Many actors and celebrities have tried to branch out into the music industry, but few have been able to do so with the success of Jared Leto and his band 30 Seconds To Mars.
Leto formed the band way back in 1998 with his brother, drummer Shannon Leto, and found considerable success through the early ’00s. However, it was with their most recent release, This Is War - featuring the rocking hit single “Night Of The Hunter” – that really established them as superstars.
In an interview with Virgin Records, the band stated that the name 30 Seconds To Mars ”comes from a thesis [they] found online that was written by a former Harvard professor. One of the subsections of the thesis was titled ‘thirty seconds to mars’ and he goes on to talk about the exponential 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.”
That’s a pretty involved thought process for a band name, but it’s fair to say that it matches their style. 30 Seconds To Mars plays a heady blend of rock, emo and prog that definitely sounds like something from the “future” (not to mention the crazy clothes and hairstyles Jared Leto sports during concerts).
If all that sounds a bit crazy, just listen to “Night Of The Hunter” and see why it actually works.
More on 30 Seconds To Mars:
Jared Leto’s tribute to Kurt Cobain
30 Seconds To Mars wins the NSFW Award for their controversial “Hurricane” video
Gallery: Behind the scenes with 30 Seconds To Mars
30 Seconds to Mars (photo: Carl America/Radio 92.3 archive)
