Jared Leto on 'emotional time travel' of singing Thirty Seconds to Mars hits on new tour
Leto said the band is bringing "a new energy and passion" to nostalgic songs.
For Jared Leto, touring the world with his brother Shannon in their band Thirty Seconds to Mars is "one of the great gifts of a lifetime."
The Academy Award-winning actor and frontman spoke to "Good Morning America" from Poland -- which he said he's dubbed "Pierogi Central" -- ahead of the band's first stop on the European leg of its Seasons World Tour and discussed life on the road, his take on nostalgia and the art of the music video.
Though the tour is in support of the band's latest album, "It's the End of the World but It's a Beautiful Day," released in September, Leto said he's looking forward to performing some of their older hits.
"A funny thing happens sometimes when you kind of walk down a different path and you come back to your roots," he said. "We're playing a lot of old songs on the tour and it's almost like they're brand new songs."
Leto said songs like "Attack," "The Kill," "From Yesterday" and the titular track off the band's 2005 album "A Beautiful Lie" are making a comeback alongside new songs like "Stuck" and "Seasons."
"There's an energy around it. You kind of interpret the song differently," he explained of revisiting the classics. "We kind of exhausted them a bit so we needed to set them aside. But now we've come back with a new energy and passion and a new respect for the songs as well."
Leto told "GMA" that leaning into the nostalgic aspect of Thirty Seconds to Mars, which the brothers formed in 1998, is something he views as a "beautiful thing."
"I love nostalgia. Music is a chance to almost time travel in a way. It's like emotional time travel," he said. "I think music's really powerful in that way. It transports us."
The art of the music video
A recent post on the band's social media marked the 18th anniversary of the music video for "The Kill," their biggest hit to date. Leto described the music video as an "homage to 'The Shining'" and a something that changed his and his brother's lives forever.
The forthcoming "Tron: Ares" star said music videos are "kind of a dying art" but represent "one of the few places that you can really do whatever the hell you want to do."
"It's also a chance to kind of either interpret the song or reinterpret the song or change the way that people might think about a certain song," he explained. "For me, the identities of the songs are so tied to the videos of the song."
Leto said each music video brings back a specific memory. For "A Beautiful Lie" it's the Arctic, while "From Yesterday" is all about China. Of "Stuck," the lead single off their latest album, Leto spoke of shooting the music video in France as "kind of my love letter to Paris and these photographers that influenced me so much."
Time to reintroduce themselves
Leto announced Thirty Seconds to Mars' Seasons World Tour in November in an unexpected way: climbing New York City's famous Empire State Building.
Reflecting on the headline-making feat, the rocker said it was his way of "put[ting] a little showmanship into something that would normally be a press release."
"It's like, why can't we dream a little bit bigger?" he added.
Following their dates in Europe, Thirty Seconds to Mars will head back home to the United States later this summer -- the first time they've toured in the U.S. in six years.
The band's Seasons World Tour is part of Live Nation's Concert Week program, which runs through May 14 and gives fans access to $25 tickets to over 5,000 shows from hundreds of artists, happening all year long. Tickets for select shows are available while supplies last.
"It's been a long time and we're excited to kind of get back out there and, you know, reintroduce ourselves," Leto said. "We're still here."
"It's incredible to be able to do this -- and especially share it with my brother Shannon for this long and to tour the world," he added. "We feel super, super, super lucky. So grateful to be able to do this."
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