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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34 illinoisentertainer. com august 2017