I'm having a second Maroon 5 moment
here. When they played at the Festival Imperial in Costa Rica a little more
than two years ago, I had to hear way too often "It's because of Adam
Levine, right? It's because he's hot." I had the energy then to explain that
I've liked the music back then. I might not be a connoisseur of “good”
music, but I live the music that I like with intensity. Back then, the songs
about break ups, infatuation, sexual games, and suffering for that other person
made a lot of sense. But I like guys so I automatically fall into the category
of fan girls with posters in their room and half-learned lyrics. Eh, no. I sang
every song and that was it. Pure appreciation of art.
This week, it's
Thirty Seconds to Mars. The band, not Jared and his undeniable impressive
physical presence. Very objectively, I can see why people would assume it is
about the guy. It's about the music, though. I genuinely like 30 Seconds to
Mars to the point that I'm willing to give some background on the band's
musical influence in my life and some Thirty Seconds to Mars for Dummies along
the way.
The world
knew Jared Leto for his acting, more notably Requiem for a Dream. He announced
that he was going to make a band; that music had always been a bigger dream
that acting and that he had used acting as a platform for a bigger project. The
skeptics that surface were many as so very often the Hollywood dreams are delusional.
It turns out Jared had already been working on his music while acting, and in
2002, 30 Seconds to Mars was being presented to the world with a homologous
album. That one didn't steer the music business. Jared, Shannon, Tomo, and a
fourth one no one remembers would have to wait until their next album to draw
some attention.
I feel 30 Seconds
to Mars was a little too similar to other pseudo-emo rock bands back in 2004.
The first market was the kids listening to somewhat dark, fast paced variety of
rock with deeply angsty lyrics. When From
Yesterday, the single from the album A Beautiful Lie, became
widely known, My Chemical Romance had best represented the Emo movement with
I'm Not Ok. Thirty Seconds to Mars was another in the list of these bands of
deeply emotional songs with aggressive sounds. By that time we were all like
"so Jared Leto can actually sing," and while us the dificult were
trying to see the reason for his hairstyle and his obsesion with black, pink,
and teal, the music was catching. My friend Javier and I would listen to their
singles from A Beautiful Lie and enjoy them nodding and chanting. I sensed a
certain undertone in the band's music that got me wondering what they would do
next. They were not singing only "feel like crap and purge."
Somewhere in those lyrics, they were saying we're deeply rebelious. What's not
to like about that.
It is 2010 that
changes everything, both for the band and for my admiration for them. With
their third album released in December 2009 called This is War, they
consolidated their position in the music industry. The album came not only
selling big but with really good reviews from the critics. Billboard favored it
particularly for coherence, balance, and the great production that was even
conceptual (an album with war in the title had an "army" of people
singing the most powerful lines of the songs or making remarkable extra vocals
and the percussion resembled war drums.) I remember delaying listening to the
whole album because there were more important things going on in my life (from
my perspective, of course) and it wasn't until I settled in London that I gave
the album an ear. By that time, the band was already huge and it was only me
having a late discovery of their success.
This is War is
what ultimately bought me as a member of the Echelon (their fan base.) If I had
to rescue two albums from that time, one would be Hands All Over by Maroon 5;
the other would be This is War. The song This is War particularly fit my
reality in London. I was having a lot of fun in the nights and days off
alright, but getting up every morning to go to work in the middle of the first
winter of my life felt like war. Sticking to a volunteer's work that wasn't
very dignifying and being half accepted in London as not an immigrant felt like
war. I was broken more times than I'd like to accept, but picturing the whole
time as many campaigns I needed to survive was what ultimately helped me
keeping myself together. This time around, the brainwash was extremely
positive. Then Kings of Queens was that mood lifting song when I was sitting on
the second floor of the bus from Wimbledon to Brixton, feeling blue and lonely
and demoralized to a certain extent because my only other human contact that
day were this couple of Indians who looked at me as if I was shit. I needed to
remember I was a king back home (or just me, outside the working context) where
family and friends knew me. The song brought back that feeling of self-worth.
Then Hurricane confronted me with my many moral dilemmas. More often than any
other time after adolescence, I was harboring dark thoughts at that time,
partly influenced by the poorly lit space of my room in Brixton as the sky went
from gray to black in a seemingly everlasting loop. "Would you kill to
prove you're right" may be too strong for describing what I felt, but I
was questioning myself for seeing this guy in a wheelchair and still feel no
sympathy, more like extreme contempt. How can you hate on a disabled person and
not come out as a disgrace of a human being? In a twisted way, I accepted
through Hurricane that the health condition of this person I hated had nothing
to do with who I was; some people's worst disability is their lack of empathy,
and this guy scored big time on the scale of complete indifference to others
(and I didn't have to kill to prove I was right on that one.) Closer to the
Edge is just madness and a genuine rush! This is War is one of my favorite
albums of all time, and it only feels wrong that I'm being questioned for it.
It was a manifesto that I needed to come out alive and victor of the socially
and culturally violent times I was living.
By the time 30
Seconds to Mars released their latest album Love, Lust, Faith+ Dreams, the band
needed no introduction. People, at least in the West, knew Jared Leto had a
band and that he was a consolidated performer. Professionally, he had earned
every credit as a performer and as an actor at this point. His band's new album
was bringing back some elements from This is War (Conquistador follows the idea
of an ideological war, just that the singer and the fan base are no longer
simple warriors in this war, they have become conquerors.) Up in the Air
delights my senses, and that's the only explanation I can give for my devotion
to the song. I feel Jared took a risk making too many references to his personal
struggle for making dreams come true in City of Angels, but he ultimately
managed to translate his own experiences into universal and relatable feelings.
This album feels more like a compound anthem for the achievement of the long
desired wishes. He tells his fan base "I've made it and so will you if you
keep on fighting for your dreams." Do or Die comes across as a challenge:
the time is now so take chances. I like this positive vibe evolving from the
original super angsty band. What makes the band consistent is that they have
not disconnected from their original dark charm that can give you highs and
just as easily sink you deep in the darkest of thoughts. Somehow, their music
focuses more now on energy of creation than destruction. For a dramatic effect,
this is the album I was listening to the time I went to Turkey in 2013 and the
riots were on. It evoked so many intense feelings on the dreams of humanity and
the will of people to fight for what they believe is right.
It's all about the
music, and Jared can go shirtless as many times as he wants, that I won't give
a damn (well, maybe but not for too long.) The screaming fans will be there,
sure, and I'll end up hating half of the Costa Rican Echelon by time the
concert ends (some people were there when I swore death and antrax
letters to the Costa Rican head fan base of Evanescence,) but I will enjoy this
day as I have felt 30 Seconds to Mars' music for far too long. I will rest my
case, until the next time I find myself enjoying the music of a ridiculously
good-looking lead singer, that is.
