Quotes

[on growing up with his brother, Jared Leto] We've experienced a lot growing up, moving around a lot, so we read a lot of books, watched a lot of movies, things like that. So we drew a lot from our life experiences. We don't sit around and think about what other people were doing. I don't even think my brother and I really went to concerts growing up! I didn't go to school for drumming or anything, we just had these instruments around when we were four or five years old, and we used them as toys! It all just sort of came full circle and made sense that this is where we ended up.

[on how he started his own business] It started out of my love for coffee, which goes back to my childhood watching my grandfather prepare chicory coffee in Louisiana. So I decided to start Black Fuel Trading Co. to be able to share my love of coffee with the world by coming up with my own proprietary blends, each of which have a special meaning to me. But I didn't want to just stop at coffee; I want to share my vision for apparel, accessories, style and beyond, so I'm developing a full lifestyle brand and will offer other like-brands in addition to Black Fuel Trading Co. products.

[on his relationship with Thirty Seconds to Mars fans] It's a real natural thing for us. We make an effort to do all that we can do. I remember when we were doing our first shows, we were always interested in how the audience was participating, and most importantly took those responses into consideration and respected it. Then we just built our performance and interaction from there. It became much more of a back-and-forth conversation, so now we have our own family out there. It's pretty awesome.

[on performing emotional songs with Thirty Seconds to Mars] With "Alibi," we wanted to create something that we never had done before. So we put a mic in the middle of the room with Jared on the piano, Tomo on guitar and me on the drums, and then pressed record. This is a very raw, intimate stripped-down song. This song is very precious to us and evokes an emotion unlike any of our other songs.

We were very poor. My mom worked two jobs, leaving us kids alone. What we've been through as children not everybody goes through. Sadly some do, it was hard. This is a totally different life than we imagined and we are so grateful.

[on the song "City of Angels"] It's one of our oldest songs; it took a long, long time to make. You know Jared is the primary song writer, he'll bring the bones to us and then we will work on it, we'll massage it and try to make sense of it.

The fans - the Echelon - send in their pictures and they've been wrapped around my kit, as a kind of a thank you. The Echelon's commitment, loyalty, creativity and ability to express who they really are, consistently inspires me.

The only thing I took seriously in my life was music. Before Thirty Seconds to Mars, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I was doing construction. I was breaking the law. Jared often jokes about kids from the wrong side of the tracks, and I was definitely one of those kids. I reached a point in my life where I needed some sort of change and music was the only thing that made sense. That's when it got serious. That's when it was like, 'oh okay, you need to follow this path.'

Instruments were always around when I was really, really young, guitars, piano and bongos. For some reason I gravitated to the bongos and kitchen supplies like pots and pans. There was just something very familiar when I played percussion, it just made sense you know, the groove, the rhythm, it's very tribal for me.

I think your past shapes you, your past can either hold you hostage or it can set you free. But either way you are going to learn from it; it's part of your make-up, what you decide to do with all that information is up to you. You have to do everything you can possibly do and a little more. You have to work hard, you can't just think about it or talk about it with friends; you have to do it and be willing to sacrifice a lot.

Working with Flood was an awesome experience. He is a true genius, a mad scientist of sorts! The album wouldn't sound like it does if he wasn't a part of it. He's worked with bands like Nine Inch Nails, PJ Harvey, Depeche Mode and U2 just to name a few!

[on the band's fan base, The Echelon] They are Thirty Seconds to Mars, we are the Echelon, that's our secret, we are one, that's what makes us. This is a shared experience. We are not selfish with our art, it's about a community, about family and that's the way it's always been and will be.

[on playing music with his brother] Just the energy of us playing together... that was exciting. I just want to play. And play, play, play.