I've posted about my son Jamie's experience recording and beginning the European tour with 30 Seconds to Mars, but I thought a chronicle of the adventure (as far as I can track him down!) might be fun, since you guys encouraged me to keep posting the info. And here's my disclaimer: Jamie doesn't tell me much detail, I find out most of this stuff on the web, twitter, instagram, etc. I did ask him if it'd be ok to post things here, and he said, "If it's on the web, it's fair game."
This is fun for me. I'm obviously proud of him, but I'm also interested in what a big time band tour is really like from the band's and crew's perspective. I thought you might be, too.
I'm going to ask him to post a thread here when he returns, but I did want to share this - actually, I think it's amazing and an insider's view of a world tour with a platinum band is something we don't get to see very much!
One thing that's interesting is that 30 STM's hard-core fan base knows who Jamie is, from seeing him on various broadcasts, unplugged shows playing with the band, flash mobs, and pics the band posts of its studio work and progress. So when there's a show, he gets asked by fans for autographs along with the band. He didn't tell me this, my daughters went to a show in Chicago, and they told me.
They also said that the guys in the band are really genuine guys, who showed a lot of enthusiasm and clearly appreciated his work on the record.
The basic facts are these: Jamie was the recording engineer for the new record called Love, Lust, Faith & Dreams that was released on May 21, 2 1/2 weeks ago. It was co-produced by one of the world's legendary producers, Steve Lillywhite, whose discography is just beyond incredible. The band works very, very hard. And Jamie loves this project. He started working with the band on their last album "This Is War," as an assistant engineer with the producer Flood. Jamie also got to be part of the background vocal group, and was involved in synth work, etc.
They asked him to go along on this tour because there are a lot of broadcast mixes for shows and festivals in Europe that he does (as opposed to Front of House mixes that they have a different engineer for - broadcast mixes of a live show are very different creatures). After they got going, they began to ask him to play the acoustic shows, which he's been doing on guitar and/or bass.
As I mentioned in the other thread, the minute the album was released, the band was on the road to promote it. No waiting around, they had the hard work and heavy lifting to do (it's probably a good thing they don't have day jobs, because this seems to be a 24/7 business).
I'll start with a few shots of some of the stuff that's been happening so far - please forgive me if they were also in the other thread, but I want to have this be more or less chronological.
The tour kicked off with "rehearsal" shows in the US - LA, NYC, Chicago, Philly. Limited audiences, small venues. Much to Jamie's surprise, the guys in the band asked him to join them onstage and play. This was completely unexpected, and shows you how much 30STM cares about the people they work with. The first time this happened was in NYC, and my niece was at the show, and sent me a link to a picture, but I wasn't able to download it. However, it was a lot like this one, taken at the Vyrt broadcast in LA:
There were also flashmob shows all over the cities they visited. Some were just Jared and Jamie playing acoustic guitars and singing. Here's one from NY:
These of course wound up on the internet, including videos with audio.
Jamie got to mix for the Jimmy Kimmel and Conan TV shows also!
Finally, on May 29, the band went to Northern Ireland for a festival, and headlined one of the nights for 150,000 people. This was broadcast, and Jamie got to mix. From there, the band traveled to London. If you wanted to know what it feels like to be in front of the paparazzi, just take a look at Jamie's expression - I know my son, and that look on his face (he's on the far right with the curly hair) is his WTF look:
They also did some flashmob shows in London's Soho district, and the crowds were pretty big. Understandable, as the record is #1 in the UK already (Jamie is playing acoustic next to Jared and Tomo in the center of the pic):
In London they also did a "Live at the BBC" in the same room where the Beatles, Zep, the Stones, and so many other classic bands did those famous shows. This is a pic sent by Jamie, who knew I'd want to see the room and some of the gear he got to work with (some of it is very old, and was literally part of those broadcasts; I got the feeling that he felt it was really exciting to work there):
This is fun for me. I'm obviously proud of him, but I'm also interested in what a big time band tour is really like from the band's and crew's perspective. I thought you might be, too.
I'm going to ask him to post a thread here when he returns, but I did want to share this - actually, I think it's amazing and an insider's view of a world tour with a platinum band is something we don't get to see very much!
One thing that's interesting is that 30 STM's hard-core fan base knows who Jamie is, from seeing him on various broadcasts, unplugged shows playing with the band, flash mobs, and pics the band posts of its studio work and progress. So when there's a show, he gets asked by fans for autographs along with the band. He didn't tell me this, my daughters went to a show in Chicago, and they told me.
They also said that the guys in the band are really genuine guys, who showed a lot of enthusiasm and clearly appreciated his work on the record.
The basic facts are these: Jamie was the recording engineer for the new record called Love, Lust, Faith & Dreams that was released on May 21, 2 1/2 weeks ago. It was co-produced by one of the world's legendary producers, Steve Lillywhite, whose discography is just beyond incredible. The band works very, very hard. And Jamie loves this project. He started working with the band on their last album "This Is War," as an assistant engineer with the producer Flood. Jamie also got to be part of the background vocal group, and was involved in synth work, etc.
They asked him to go along on this tour because there are a lot of broadcast mixes for shows and festivals in Europe that he does (as opposed to Front of House mixes that they have a different engineer for - broadcast mixes of a live show are very different creatures). After they got going, they began to ask him to play the acoustic shows, which he's been doing on guitar and/or bass.
As I mentioned in the other thread, the minute the album was released, the band was on the road to promote it. No waiting around, they had the hard work and heavy lifting to do (it's probably a good thing they don't have day jobs, because this seems to be a 24/7 business).
I'll start with a few shots of some of the stuff that's been happening so far - please forgive me if they were also in the other thread, but I want to have this be more or less chronological.
The tour kicked off with "rehearsal" shows in the US - LA, NYC, Chicago, Philly. Limited audiences, small venues. Much to Jamie's surprise, the guys in the band asked him to join them onstage and play. This was completely unexpected, and shows you how much 30STM cares about the people they work with. The first time this happened was in NYC, and my niece was at the show, and sent me a link to a picture, but I wasn't able to download it. However, it was a lot like this one, taken at the Vyrt broadcast in LA:
There were also flashmob shows all over the cities they visited. Some were just Jared and Jamie playing acoustic guitars and singing. Here's one from NY:
These of course wound up on the internet, including videos with audio.
Jamie got to mix for the Jimmy Kimmel and Conan TV shows also!
Finally, on May 29, the band went to Northern Ireland for a festival, and headlined one of the nights for 150,000 people. This was broadcast, and Jamie got to mix. From there, the band traveled to London. If you wanted to know what it feels like to be in front of the paparazzi, just take a look at Jamie's expression - I know my son, and that look on his face (he's on the far right with the curly hair) is his WTF look:
They also did some flashmob shows in London's Soho district, and the crowds were pretty big. Understandable, as the record is #1 in the UK already (Jamie is playing acoustic next to Jared and Tomo in the center of the pic):
In London they also did a "Live at the BBC" in the same room where the Beatles, Zep, the Stones, and so many other classic bands did those famous shows. This is a pic sent by Jamie, who knew I'd want to see the room and some of the gear he got to work with (some of it is very old, and was literally part of those broadcasts; I got the feeling that he felt it was really exciting to work there):
Last edited:
