30 Seconds to Mars was created in 1998 by Jared Leto and his brother, Shannon, and it really just started as a small family project. Things began to speed up quickly, however, and Matt Wachter later joined the band as bassist and keyboard player. After a small revolving door of guitarists (as the band's first two guitarists, Kevin Drake and Solon Bixler, left the band due to issues primarily related to touring), the three auditioned Tomo Milicevic to finalize the band's roster.



According to an interview from Virgin Records, the band's name "actually comes from a thesis that [the band] found online [that] was written by a former Harvard professor. And one of the subsections of the thesis was titled 'thirty seconds to mars' and he goes on to talk about the expediential growth of technology that relates to humans and saying that we are quite literally thirty seconds to mars. What it means to us is, we thought it best described our music, in short."

Although Jared Leto is a Hollywood actor, he originally preferred not to use this information to promote the band; in fact, the band used to refuse to play at venues that used his fame to promote shows.

30 Seconds to Mars' first, self-titled album, produced by Bob Ezrin, was released in 2002 to mixed reviews and achieved sales of just over 100,000.

The band's second album, A Beautiful Lie, was released on August 30, 2005. For this effort, the band traveled (during the course of three years) to four different continents, including five different countries, to perfect their sound and also to allow for Jared's film career. The album was produced by Josh Abraham, whose producing credits also include Orgy, Velvet Revolver, and Linkin Park .

Because A Beautiful Lie was leaked five months before its release, the band decided to include two bonus tracks: "Battle of One" (an original song that was also set to be the album's title track when it was first announced) and "Hunter" (a cover of the Bj'rk song of the same name). To further promote the album, the band also enclosed "golden tickets" in 12 copies, which grant their owners access to any 30 Seconds to Mars concert free of charge, along with backstage access.

On August 31, 2006 the band won the MTV2 Award for "The Kill" at the MTV Video Music Awards, one of their two nominations. The second nomination was for best rock video; however, they lost to AFI's "Miss Murder." The music video is loosely based on the film The Shining. A Beautiful Lie was certified platinum by the RIAA in January for distribution of over 1,000,000 albums.

In October, the band began the "Welcome to the Universe" tour, sponsored by MTV2. 30 Seconds to Mars were supported on this tour by Head Automatica, The Receiving End of Sirens, Cobra Starship, and several other bands including The Street Drum Corps. On November 20, MTV2 premiered the video for "From Yesterday"; the video is the first American rock video ever shot in its entirety in the People's Republic of China .

As of Spring 2007, the band is supporting The Used as a part of the Taste of Chaos tour and have scheduled a string of dates in Europe supporting Linkin Park .

30 Seconds to Mars are also scheduled to play Roskilde, Rock am Ring, Pinkpop, and Download festivals; on April 29 they will perform at the AVMAs for which they have been nominated for three, and will then begin working on their third album.

On March 1, 2007, bassist Matt Wachter announced his departure from the band live on stage during the band's El Paso , Texas Taste of Chaos set. This was confirmed the following day with a statement on the band's website. He has since been replaced by Tim Kelleher (not the actor), who has been seen playing at the band's concerts. It is unknown if this is a temporary or permanent change.

On May 2, 2007, the band has announced that "A Beautiful Lie" had won and would be the next single.

On July 21, 2007, it was announced that 30 Seconds To Mars had won second place in the Jabra Music Best Band in the World contest, based on votings around the world. 30 Seconds To Mars will be going on a concert tour soon. It is suggested that you buy your 30 Seconds To Mars concert tickets from a ticket broker to get great concert seats.