30 Seconds to Mars are not scared to dream big and shoot for the stars. Whether that means putting those stars in their music video, or reaching them in space rockets, the band certainly aren’t afraid to do things their own way. Their always extravagant music videos went one step further last year when they recruited some of Hollywood’s most controversial stars – Kanye West and Lindsay Lohan to name a couple – for their ‘City of Angels’ clip. And if that wasn’t enough, they literally launched their single ‘Up in the Air’ by putting it into a rocket. But lead guitarist Tomo Miličević insists they aren’t always attempting to outdo themselves.
“I think just in general that we, as a group of creative people, are trying to always have an interesting adventure with whatever we are doing – even if it’s something like releasing your single and doing it by way of NASA into outer space,” laughs Miličević.
The band will be bringing their extravagant ways to Australia next month, with Miličević thankful for all of their Aussie fans’ understanding and support after their 2013 tour had to be postponed.
“We are very thankful that people were so cool about the postponing of the tour and being really supportive about the whole thing,” says Miličević. “You want to make sure people are happy, and rescheduling a tour like that is difficult, but we knew we were going to do the tour no matter what.”
These arena shows will be the biggest the band has every played in Australia, with Miličević summing up what audiences can expect by saying: “people can expect total insanity”.
“We feel like it’s our job to give people a place where they can come and let loose for a few hours and kind of forget about whatever they have going on that’s less than satisfactory, and for all of us together to just let go of that bullshit for a little while and have a great time together.”
With four albums now under their belts, the band have an array of songs from which to choose, but Miličević can only give us a vague idea of what their Aussie setlist might look like, as he himself doesn’t usually know what songs will be played until seconds before the band take the stage.
“Honestly – I’m not even exaggerating – it’s not something that gets discussed until the moment we walk on the stage,” says Miličević. “Almost on a nightly basis we make big setlist changes right before we walk on stage, and we probably don’t stick to that anyway. We try to do our best to make sure there is a good spread of all the albums at least in some form of another. We try to please everybody, but definitely we are focusing on Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams – and this tour you are going to hear almost every song of that album.”
Despite their rocket-ships and celebrity friends the boys are still very humble, displayed through Miličević words of flattery, saying: “My experiences of Australia have been incredible. I’ve been privileged enough to see it in a very cool way – by way of the stage. You guys are very lucky. You live in one of the most beautiful places on earth and we are very grateful that you’ve so humbly invited us to come and visit with you guys.”
When&Where: Hisense Arena – March 28
Written by Zach Boradhurst