Marty Friedman, who was in MEGADETH from 1990 to 2000 and played guitar on the albums “Rust In Peace”, “Countdown To Extinction”, “Youthanasia”, “Hidden Treasures”, “Cryptic Writings” and “Risk”, was asked in a new interview with Brazil’s Gustavo Maiato if there is a clear difference between the music which was created during his MEGADETH era and that which came before him and after him. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Oh, definitely. In my opinion, completely. MEGADETH was a great band before I joined and they were a great band after I left. But my era in MEGADETH has its own particular sound and a particular look, and I think it’s very different from all of the other eras. And, yeah, it was very cool.”
Friedman was also asked about the creation of MEGADETH‘s most streamed song on Spotify, “Symphony Of Destruction”, which was released as a single from the band’s fifth studio album, “Countdown To Extinction” (1992). He said: “I wrote a lot about this in my autobiography. I have a autobiography called ‘Dreaming Japanese’, and I wrote in great detail about the writing process in MEGADETH. And an important thing that I wrote in the book was the fact that no matter whose name was on the song, whose credit, all four bandmembers worked exactly the same amount of time on that writing. They all worked the same amount of time songwriting, starting the song from zero and completing it.”
He continued: “And so if I remember, ‘Symphony Of Destruction’ was on the second album that I did with the band, and at that time I was more comfortable in the band because I’d been in the band for almost two years. And it was maybe our first pop song. It was like a pop song, if you could say that. And I was glad because you’ve gotta have pop songs if you wanna reach massive amounts of people. And I think we did it without losing our heavy metal fans, you know what I mean? You can make a pop song, but if you lose your core audience, it’s not something that we wanted to do.”
Friedman‘s latest solo album, “Drama”, came out in May 2024 via Frontiers Music Srl.
Marty‘s presence in the world of music, the world of guitar and Japanese pop culture is mystifying, bizarre, and nothing short of inspiring. His first major impact in music was in the game-changing guitar duo CACOPHONY, which he founded with equally enigmatic and now-legendary guitarist Jason Becker. He then spent 10 years as lead guitarist in the genre-defining thrash metal act MEGADETH before moving to Tokyo due to his love for Japanese music, language, and culture.
Following his move, he landed a starring role for a new TV comedy “Hebimeta-san” (“Mr. Heavy Metal”) and its spinoff, “Rock Fujiyama”, which ran for six seasons and propelled him into the living rooms of Japan’s mainstream. He has since appeared in over 800 TV shows, movies and commercials, including a two-year campaign with Coca-Cola for Fanta, authored two best-selling novels and was the first-ever foreigner to be appointed as an ambassador of Japan heritage and perform at the opening ceremony for the Tokyo Marathon.
At the same time, Marty has continued his career in music with several solo albums in addition to writing and performing with the top artists in Japanese music, racking up countless chart hits, including a No. 1 with SMAP, two No. 2 songs with MOMOIRO CLOVER, a No. 2 with SOUND HORIZON — just to name a few.
Friedman‘s autobiography, “Dreaming Japanese”, arrived on December 3, 2024 via Permuted Press.
Marty recently completed the “Live Drama 2025” U.S. tour.
Source: blabbermouth.net
