MARTY FRIEDMAN Is ‘About 75 Percent Done’ With His New Solo Album

In a brand new interview with Chris Akin Presents, former MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman confirmed that he’s engaged on a brand new LP of all-original materials. He stated (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I have been recording my upcoming album for nearly a yr now. And it is gonna be completed by the tip of the yr, and it is gonna come out within the spring of 2024. And boy, it is an formidable one. However, after all, I say that each time. However each time I’ve to prime the one which was earlier than it, so the duty retains getting increasingly more insane. And proper now I might say I am about 75 % executed with that.”

As for a number of the different tasks he’s at present concerned with, Marty stated: “I am enhancing my autobiography, which can come out additionally subsequent yr. And in addition, I simply did probably the most exhaustive educational video sequence for TrueFire — probably the most exhaustive one they’ve ever executed and probably the most exhaustive one I’ve ever executed by far. It is the deepest dive into simply the best way I see music, which apparently just isn’t the identical as how others see it. Not that it is higher or worse, nevertheless it’s simply utterly completely different. So for the primary time ever, together with any of my different educational issues, for the primary time ever, I’ve actually really labored exhausting on it and created this factor. And I did it on the finish of the tour, the U.S. tour that I did earlier this yr, and now it is nearly completed. [We’re] simply placing the final edits on and nearly executed with that. So, it is type of numerous post-production work at this level.”

Requested what challenges and motivates him to maintain pushing ahead along with his music, Marty stated: “I am probably not a lot into attempting one thing that I have not executed for the sake of attempting one thing I have not executed. I am attempting to impress me with one thing that I’ve by no means executed earlier than. It is not like I am gonna instantly get up someday and say, ‘Okay, I am gonna be a rapper’ or one thing. I do what I do and I’ve my musical imaginative and prescient and sound. I simply attempt to do deeper issues with it. I attempt to make extra advanced feelings, deeper feelings within the music, extra attention-grabbing, melodic twists and turns, extra adventurous issues, issues that I wasn’t deep sufficient to do final yr or two years in the past, or 5 years in the past, issues that I could not hear again then, issues that I can solely hear as a result of life has given me extra experiences since then, and, after all, extra musical experiences, and simply to consciously pay attention to stuff that I’ve already executed and never repeat it. It is a pure problem that I have been doing endlessly, and the toughest half is that clean sheet once I simply begin from zero. It is, like, ‘How am I going to prime that last item that I simply did? I labored my ass off. I am utterly executed. I’ve nothing left. I’ve obtained zero.’ And so that is the problem. However now that I am about 70, 80 % executed with this new report, I am fairly assured with it. And I actually am wanting ahead to letting everyone hear it.”

This previous April, Friedman advised Justin Hunt of The Entertainment Outlet he “recorded about half” of his upcoming album in the summertime of 2022. “I went over to Italy and I recorded about half of an album.”

Relating to what followers can count on from his upcoming LP, Marty stated: “I believe it is gonna please lots of people who favored my [1992] album ‘Scenes’, one among my earlier albums. It is type of in that vein, however rather more fashionable. And it is obtained all of the issues that I’ve added to my musical — I do not know learn how to say it — palette, or what I am attempting to do musically. It is mainly a grown-up model of ‘Scenes’, actually, thus far. However I have not completed it. It is taking a very long time, however, you already know, tender love and care. And it is coming alongside nice.”

Friedman went on to say that his latest U.S. tour because the assist act for QUEENSRŸCHE was a “good” approach to encourage him to finish his new album. He defined: “This tour I am taking part in actually my most aggressive music with my most aggressive band. And that’s good for my mentality for writing stuff like ‘Scenes’. That is how ‘Scenes’ occurred within the first place, as a result of I used to be touring with MEGADETH like a maniac, and I used to be taking part in all this actually, actually heavy stuff each single night time, and now I am doing the very same factor with my band. And so what I write is the exact opposite. So it is type of like a very good artistic time. And issues are transferring alongside very nice.”

Marty‘s newest album, “Tokyo Jukebox 3”, got here out in April 2021 through The Gamers Membership/Mascot Label Group. The report, which was made obtainable in Japan in October 2020, is the third in a sequence that started with “Tokyo Jukebox” in 2009, after which “Tokyo Jukebox 2” following in 2011. The trilogy presents Friedman‘s impressed performances to Japanese repertoire he is chosen to cowl.

Marty‘s presence on this planet of music, the world of guitar and Japanese popular culture is mystifying, weird, and nothing in need of inspiring. His first main influence in music was within the game-changing guitar duo CACOPHONY, which he based with equally enigmatic and now-legendary guitarist Jason Becker. He then spent 10 years as lead guitarist within the genre-defining thrash steel act MEGADETH earlier than transferring to Tokyo resulting from his love for Japanese music, language, and tradition.

Following his transfer, he landed a starring function for a brand new TV comedy “Hebimeta-san” (“Mr. Heavy Steel”) and its spinoff, “Rock Fujiyama”, which ran for six seasons and propelled him into the dwelling rooms of Japan’s mainstream. He has since appeared in over 800 TV reveals, motion pictures and commercials, together with a two-year marketing campaign with Coca-Cola for Fanta, authored two best-selling novels and was the first-ever foreigner to be appointed as an envoy of Japan heritage and carry out on the opening ceremony for the Tokyo Marathon in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022.

On the similar time, Marty has continued his profession in music with a number of solo albums along with writing and performing with the highest artists in Japanese music, racking up numerous chart hits, together with a No. 1 with SMAP, two No. 2 songs with MOMOIRO CLOVER, a No. 2 with SOUND HORIZON — simply to call just a few.