BIG IN JAPAN
G
uitarist Marty Friedman took shredding to a new level when he joined Megadeth for its seminal 1990 album Rust in Peace . Now a household musical figure in his adoptive country of Japan , Friedman has adapted well . His guitar playing is better than ever , too . On his 13th solo album Wall Of Sound , the guitarist shows off his technical and melodic skills . He ’ ll be showing those same skills on August 10 when he returns to Reggies .
Calling from Japan , Friedman was excited to talk about his current music instead of the past — so the ground rules were laid out : questions would be free of Megadeth , Cacophony or Hawaii . Too bad , but we understand .
Marty Friedman
By Kelley Simms
Mosh : What is it about the Japanese culture that made you want to move to there ? Marty Friedman : [ It ’ s ] more than the culture . It was really the music that made me do such a crazy thing like that . I would come here a couple of times a year on tour and I realized that they really listen to different music here than what you ’ d expect that they ’ re listening to . It ’ s all Japanese music . Before I moved here I thought that like every other country in the world they listen to a big mix of American music and European music and music of its own country . But the more I played over here , I realized that it ’ s about 80 to 90 percent Japanese music . And I found myself getting attracted to that music so much to the point where I was listening to that a hundred percent of the time , and it came to the point where I just wanted to play in that musical atmosphere .
Mosh : Did you speak Japanese before you moved there ? Marty Friedman : I spoke Japanese long before I moved here . I ’ d been studying pretty much as a hobby for several years before even moving here . Actually , when I did move here I was pretty fluent , but I had no idea if I had what it takes to actually live in the country . I ’ d come on tour but when you ’ re on tour you got a staff , you ’ ve got the record company , you ’ ve got your crew and you ’ ve got all sorts of local people helping you out with every single thing you do . But when you live here , you ’ re pretty much on your own . So I just wanted to see if I had the ability to do so in the first place , and when I moved over here , I figured out that it wasn ’ t nearly as unusual as I thought it was going to be and it turned out to be the best thing ever .
Mosh : How did you eventually adapt to a Japanese lifestyle ? Marty Friedman : The best thing that happened at the beginning was I got into a band with a singer who I was a big fan of and that really helped things along . I lived here maybe four months or so just networking . I wanted to be domestic . Culturally , it ’ s completely different from what you and I know as growing up in America . But I guess after touring a lot , being assimilated into another culture is not all that weird . Plus , when I was a little kid I lived in Germany for a couple of years . So being surrounded by people who are different in their backgrounds is not too alien to me .
Mosh : What were you trying to achieve
with Wall of Sound ? Marty Friedman : Just trying to do something deeper and better than the last record is really the only goal I have . It was encouraging to do a tour for my last record Inferno and see the fans ’ response to that and I could see that they really came to see me play a lot of aggressive stuff . And that ’ s what I gave them , and they showed their appreciation for that . So that definitely influenced my direction on Wall of Sound , to make it an aggressive warfare of music , an orgy of guitar so to speak . Being away from America for a long time , it ’ s hard to gauge what the people who are supporting me want to hear . So doing that tour sort of helped me see what they responded to and I want to give them what they want .
Mosh : The songs on the album are really appealing , as if the verses that would normally call for vocals are played so melodically well that it ’ s as if your guitar leads are singing . Was that your intention ? Marty Friedman : You ’ re awesome , Kelley ! That ’ s exactly what I want to hear . That ’ s exactly what my subliminal intent is when writing music in the first place . You nailed it ! If that ’ s coming across to you then I feel like I ’ ve done my job and what I want to do . So I ’ m super glad to hear that .
Mosh : The track “ For A Friend ” gives me that feeling . Marty Friedman : On that particular track , the reason it ’ s titled that way is because I wanted to tap into an emotion that ’ s a little bit deeper than what most people say they ’ re trying to tap into . Everybody says , ‘ I want people to feel sad or happy or lonely .’ That ’ s all good and I ’ ve used those clichés myself as well . But I challenged myself to capture a specific feeling . And the reason
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