 Thirty Seconds to Mars retreated to the isolation of Wyoming 's countryside in 2001 to record the album , tentatively titled Welcome to the Universe . The band and Ezrin chose an empty warehouse lot on 15 @,@ 000 acres , starting an intense period of preproduction focused on fifty songs . The isolation allowed the band to work at a different pace . Jared Leto said that while recording in Wyoming , " there was an interesting dichotomy , a kind of contradiction with the technology and the organic world that we were surrounded [ ... ] It 's something that I think ended up in the music " . Ezrin helped the band to understand the importance of an album 's structure and how to create a progression , rather than a simple series of singles . " We really wanted to create something that had depth , " Leto explained . He described the process of working with Ezrin as tumultuous but also fulfilling , having its own dynamics . He also stated that Virtue was a key element in helping the band define their sound . 
