30 Seconds to Mars Go to 'War' With U2, Depeche Mode

While working on 30 Seconds to Mars' new album, frontman Jared Leto is fawning over a well-traveled instrument. "That has played on many records, I think 'Achtung Baby,' 'Violator,''" Leto tells Spinner, pointing excitedly to a Sys700 synthesizer, and "beast of a machine," in the corner of the Studio City, California home studio where he and his bandmates have been recording their third album, 'This Is War,' for the last year.

The synth comes courtesy of producer Flood (U2, Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode) and allows Leto to enjoy his musical past. "It's a phenomenal piece of machinery and there is something that is really nostalgic for me," he says. "You can hear the soundtrack to your life roll by when you play around with it."

Aside from the synth, Flood has brought a lot to the album -- due out October 20 -- after the band settled their $30 million lawsuit with Virgin Music. "He really encouraged us and helped us kind of realize our vision," Leto says. "He seems to have this karmic, uncanny ability to be with bands at pivotal creative moments in their careers, whether it's U2, Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode or PJ Harvey. Whoever it is, he has the ability to be with them, and I really thought we were at that point in our lives creatively. We were at a pivotal moment for us where we were at creatively, ready to make a step or leap."

And then of course there is that piece of rock history he brings with him, one Leto has become perhaps too enamored with. "I'm going to have to send him a very polite letter informing him he will never get his $5 billion synthesizer back. There are only a few in the world and I must claim ownership to one," Leto says joking. We think.