On the ground of disagreement on touring issues, Kevin Drake and Solon Bixler have left the band, and Tomo Miliceviс violin, guitar, synthesizer joined the line-up. Initially the band was intended to be a family project, but things started to speed up quickly for the musicians and soon bass guitar and keyboard player Matt Wachter joined the band along with two guitarists, Kevin Drake and Solon Bixler. Work on the first album took quite a long time, in many ways because of Jared Leto's acting schedule, who at that time was involved in producing of such famous films as Fight Club, American Psycho and Requiem For A Dream. According to the musicians, from now on they are going to search for new ways to fully erase those boundaries to make music the way the fans want it to be. As critics said, the band have significantly grown up since their previous record. The intention was to try and break the barrier between the musicians and the fans. Having forgotten about the unsuccessful debut, the band started to work on the new disc, A Beautiful Lie, released in 2005.
. Originally the album was intended to be named Welcome to the Universe, but Jared decided to make it self-titled. The disc turned out to be more successful than its predecessor and later became platinum. Despite the growing popularity as an actor, Jared decided not to use his name to promote his music. As for the lyrics, new themes can be heard which were previously untouched by Leto — optimism and sexuality.
The album was produced by Josh Abraham who had previously worked with such acts as Orgy, Velvet Revolver and Linkin Park. Interesting is the fact that in the course of work the musicians conducted an experiment in order to give the fans a possibility to see the rehearsal process live and to participate in the recording. . . .
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