it came out in 2002 so we just started touring right away and we did 300 shows those first two years. We kind of built a fan base doing that, just by touring and touring and playing in front of whoever, whenever. Just an old school way of getting fans, ya know. We didn’t have MTV, no radio really, and Matt was with us then and I think that contributed to a lot of what’s going on now. Along with that the music is speaking to people in a way that a lot of music is lacking. I think we’re showing people something different and people are latching onto it and agreeing with what is being “spoken” for lack of a better word.
*Rachel & Matt try to speak simultaneously.*
Rachel: Go ahead, sorry.
Matt: Go ahead.
Rachel: No!
Shannon: He just wanted to say ‘yep.’
Matt: I just wanted to say ‘yes, I concur.’
Shannon: He concurs.
Matt: I concur.
Rachel: I saw you in ’02 at the Ranch Bowl in Omaha in front of 50ish people and now this.
Shannon: Isn’t it crazy? Sold out, 1500 people!
Matt: It’s really nice to see it grow like this and like Shannon was saying we took a very grassroots approach to this without the help of radio or MTV or anything like that.
Shannon: And a label that was falling apart and rebuilding itself so we had… bands were getting fired, it was a crazy time. No marketing, no promotion, nothing, it was just us.
Matt: We just kept doing what we do.
Rachel: For the first album were you on Virgin Records as well?
Shannon: First album was on Immortal/Virgin.
Rachel: How have things changed from then to now?
Shannon: Well right now we’re with Virgin, just Virgin.
Rachel: How did you decide who would tour with you on this first headlining tour?
Matt: We’re avid users of MySpace and we just checked out the bands on MySpace and picked some of the ones that seemed best suited for our tour.
Shannon: There are different bands throughout the tour.
Matt: Yeah, we wanted to kind of mix it up. We’re all about giving bands opportunities just like other bands gave us great opportunities along the way.
Shannon: Want to spread the love.
Rachel: MySpace is POWERFUL.
Matt: Quite powerful.
Rachel: Matt, when the tour started you had to cancel 2 shows due to cutting your finger to the bone. What happened and how has it healed?
Matt: I did it with a pair of scissors and a light bulb.
Shannon: And a small Billy goat.
Matt: And a small Billy goat and a pound of butter and a roll of duct tape. It was just a momentary lapse of judgment and timing. It set us back a little bit. It’s totally healed now; I just don’t have feeling in the tip. I think there’s nerve damage, but it’s ok.
Shannon: Say the whole thing again.
Matt: I don’t have feeling in the tip.
Rachel: [laugh]
Matt: It could be taken a couple different ways.
Shannon: Say it again?
Matt: I do need feeling in the tip. So we had to postpone Salt Lake City and Denver, but we’re going to make those shows up.
Rachel: Cool. Tomorrow you’re going up to Toronto to shoot a video for “The Kill.” Why that song? What’s it going to be about? Why are you recruiting twins?
Shannon: Can’t tell you and can’t tell you.
Matt: [laugh] “The Kill” is our second single and so obviously that’s what the video is for.
Rachel: Why Toronto?
Matt: Actually, it just kind of worked out very nicely. We love Toronto and we love spending time there. And it just happened to work out that…
Shannon: The location is perfect.
Matt: ...that the location is perfect, so we get to do it there. We’re leaving right after the show tonight and driving to Toronto. It’s going to be a very, very hectic two days, but it’s going to be amazing. The idea for the video is unbelievable, we have a great director, and it’s materializing and coming together. I actually have the storyboard right here. Wanna see it, wanna see it?
Rachel: Woooooooo! You’re having people come out to the shoot right?
Matt: We are having a select number of fans come out for the shoot and yes we are having twins and that’s all I'll say about that.
Shannon: Several twins.
Matt: Several, serveral.
Shannon: A variety of twins.
Matt: We do like variety.
Rachel: Talk about the recording process of the new album. You recorded on four separate continents?
Matt: Yes mam.
Rachel: Can you explain that?
Shannon: We had the opportunity to travel to different places to record the album. So we did it just because we had the opportunity to go to different parts of the world, why not then right? And because of that the sound is the way it is on the album. I think, I know actually, if we were locked up in the studio in L.A. it would have been a lot different. But because we were subjected to different cultures and different experiences…
Rachel: Where did you go?
Shannon: South Africa… Thailand… Morocco… England…
Matt: We did stuff in the States as well.
Shannon: …States… Guadalupe…
Matt: And the thing about it is everyone thinks we were in these lavish studios, but…
Shannon: …Russia... China… New Zealand… Australia…
Matt: … it wasn’t that. We brought a rig with us and just kind of did it low budget and used the money to travel to all these different places.
Shannon: … Singapore…
Matt: He’s just going to keep going, I’m going to beat the hell out of him in a second. He’s all over the place.
Rachel: [laugh]
Matt: Like Shannon was saying it is definitely what gave the record its expansive quality that I don’t think we would have gotten otherwise. Where’d Shannon go? Shannon?
*Shannon holds his hands over his face.*
Matt: I’m going to call him; he does this every so often. He just disappears.
Rachel: Oh my god. [laugh]
Matt: Shannon?
*Shannon “reappears” moving his hands from shielding his face.*
Shannon: Hey, what’s up?
Matt: Shannon! Don’t time travel!
Shannon: I’m sorry.
Matt: It’s not cool.
Shannon: Sorry, dude.
Matt: We haven’t done that in awhile. Don’t time travel. Especially not during an interview, it’s just rude. But he’s back.
Shannon: I was here, but I wasn’t.
Rachel: That’s ok. I was spacing out too when I was listening to you, Matt.
Matt: Oh, were you.
Shannon: Oh! [laugh] Oh man!
Rachel: [laugh] Just kidding.
Shannon: You better be.
Matt: [laugh]
Rachel: “The Fantasy” is an awesome song with a lot of layers.
Matt: Thank you very much.
Rachel: How was it composed? How does the writing process typically work?
Matt: That song definitely kind of stood apart from the rest. There’s a little bit of a departure, I’m not sure if that was intentional or not.
Shannon: That kind of reflects the old sound, the old way of writing. “The Fantasy” definitely represents the past or the self-titled album. How the writing process works is, there’s no set formula. It can start with a bass line or a guitar riff or vocal line, melody, drum beat. It’s not really a particular way. Jared writes all of the lyrics.
Rachel: You talked about “The Fantasy” reflecting the old stuff. There is a transition between the first and second albums. How did that come about? What were you shooting for and where do you go from here?
Matt: I think it was kind of a natural progression. The first record was just Jared and Shannon and then when Tomo and I came onboard I think we really grew into a band. I think the new album definitely reflects more of a band feel; it has that kind of vibe to it. And we definitely don’t want to do the same thing twice. We set out to do something different, to have a departure from the first record, and I think we succeeded. That was something we talked about early on, without having it be too contrived or anything like that, let’s just do something different. We all come from different musical backgrounds and when you put that into a blender and what you get is a 30 Seconds to Mars pie.
Shannon: And that’s what we always want to do is to keep trying to do things different and to keep taking risks. It’s important artistically to express ourselves that way. The next album if we want to dance on some garbage cans…
Matt: And wear jumpsuits.
Shannon: …and wear jumpsuits, yellow…
Matt: Pink, striped pink. We’re gonna do that goddamnit!
Shannon: …we want to do that. We want to have that freedom. I think too many bands are pigeonholed and they’re scared to try different things, people won’t allow them to. I never want to be put in that situation. I think we can do whatever we want, really. And our label has been really accepting of our expression. So, thanks Virgin Records!
Rachel: You’re lucky; they’re not all like that.
Matt: No, they’re not and there are a lot of cookie cutter bands out there. They find a formula that works and they stick to it or the label tells them to stick to it. I think we’re definitely an exception to that rule.
Shannon: And let me tell you it takes a lot of work to really do what you want to do. If someone isn’t allowing you to do what you do then you start questioning. ‘No you can’t do that, you can’t paint it red.’ ‘But I love red, the way it makes me feel…’ ‘Nah, this thing works over here.’ And then you start questioning yourself cause you get tired, you’re creating this thing and then you get tired and then you’re like ‘I don’t know about red anymore.’
Matt: You start questioning yourself.
Shannon: But because all of us have this common goal we get to rely on each other and that’s what’s great being in a band with these guys.
Rachel: Good guys?
Shannon: Great guys.
Rachel: Do you fight with your brother ever?
Shannon: No.
*5 seconds of silence.*
Matt: Come on.
Shannon: There are wars.
Matt: [laugh]
Rachel: I was gonna say, if I’m on tour with my sister? No way is that gonna work.
Matt: It’s not even a brother thing per se. We all have our bad moments. We’re a family, all of us. There are good days and bad days just like any other family. We’re human, we all hold short of the glory every now and then.
Rachel: No!
Matt: Yeah, believe it or not.
Shannon: Oh yeah.
Matt: We’re perfect most of the time.
Rachel: Mmmhmmm. Well, what? Fifty songs were recorded for the first CD? What happened to them? Any make the new record? How many did you compose for the second album?
Matt: Kind of the same thing. We had forty songs this time around.
Rachel: Forty?!
Matt: Yep, and we narrowed it down to ten. I think Jared put it best one time; it’s like pushing your unwanted children out of the back of a station wagon.
Rachel: [laugh]
Matt: To narrow it down we picked the ten songs that told the story the best. They kind of have that cohesive flow. It’s not a concept record per se, but there is a flow to it if you dig a little deeper. It’s a tough process letting go of some songs. Some of us fought a little harder for some, some of us got a little attached. [laugh]
Rachel: Are the songs you rejected gone?
Shannon: Gone for now.
Rachel: Oh, gone for NOW.
Shannon: For now maybe, forever maybe. But you never know.
Rachel: Probably forever, ok.
Shannon: But you never know.
Matt: Sometimes things can be reinterpreted. “Attack” is a perfect example of that.
Shannon: A rebirth of sorts.
Matt: Exactly. “Attack” is a song that was thrown out countless times. It was actually one of the oldest songs on the record that was written and has gone through four or five mutations and it ended up being the first single on the record. So go figure.
Rachel: Wow. No kidding.
Matt: “The Kill” was another one in the trash.
Shannon: It was great. I got up to South Africa man, and remember that? Going over the bridge? How fun was that? It was just working. Remember that?
Matt: South Africa was an incredible place where a lot of those songs kind of had a rebirth. Our perception changed a lot. Being in South Africa I think changed us a little bit.
Shannon: It was cool.
Rachel: “Buddha for Mary,” what’s it about?
Shannon: It’s whatever you think it’s about. It’s wrapped up in your own interpretation, which is really important to us. Imagine if I asked Jimmy Page what “Stairway to Heaven” was about. ‘Well I was sitting on the stool, taking a shit, and I was just thinking about God and I felt like I was on a stairway to heaven. I like art that you can interpret yourself. It’s not a Norman Rockwell painting, it’s abstract. It’s for each individual’s interpretation.
Rachel: Exactly. I was having a discussion about that earlier in regard to Radiohead. It’s the feeling, which is personal, that you should be interpreting, not just the words.
Matt: I love Radiohead. I don’t want to know what’s going on in Thom’s head. But there’s a perfect example of a band that has reinvented themselves time and time again.
Rachel: What do you guys do when the band is off and Jared is acting?
Shannon: There’s lots of work to do. 30 Seconds to Mars isn’t just picking up an instrument and creating music and playing it live. There’s so much that this band entails. The graphics, we have control over all of our artist expression, and our online services, everything. We’re a part of it all and all of that takes time. It takes so much time to finish something.
Matt: It’s a blessing and a curse being able to have control of and being involved in every aspect of the band. But it is time consuming especially when you’re on the road trying to keep on top of everything.
Shannon: Plus I’m a photographer.
Rachel: Oh really? Cool.
Matt: And it actually works out really nice that we just got done with 9 months of touring, we took a little break at Christmas, and Jared went and did a movie. So he just never stops, he’s a machine. He just never stops. And he came back from New York to L.A.; a week later we were on tour. No rest for the wicked.
Rachel: Wow, that’s crazy. What can we expect from the show tonight? What kind of set?
Matt: This is our opportunity to present 30 Seconds to Mars in the way we always wanted to.
Shannon: Headlining tour is great for that.
Matt: 'Forever Night, Never Day' is our moment to shine.
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