Interview with members of band 30 Seconds to Mars

We interviewed band members Jared Leto, Tomo Milicevic and Shannon Leto - 30 Seconds to Mars - backstage before a concert at the Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan.

Is there any song that you guys love as a collected group? Or individual?

Tomo: We have a lot of fun playing our song, "This is War Live," from the new record, "Night of the Hunter," and the song "Closer to the Edge." These songs generate quite a lot of energy in the audience.

Shannon: And it's also kind of new for us. This is something that we have never really done before, so it's exciting to play. Especially with the interaction with the crowd. We had a bunch of people sing and chant and stomp and clap on the album. And that's throughout the CD. And people come to the shows already knowing that participation and interaction is pretty overwhelming. And for "Kings and Queens," we have people come up and sing with us. It's a big, giant party. It's fun.

Do you guys, not all three of you are brothers, but two of you are. Do you enjoy being in the same band?

Shannon: Yeah, it's amazing being with my brother. A lot of our creative influence comes from the same place, so we have similar tastes and similar direction we want to go in. It's great.

How did you come to love music and writing songs?

Shannon: We were surrounded by instruments growing up, and music. And my mom took us to a bunch of festivals. So she kind of incorporated us in an early age, and it was just a natural progression from there.

Tomo: That's pretty much the case for all of us.

Shannon: We're brothers from a different mother.

This is for Jared. Was it difficult turning down roles in films and TV?

Jared: No. I have commitments to the band, so it was the right thing to do at the right time.

Do you have stage fright?

Shannon: I think it was more for us excitement and just being like totally excited to be onstage and share what we created for everybody. Your nerves get kind of tangled up with that.

How did you band get started?

Shannon: Just Jared and I playing instruments in the bedroom, and we didn't really know why we were doing it. We were just compelled to do it. We were just doing it and decided to share the experience with people, and we wanted to make - record what was going on. So we recorded it by ourselves, on a CD at this guy's studio, and then we wanted to share this experience with people. So we started playing out, and then we were, "Let's try and get a record deal." And that took awhile, and then we got a record deal and here we are.

Has fame taken a toll in your lives in any way?

Shannon: We don't really think of that word often or ever. I think the toll, what you're asking is, it takes more work, the farther along you go on this path and making music. It takes a lot of upkeep, maintenance, a lot of thinking outside of the box and trying to convince other people about the thoughts outside the box and making it work. You try to reinvent yourself all the time, so that takes a lot of work as well. We lean on each other for that, and Jared is the forefront of that.