[Echelon]

Hey guys this article was in kerrang magazine and i had to put it up! sadly my scanner isn't working so i wrote up the interview but i can't get the picture up. i'm sure someone else will later lol. anyway cant wait for the new album. hopefully it will be out in 'late spring' as jared said!!! ENJOY!

 

What are the chances of you telling us the title of the new album?

(Jared Leto) "Probably not very good! i do have a working title for the album but I'm not keen to let you know what it is. what happened before was that i had a working title for A Beautiful Lie, which i let become public; people got rather attached to it and then when it got changed they were a bit upset. so i'll keep the working title to myself for now, if you don't mind".

When is the album due?

"i think in some people's minds its long past due. but we really take the approach and really remind each other, often, that it's done when it's done. There are days that we are really keen to get the thing finished so that we can get out on the road once again. But then there are other days when we really get involved with the whole process. Yesterday for example, I spent the whole day listening to one guitar track on one song. I can get a bit...a bit...er...

A bit Axl Rose?

"No, No, No, not at all! I just get very specific and compulsive about the things i'm doing in the studio.

I'm going to ask the question again, only this time i want you to imagine that i'm armed. When is the album due?

"I would be excited to have the record ready to share with people by the late spring, so let's go with that.

Do you have any song titles or other specific details you can share?

"There are a couple of songs that have become important to us. One of those songs is called 'Kings and Queens'; another is called Panacea. But when you start thinking about a record or talking about a record before it's finished, it's a bit like tasting all the individual ingredients of a recipie that you plan on cooking. You won't know how it will taste until it's ready, so what's the point of tasting it before it all comes together?"

You have an audience that are quite possessive of you. Do you feel any responsiblity to them or pressure from them when it comes to making a new album?

"All i think is that there is a part of me that does want this community that has grown up around the idea of 30 seconds to mars to be excited and to be happy with the work that we've done...But i also think that it can be dangerous in an artistic sense to get too caught up in what you believe your audience might want from your music. And anyways, for me, it's always myself that i have the hardest time pleasing, so once i've got the music to the point where it pleases me i can then only hope that it's good enough to please someone else who might later be listening."

Who will be getting a producer's credit on the album's sleevenotes?

"Wow, well this is quite important news for us because, we're all amazed that he agreed to do work for us, but the producer for this album is The Dark Lord himself, Sir Flood. For anyone who doesn't know, he has produced Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins, U2, Depeche Mode...so much good stuff. As a producer he makes each performer better; he makes you reach into yourself to find better answers and more creativity. And he does this just by being himself. He's helping us harness the album that we have inside our hearts and bring it out into the real world"

How has the work on the album been affected by you guys being defendants in a $30million (£20 million) lawsuit?

"we're in lawsuit limbo land rigt now, which is weird. It's weird to think that there's a $30million dollar lawsuit (with record label, Virgin) hanging over our heads, like we needed any more pressure now that we're finally making the follow up to A Beautiful Lie. There are some days when you don't think about it all and some days when it weighs heavily on your mind. But although the high rollers in the glass offices really want to nail us to the wall, none of them can stop us releasing a new album. So we just soldier on."

To our Friends and Fans,

Despite rumors to the contrary, 30 Seconds to Mars is NOT calling it quits. We are incredibly happy, healthy and very much together here, in Los Angeles, recording our new record. Besides this ridiculously overblown lawsuit (courtesy of Virgin/EMI), we are having one of the most inspiring, wonderful and exciting times that we've experienced to date. (More on that later...)

Beyond this distraction, we are so incredibly grateful to all of you around the world that have supported us so passionately. We would never consider stopping this just yet. These past few phenomenal years have been beyond imaginable and we owe every single bit of it to you. Thank you all for that!

So, as you may have heard we are being sued by our former record company for the ridiculously oversized, totally unrealistic and pretty silly (but slightly clever) sum of $30,000,000. Insane? Yea that's what we said too.

A little history...

We had been signed to our record contract for 9 years. Basically, under California law, where we live and signed our deal, one cannot be bound to a contract for more than 7 years. This is widely known by all the record companies and has been for years. In fact, so aware of it are they that they desperately try to make deals outside of California whenever possible. It is a law that protects people from lengthy, unfair, career-spanning contracts. This law also gave us the legal right to explore other possible opportunities.

Yes we have been sued by EMI. But NOT for failing to deliver music or for 'quitting'. We have been sued by the corporation quite simply because roughly 45 days ago we exercised our legal right to terminate our old, out of date contract, which, according to the law is null and void.

We terminated for a number of reasons, which we won't go into here (we'd rather not air any dirty laundry) but basically our representatives could not get EMI to agree to make a fair and reasonable deal.

A few things to note...

If you think the fact that we have sold in excess of 2 million records and have never been paid a penny is pretty unbelievable, well, so do we. And the fact that EMI informed us that not only aren't they going to pay us AT ALL but that we are still 1.4 million dollars in debt to them is even crazier. That the next record we make will be used to pay off that old supposed debt just makes you start wondering what is going on. Shouldn't a record company be able to turn a profit from selling that many records? Or, at the very least, break even? We think so.

That, and other issues, like the new regime at EMI firing most of the people we know and love, wanting to place advertisements on our website, EMI owning 100 percent of the masters of our record...forever, and basically having a revolving door of regimes at the company made it easy to not want to continue as is.

As the result of this takeover - and the firing of over 2000 employees - we have lost many of the people that were near and dear to us at Virgin/EMI and crucial to the success of 30 Seconds to Mars. A few of the great ones are still there, but it is hardly the same company we have known. After more than 5 regime changes in 9 years you'd think we would be used to the inconsistency, but the team that took the journey together for A Beautiful Lie was a very very special group of people and it's a huge loss that so many of them are gone. (Quick fact: There is not a single employee at Virgin Records who was working at the company when we signed.)

FYI Virgin/EMI was not required to make this lawsuit public or to list such an egregiously and stupendously large amount of mullah. In fact, they were not required to set any price even close to this. We did not want to take this public, but we felt it best to explain our point of view to you, our
friends and fans, in hope that you can better understand our point of view.

We would always do our best to avoid a fight, but sometimes it's important to stand up for what you believe in. We hope that by doing what's right we can help to change things for the better, for ourselves and possibly others.

P.S. We will always remain grateful to the people at Virgin/EMI who were so integral to our success. And we hope that, above all, we can find a resolution to this in as civil and kind a way as possible.

There are certainly more important things out there in the world to spend time and energy on.

To be continued...

Jared Leto
30 Seconds to Mars

Virgin Records sues Jared Leto's band for $30M

7 hours ago

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hardcore fans of 30 Seconds to Mars aren't the only ones who want more of the band's music. Virgin Records has sued the group for $30 million, saying it has failed to deliver.

Virgin Records sued the band and front man Jared Leto in Los Angeles on Friday, claiming they refused to deliver three albums as required by its contract.

The band's last album, "A Beautiful Lie," was released in 2005.

A publicist for Leto, an actor who starred in the film "Requiem for a Dream" and the TV show "My So-Called Life," did not return a message Friday.

According to the lawsuit, the band "repudiated" a 1999 contract in July.

Despite the absence of a new album, the band's hit "From Yesterday" was deemed one of 2007's Top 10 "Hot Modern Rock Songs" by Billboard magazine.

from associated press

 

In the breach of contract lawsuit, filed today in L.A. County Superior Court, Virgin Records alleges Shannon and Jared Leto violated their recording contract by not putting out the agreed number of albums. The suit says the Leto Bros. agreed in 1999 to cut five records for the label, but on July 4 of this year, they say the Leto boys quit -- three albums short. Virgin is suing for "in excess" of $30 million.

A rep for the band cries foul, telling us that even though the band has been signed for nine years and have sold more than two million records -- and lived through five regime changes at the label -- they still haven't been paid. Paging TLC!

from TMZ

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Label Done Waiting for Jared Leto's 30 Seconds
Today 5:15 PM PDT by Natalie Finn


Chris Weeks / Getty Images It's 30 Seconds to Mars. And about half that to file a lawsuit.

Jared Leto and his bandmate brother, Shannon, were sued Friday by Virgin Records America for failing to come through on a five-album deal the eyelinered duo and the now-defunct indie label, Immortal Records, inked with the plaintiff nine years ago.

While Leto used a couple of those years to appear in movies like Girl, Interrupted and American Psycho, his band eventually got the ball rolling with its 2002 self-titled debut.

The alt-rockers followed that up with 2005's A Beautiful Lie.

But since their sophomore effort, according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, 30 Seconds to Mars has remained three albums short of the promised land.

Virgin and parent company Capitol Music Group claim that the Letos opted out of their 1999 contract in July by citing a section of the California Labor Code which states that a contract cannot be enforced against an employee beyond seven years "from the commencement of service under it."

In order to invoke the loophole, employees involved in "the production of phonorecords" must also give written notice that it won't be providing its services in the future.

And 30 Seconds to Mars may very well have laid it all out in writing, but the labor code also states that, in such a case, an employer is entitled to recover damages for breach of contract, which is exactly what Virgin and Capitol are looking to do, to the tune of more than $30 million.

A rep for the band tells TMZ, however, that it's 30 Seconds to Mars that is getting the short end of the stick—the trio, which also includes Tomo Milicevic, has sold more than 2 million albums and has not been paid accordingly.

Meanwhile, though the guys haven't been putting out any new music lately, they sure are stretching their A Beautiful Lie success as far as it will go.

They issued a deluxe edition of the album in 2006 and rereleased it again last year with a different set of bonus material, hoping to capitalize on the good will picked up on a European club tour. A short-film music video for the album's title track premiered in January on the band's MySpace site as well.

Virgin Records sued 30 Seconds to Mars in excess of 30 million USD for violating their recording contract.

http://www.aolcdn.com/tmz_documents/0815_jared_leto_wm.pdf

http://www.tmz.com/2008/08/15/jared-leto-sued-for-not-making-crappy-music/

So the day began at 7am, waking up and putting on our band gear. Then I cut a whole in my bag, shoved my camera in and I sewed it up so that we could smuggle it in. It worked and by 9:30 we were in, right at the front by the rails. I did not move for the next 4 hours. So we waited and watched 3 local bands and the 30 show was absolutely amazing. Seeing them live was a lifelong dream of mine and meeting them was the icing on the cake.

They did a meet and greet after the show. I had envisioned it in my head for years, getting my wristband signed and thanking them for their music and I got to do it! When I presented the wristband Shannon gave an enthusiastic "Hello"; I think because no one else had one. "Really? 2002?" Then he shook my hand and told me it was good to meet me, I was just shocked that they would even shake my hand, I mean the wristband signing was amazing but it's not like I was going to ask for hugs or want my bra signed like the fangirls. So I was beyond ecstatic then Tomo pressed his hand against mine with such a friendly smile and then, after thanking them and telling them what a great show it was, Jared held out the wristband and waited for me to let him put it on my wrist. I was floored. I paused for a couple of seconds, just thinking "What? You want to put it on me?!" while he stood there. My lovely boyfriend took pics and got his ticket signed and the guys thanked him for his support. Shannon pointed to us and talked to the other guys when we were waiting in line which seemed like he recognised that we were big fans. The J man also pointed at us when we held up an old hoodie circa 2002, when asking if anyone had heard the first album which was pretty cool.

Sean's original pic which has already been stolen lol.

Muse were beyond great and Chris Cornell is an insane vocalist. I left the concert after Muse and gave my Golden Circle bangle to a Korn fan so he could get a better place, he was so happy and I was psyched too. I definately believe in Karma, it feels like this concert just fell into my lap, the odds of this amazing day happening seemed non-existent.

But I gotta be honest, I just feel so happy that I'm getting a bit disillusioned from my country, beautiful as it is, I've always wanted to live in the states or in London and for some reason this experience just fuelled my desire. I think it just made me realise how distant I am from where all the action is. I guess it's because when I was just chilling with my friends in the late afternoon sun when Good Charlotte were playing, just laying on Sean while Joel Madden talked about his baby and Brendan drinking a beer while Kelly and Christine laughed, I just felt so content and so connected. We're all so similar whether we live in LA or Africa, we're all just looking for happiness and at that moment, with my friends, it felt like I'd found it.