April 22, 2012 1:30 PM ET
Jared Leto of 30 Seconds to Mars performs in Tinley Park, Illinois.
Lyle A. Waisman/Getty Images
Shortly after Thirty Seconds to Mars wrapped the tour for their third album, This Is War, last December, word began to circulate that the group might call it quits. But the band's frontman Jared Leto tells Rolling Stone
that there's no truth to the breakup rumors. "We are excitedly working
in the studio," says Leto. "I have been working quietly and without much
fanfare, but I've been writing and recording constantly, really
crafting the future sound of Thirty Seconds to Mars."
Leto says he's already written 50 songs and that the band is eyeing
collaborations with several producers and artists including M83's Morgan
Kibby, who joined them in the studio the other day. "She came by and
was playing some synths and doing some programming," says Leto. "She's a
real talent. We're working with some interesting people."
Leto credits the band's "Hurricane" track with Kanye West, off This Is War,
with opening the door for future collaborations. "Working with Kanye
was the very first time that I ever invited an artist and worked with an
artist on a Thirty Seconds to Mars song," says Leto. "That was really
exciting and a really creative experience." Leto now has his sights set
on another hip-hop giant. "I'd love to do something with Eminem. That
would be pretty mind-blowing," Leto says. Also on his wish list of
collaborators: Björk, the Cure's Robert Smith and Sigur Rós, among
others. "There are a lot of artists that I really admire out there."
Leto's attention is focused squarely on the studio this year. So much
so, the band turned down an offer to play the prestigious Hyde Park in
London, where Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon and Soundgarden are all
headlining this year. But after playing 311 shows in support of This Is War – a sum that earned the band a nod in the Guinness Book of World Records
for the longest consecutive rock tour – Thirty Seconds to Mars are
taking a deserved respite from the road. The short-term break is what
first led to speculation over a permanent split.
"We really didn't know what the future was, and rather than make it
up, we didn't want to commit to anything," Leto explains. "We knew we
were gonna have a significant break. We're not gonna do any touring the
entire year of 2012."
They won't be completely hidden away, however. The band is
live-streaming a show from their recording studio on April 27th via
VyRT.net, Leto's new website. They'll play some familiar songs acoustic
and preview the new material as well as answer fan questions. "What we
do is, we sell individual digital tickets to live events and broadcast
them online in a social theater," Leto explains. "I really started it
because there was a very special show that we had towards the end of our
two-and-a-half year tour. We wanted to broadcast the show in a really
high-quality social way, but when we started to look around, there
wasn't really a company out there that we could use to share this event.
So I started the company.
While VyRT is treading carefully in the early stages, Leto has had
conversations with several other artists about using the technology, and
he envisions a big expansion down the road. "We're actually saying to
artists, 'You can be in control. You can plan and develop a show
yourself, and it can be traditional or non-traditional,'" says Leto.
"Essentially this is a platform for anything and everything live that
people want to share in a social theater."
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS GREAT NEWS? I can't F*ING wait! It is going to be awesome.
