[MUSIC] What's up everybody? Metal Dave along with my co-host, Jason McMaster bringing you another episode of the Talk Louder podcast. Today, we are super excited to be joined by guitarist Marty Friedman joining us all the way from Japan. It's 10 a.m. in the morning where he is, it's 8 p.m. where we are in Texas. And he ended up spending about an hour with us. He's got a new album called Drama. It's an instrumental album. There are two tracks with vocals. We talk a little bit about that. Overall though, it's an instrumental album. Gorgeous, gorgeous music. I mean, I told Marty I'm not usually a fan of instrumental albums. And I always get concerned when I hear that an accomplished guitar player is putting out an instrumental album, especially a guy that's known from his heavy metal background. I worry that it's going to be this overpowering shredder fest or whatever. And that's not not at all the case with with drama Marty's latest album. I don't know, Soundscapes is the word that comes to mind. I like I like that. Yes. He talks about things that he's into during this conversation we had today. And notice that he mentions pop music and soundtrack music and things like that. So him talking about that interesting fact is is Ron Jarzombek, who obviously knows Marty was his touring guitar player for a little while. He listens to soundtrack. It was like, you know, I can't see Ron making this super ethereal, you know, mind trippy kind of mellow, you know, instrumental record because Ron doesn't really do that. But there are these aspects just we were just talking about it off camera about how similar personalities they are actually. But yeah, that's a sound bites or ethereal. I hate the term new age because it leaves it leaves this weird taste in your mouth when you say new age. But you know what I mean. You could probably lose yourself in the record a little. Yes, exactly. I like your I like your I like I use soundscape. You used ethereal and I think both of those words suit the music. I found it to be very a very soothing, pleasant listening experience. And I know it might be kind of cliche to say, but, you know, it's kind of it has a there's a journey to it. You know, it's not one song. I mean, obviously the song start and stop, but they segue into each other nicely. It's a cohesive overall piece of music. It's like a composition. It's not an album full of tracks. It's a it's an entire listening experience. And he talked about that a little bit about how he puts effort into that becoming the end result. He's very keenly aware of the fact that this might be a great song, but maybe it's a disruptor on this album. So I save it for later or whatever. He's very aware of keeping the composition consistent, I guess. He's very aware period. Yeah. You know, his personality. He reminds me of Billy White. And it's funny that he reminds you of Ron. So they watch tower and guitar players. He could well and and that story that I that I bum rushed in on him that I hijacked him on. He didn't really recall the full scope of how I remember it because it was in 1986. But the point is is that he knows Watchtower. He talked about it for a second and he said he would have done that he would have done that he said I would have done it. And I stopped me for a second. I was like, wait, what? He basically said he would have joined Watchtower if you did. He did. It's on tape. Yeah. And I just I just now got to realize that he said that because we're at at work. Yeah. So I love this interview because I had heard all these great things about Marty. He's super mellow and super aware, as I said. And I learned I learned a lot. I think everybody's going to learn a lot. I did want to throw in here. And this is a little bit of a spoiler, I guess. But it's okay. We're talking about drama Marty Friedman's new record, which you can get now. Available now. Yeah. And you. I was going to say he's coming. He's doing a tour. And he did mention that live he's doing. He's doing career retrospect at his shows. It's not just going to be. Cross leg on a on a hippie rug. Plan this ethereal mind trip of a muse from his new record. He's he's putting on a show. It sounds like he sort of got excited. And you'll see him when he talks about the show his show that he's doing on this tour coming up later this year and on into next year. He's doing a retrospective this career, which is really cool. And injecting a lot of Japanese influence according to him. So he's going to bring a lot of the culture that he's embraced as a resident of Japan for 20 some years now. I think some of his backing musicians are Japanese. And so all of that is part of the show. And I think it's going to all add up to a really interesting experience. We should mention that tour, which by the way, starts in 2025. Oh, okay. The opening act is as Texas own Patrick Kennison and Nikki Stringfield. Friends of ours from way back. And shall I say husband and wife husband and wife. Yeah, yeah. Patrick's a family band. Patrick, you know, as the guitarist in lead affords band and Nikki is in the Iron Maidens. And she's also got a solo album now. So is Patrick Patrick to solo artists as well as they're both in heaven below. Yeah. Yeah. So really happy for them to have this tour experience because I think them paired with Marty Friedman is going to be a really interesting musical experience. I also wanted to say real quick that Marty, of course, everyone listening and watching is fully aware of his contributions to mega death. Oh, yeah. And we talked a little bit about that, but he hinted at the fact that a lot of that story is going to be told in his autobiography that comes out. The physical copy comes out in December of this year. You can pre-order it now. Dreaming japanese.com. Dreaming japanese.com is where you can find it. But it was really interesting because I started in with a question about mega death and he basically corrected me. And I appreciated that, but he was about to answer. He was about to answer. And he said, you know what? Read it in the book. Yes, yes. So my point to all of you out there is what you think you know about Marty's time in mega death and what's been reported on the internet and what you may have read may not be the full story. And we still got an hour interview with Marty Effing Friedman today. Yeah, we still got an hour out of him even though we didn't get him to him to go deep on mega death stuff. And I didn't really want to go deep on mega death. I mean, I think a lot of it. Well, I say a lot of it's been reported, but apparently it hasn't been reported accurately. So that's what the book is for. But my motivation for having him on the show is I've been listening to this drama record that he just put out and it's really, really good. So I've never had the chance to interview Marty before. I have much like you heard that he's a really chill guy. Yeah, he's friends with a lot of people that that I may or may not be close with like Danko Jones he's he's buddies with Danko Jones. And he loves the Ramones. Yeah, his favorite band is the Ramones. That surprised me. That really surprised me. I think I knew that. And it just it's not something that I walk around in my pocket with, you know, but I think I knew that. I was surprised. That makes him even cooler than he was an hour ago. Exactly. Exactly. Take us out, Dave. Yeah, a lot going on with Marty Friedman. His new album is called Drama It's Out Now. His autobiography is called Dreaming Japanese. It's available for preorder at DreamingJapanese.com comes out physically in December and he's got an upcoming tour in 2025. Happy to have him today. Marty Friedman on the Talk Louder podcast. Hey, there he is. Hey, what's going on? How are you, man? How are you doing? Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you as well. Thanks for joining us all the way from Japan. All right. Where am I talking to you guys at? We're in Texas. Oh, awesome. Yeah. Awesome. We're at Austin, there in Japan, Texas. Yeah, it's eight here. It's 10 in the morning. Okay. It's tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah. So you're in the future. Thank you. Thank you for joining us from the future. You've always been kind of from the future, though, too, in my opinion. Yeah. Yeah. Your guitar playing, your progressive guitar playing. I've been a fan for a long, long, long time with the metal massacre stuff and maybe shrapnel stuff. And then I love the Hawaii stuff, one nation underground. What was it? What's the blue EP wild, wild, crazy and louder. So I've, what was that? That's close enough. Yeah. Yeah. Loud, wild and heavy. I wore that thing out me and my friends. Anyway, I guess you could. I appreciate that, man. That's great. Of course, of course. Yeah. Yeah. So you've been in Japan for 2003 since 2003. And I don't want to spend a lot of time on this because I want to get to your album and I know we've only got a short time tonight but. You're like a celebrity over there. I mean, you've been in the hundreds of TV shows and you played all the big arenas and venues. How did you, what was it about the Japanese culture that appealed to you and how did you get into the TV business? Well, I came over here because there was a period of time where I was just really, really hooked on Japanese music. And I knew that that's where I wanted to make music. I wanted to play music here. And so when I came here, I kind of got right into that. And pretty much right away, I got an offer to do a TV show and I didn't want to do it. It was a TV show about heavy metal. It was like a kind of a comedy variety show, music show. And, and I'm like, if this thing sucks, people going to think that Marty went to Japan to make fun of heavy metal. And I was really kind of worried about that. So I almost turned it down. And they said, look, just try it once. Try this one program that we have. And they were just planning a pilot and they'd written it just for me because they knew that I'd come to Japan and, and I was fluent in Japanese and I knew a lot about Japanese music. At the same time I knew about heavy metal, I had a history in metal. So they wrote this for me just in the hopes that I would agree to do it. So I thought that was very nice, but didn't want to make an ass out of myself at the same time. But did it. And it went incredibly well. And immediately from there, I got a new management, which was one of the top television production companies of the country. And suddenly that program kind of took off and then from that I got to do a lot of things like commercials and other non musical shows and just tons of other stuff that I never would have dreamed of doing. But just one thing leads to another even just yesterday I did a part in a movie. It's going to be a big movie here because it was a massive manga I don't know if you know what that is it's like comics. It was so popular they made a movie of it and live action and things are just way way off of the beaten path of what I intended to do. But it kind of allowed me to do what I want to do the way I want to do it without worrying about, you know, budgets or having to do something because the record label wants you to do it this way or that way. It's been lucky. Very lucky. Wow. That's incredible. Man, that's really cool that you get to explore all those creative outlets and then, and as you said, kind of do it on your terms. Well, congratulations to all that. That's a whole other side of your success. So that's that's pretty amazing. It's also you still have time or probably get asked more. I don't know if you if you're the kind of guy that says yes to everything. It doesn't really sound like you. You would say yes to everything. We don't really know each other, but you do show up every once in a while and guest on someone's record. I see that time time and again with you. Once with me, there is a howling sycamore record that I sing on that you played a solo on the ballot. Dude, that's rad. Did you sing on that? Yeah, the second howling sycamore record. That's that's me and you played solo on solos on the ballot. That's a project of David David T so. Yeah. And you also, while we're at it, you also had Ron Jarzombek from Watchtower on your on tour with you. Yes. And then in 1980 and 1986. I was really hoping for you to replace Billy White and Watchtower and it just didn't happen. Oh, wow, I didn't know that had you asked. I might have done it. Yeah, I heard that there was a gig in. And we were in San Francisco. We were at the map, Mabuhay Gardens. And I was told that you were going to be in the in the audience. And I was looking for you after our set. And I couldn't find you. So, I don't know if I was there, but I remember hearing your guys's demos and. Oh, well, maybe the albums. Yeah, absolutely. And as a matter of fact, there's something from kind of back in that era. I had a band called cacophony. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jason Becker and we had a song called go off. That was a direct rip off of either Watchtower or something Ron was doing. The answer to that we heard Mike Barney's house. And immediately Jason and I went and Jason came up, figured out how Ron did it. And he did his own version of it and we kind of did it together so we blatantly ripped off. Ron doing that stuff because, as you know, he's just such a master of. Unique guitarisms that there's no way we're going to hear that and not try to do something with it. Yeah, it's kind of safe to say no one plays like Ron. So. Yeah, yeah, incredible. Yeah, he's a he's a Texas gym. He's a hidden gym him and his brother Bobby are just. Incredibly humble and wonderful. I don't you know, you know this already. Anyway, those are rubbing elbows, but I'm extremely proud of that. Song that you played solos on that howling Sycamore. It was a pleasure when I heard the track with your solo on it before I cut the vocal. I was just like, oh my God. It kind of set the tone for my vocal for that song. So just wanted to say that's just me fanboying out a little bit on you. Sorry. I'm glad because I remember that song and it totally kills. I remember doing it. I remember. Wow, this is a really cool thing. I like to do projects. If I think the thing sounds good, I'll jump in and play on it. If I like it, I just like playing. Yeah, David T so is man. He masterminded those records that material is fantastic. He wrote those lyrics. I think his wife Karen wrote wrote most of those lyrics them together. And yeah, I love it. It was a joy anyway. Let's let's get to drama. Your latest album. It's currently out and I was listening to it and I got a confession, man. I am not much of an instrumental album kind of guy, but this thing has such a calming, soothing sort of nature to it. And the flow of it just really works to my ears. I found it to be just a very pleasant listening experience. And I get a little nervous when a guy like Marty Friedman puts out an instrumental album because I'm worried that it's going to be a shredder album. And this is not at all a shredder album. It's obviously very well executed guitar playing, but it's not a shred fest. There's a lot of emotion and tones and that sort of thing in there. How would you compare and contrast it to some of your previous solo albums? Well, thank you for the kind words I appreciate it. I think I know exactly how you feel because I'm not a big listener of guitar in the first place, especially like what you might call shredding. I'm not. That's a big, you know, it's not something I would want to really listen to. But, like you said, the guitar work is definitely, you know, there's a lot of care going into the guitar work and all of the work and the arrangements and all that stuff. And I think the closest to comparison to any of my albums would be scenes, an album I did a while back, which is, it's quiet. It's quiet. It's romantic. It's orchestral, but dramatic. And hopefully, you know, bring tears out, evoke tears and maybe some tools and just moments for listening moments and it's definitely not like a showcase of how ripping someone can play on guitar. Right. I think I covered that like back in the Hawaii days with Jason was talking about more like I got that off my shelf, like start making music. Yeah, where you had, yeah, I mean, you called up Mickey Mouse to do vocals. And I'm going to shred with him while Mickey Mouse is screaming. So, yeah. Well, you know, this is funny because I have a book, an autobiography that's done and it comes out in December. And I wrote in great details. All of the thought process good processes going on during that time. Oh, cool. And I was so young back then. And metal was like very new. And the combination of that is like when you're a kid and you see somebody do something that you think is difficult. You don't question whether it sounds cool or if it's anything's good about it. You just think, is this hard to do. Is this easy to do. If it's hard to do. Fuck it. It's cool. So, at that time, it was like, if a guy has a high voice. It's the pinnacle of being cool. Well, why not? I mean, Rob Halford has a high voice and he's he's God. So, so that immediate immediately just wipes the board saying, if a guy has a high voice, I want this guy in the band. And so that was the thought process during Hawaii. And it was really kind of a shame because that stuff is like you said it sounds like Mickey Mouse now at the time. I mean, the singer was actually very talented. But at the time I was like, dude, sing higher, sing higher. Dude was talented. If there was a good producer in there, he might have said, look, use your range a little bit more. Make a more a melody that people can relate to rather than just fucking shilling the whole time. So, these are the things that happen like when you're 18, 19 and the genre is new and you think you're doing something new and you're just all gung ho about everything but that type of story, those type of stories are in the autobiography. And it's really kind of fun. I got to get that. Go back and listen to that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's really fun to, to, I mean, I, I, I find myself thinking of those early days. And, and being completely, you know, I'm a romantic when it comes to that. That's why I keep sorry I keep bringing that thing up. But where you are with your, your current soul, you know, solo record, that's where I am as a human being and, and music with emotional value is way more important to me than how tight my pants are or how high I can sing or whatever it or how much leather gear I can put on for tomorrow's gig. Because where you are in that moment when you explain what you're talking about in your book back when you were a kid. We are all that right. And that's why I, I want to read that. I want to feel that through your words because I, I, I live for that but it's more, you know, like I said, it's important for music to have emotional value. But if you're a kid, whatever your emotional value is then it's probably going to be, I want off the chain horror, you know, and that's what, that's what you seek. And I think that growing up for all of us has, has been great and maybe it's not so great growing up for others and that's why they choose to kind of live back there but it's important. I'm extremely happy that you are a progressive musician and that you care about what it is that you're doing and there's no quick buck anymore. There's no, you, you, you, you mentioned moving to Japan for, you know, for your career and your love for, for Japanese music and you, it shows and you've, you've, you're successful because of your, what you've been attracted to apparently the entire time. So, congratulations on the new record. Well, thank you very much. You make great points. I mean, I think one thing that the reason why you guys are doing this and the reason why I'm doing this is because we never really lose that first spark that life force that got us into music. Right. So it's not like you forgot what you did when you started. I mean, something we all know how fucking hard it is to be in the music business at all. So there's got to be some kind of insanity in your body to make you want to keep doing it and keep growing it and keep, and that starts when you're really young. So you have to embrace that. And keep as much as that as you possibly can because that's what's going to keep you doing it when you get older. And I really talk a lot about that. So people can realize what goes into not only people like me, well, especially me, because it's my book, but a lot of people. I call them lifers in the music business. It's that life force from when they first saw all those same posters that are on your wall right there. That's my bedroom right there. Yeah, you know, that's, that's, there's something in there that just hooks you at a young age and then you're done. You're done. You know what you're doing. You don't know exactly where you're going to fit in this music business over the years, but there's something in that that formative 14 15 16 year old self that is strong enough to sustain you throughout your whole life. And sometimes when you can revisit that in your current formation, it's really, really happiness because you look back and you're like, well, this is what I kind of saw myself doing back then. And so, yeah, it's important to, to acknowledge that period of time and, usually, I don't talk about it much, but in the course of writing the book, I had to really dig deep into those things. And it was kind of really fun to expose that maybe a little embarrassing at points, but kind of fun. Two of the songs on the new album have vocals. And so I wanted to ask you, when you're putting an album like this together, were those songs written with vocals in mind, or did something about the song speak to you after the fact that said, these songs need vocals. They lend themselves well to vocals. Where did you go into it thinking they were going to have vocals or is that sort of an afterthought because the song called for it and for some reason. Now I had the song I had the song actually for a long time. And I love the song it was actually written in Japanese for a project that has many projects do you know you get signed and you release a couple singles and that's the end of it. For every successful project that you hear about there's like 20 projects that completely tanked for whatever reason. And I found it fun talking about those projects that tanked in the book as well it's actually more fun to read about that stuff than the successes. But this project, you know, starts off and everybody's all wow this is great and you release a couple things and nothing happens, but we did this one song. Always love the song and always wanted to put it somewhere, but this drama album was supposed to be instrumental, but the vibe of that song fit on the album so well that I'm like you know I'm going to put a vocal song on this album. And I'm not going to do it in Japanese I want everyone in the world to be able to understand it. So we got a great singer Chris Brooks from like a storm to do English lyrics and to sing the song and to do a music video. It was just wonderful and it was just, you know, it was a love party we just love doing it and one of my favorite songs that I've ever done. Yeah, I think it's one of my favorites on the album. So when you, again when you do an album like this it's been said that, you know, a composer, I consider you a composer. When a composer puts together an instrumental album, you go into it realizing or knowing that you're not doing this necessarily for commercial appeal you're doing it for your inner artistic satisfaction. But you also don't play and live in a vacuum you do want people to hear this. So how do you strike the balance between satisfying your artistic integrity, but also still managing to connect with an audience that may not have the ears that you have. This is a great question, and this is something that I'm very fortunate that I don't really have to dig into so deeply because, like I said, I do so many other things here in Japan that have allowed me to kind of just. When it comes to releasing a record I just do whatever I want I don't care if it's a major label puts it out, or an indies label puts it out. I've had both and they with varying results some have been better than others as far as results go but I've always been completely in control of the content. They're the only place where I do sort of what's like a compromise because as you said you don't live in a vacuum and you want people to enjoy it is, I tried to really make an album. That's consistent to itself, you know what I mean what happens with a lot of people especially in the world of instrumental music which I don't really want to necessarily be put into is guys, they have a lot of talent but they make records that sound like a resume. Here's my up temple song, here's my shuffle, here's the romantic ballad, here's the classical influence song, here's my one token metal track. This is just horrible, but like people want to do that because they want to show, they can do all these things but this is only good if you're trying to get a gig in some band that's one of those things you're trying to do. As far as a listener goes, it's not very, it's not very friendly. It's not very nice to a listener to do that. So I try to keep the albums in one concept so if I'm like writing an album like drama for example. And suddenly I come up with something that's full on metal this I just love it. Let's put it on there no dude you can't put it on there. One song on drama, that's kind of a metal track on there. And I did it for the reason of contrast, because without that it would have been completely all ballads, all the way so I wanted one spot where you could kind of contrast it and make the ballad sound more balladier and make this one track, kind of have its own identity but that's it. The rest of it is very much, it's a one, it's a one stop kind of deals. The whole album feels like the same album. It's a young kid that was very hard to do. Yeah it's a cohesive listening experience and I think that's what I was trying to say earlier in the conversation that's why it's so pleasing to my ear, even though I don't often listen to instrumental records, especially by guitarist because as much as I am loving, they, mom, steam and Joe Satriani and those guys, I sometimes find that those records to be kind of jarring, because they're technically brilliant don't get me wrong. But from a listening perspective, you know we hear in Austin we have Eric Johnson and I kind of equate your drama album with something that maybe Eric Johnson would do where it's like instrumental but it's pleasing to the ear it takes you on a journey. I don't know if I'm articulating this very well, but it's not just this noodle fest shred attack attack attack, it's kind of it's got to flow and it's pleasing to the ear. It's a very kind thing to say and I totally get it I totally appreciate it. And it's probably because I really don't listen to a lot of other guys for the same reason that you say and a lot of guys are just so good that if I listen to him I'm just going to get bummed out anyway. It happened with Ron if I listen to Ron's guitar playing I'm like why do I even bother playing now, because you know guys are so good. And to be honest it's not the kind of music that I listen to I listen to like I listen to pop music I listen to soundtrack music I listen to a very current music in Japan a lot. Hearing a guy who can play really great is really not going to come under my radar so much, because there's so many great players and it's just not my listening choice so like when you listen to my record, you're not really hearing. Okay well he's a combination between this good player and this good player and this good players kind of more just like my own personal life experiences rather than a combination of all of my quote unquote guitar influences really. Yeah. Am I correct we only have about five minutes left you have someone after us. The next one I have is it 11 so. Oh so as it. So we're good for a little bit more if you like. Oh yeah yeah excellent. So you mentioned the one song that you have on the album is contrast that song is thrill ride and it is the one that's kind of a little bit more metallic I guess for lack of better word. Oh yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And obviously you're known for your work in mega death. And so is, is there any appeal to you at some point in the does being in a full time thrash metal band hold any appeal to you anymore or have you kind of been there done that and you're you're over it. I think people want to know we're going to see Marty Friedman and sort of that thrash metal context again. I don't know man. I never say never to anything. It's definitely not on the top of my to do list. But. Yeah, who knows I mean I don't really see myself going back into a nostalgic type of musical genre. However, anything is possible. I mean, I'm doing my own projects. I mean other projects here in Japan as well. And you know anything is possible. But I'm not really big into like going back into something I've already done. Got so, yeah, new things happen and new things contain parts of older things and you just never know but. Your period your era with with mega death is is probably the most prolific and certainly the most popular and successful I mean it was you had a heck of a run with the band and I know that when you joined for rust and peace. There really wasn't much room for you to contribute to the songwriting but that changed with every subsequent album you had more and more influence on each of the albums from a songwriting perspective. That's not true. Right there. Okay. Yeah, yeah, well I mean the record is set completely straight in my book about songwriting process. But I'll just tell you that it was not as you say. When I joined the band there was like a couple songs done for rust and peace maybe three songs that were the song structures were done and written. The rest of it was done completely has a band unit and. I want it to great detail and on this. And, yeah, rather than saying it now I just rather you read it because it's very clearly articulated and that's fine. Okay, when is your book is going to be available. It's available now pre order it comes out in December. Okay. Yes, if you go to a dreaming Japanese book.com. You can get it now or at Amazon.com it's already available for pre order. And there's a lot of specials like special editions and autographs and. Okay. And what's the title of the book? It's a title is called dreaming Japanese. Oh, right. Okay. And I think there's a lot of unanswered mega death questions. And there's a lot of unanswered Hawaii questions and company questions. Cool. Not too many people asked the Hawaii questions though. They're all answered in there because I think it's important in a book like this to really expose everything about the person who whatever era of my career, someone might be interested in I think it's important to know. Everything that got you to that point so there's like all the details of my first band do. And then the Hawaiian vixen and all that stuff and cacophony and of course mega death. I think people are going to be really genuinely surprised at the clarity of detail and the mega death times because it's not something that I've talked about since I left the band. And the stuff that I did talk about while I was in the band was very much kind of promotional, you know, talking about the guitar parts and talking about we're touring this part of the world now was very, you know, promotional interviews and stuff like that. But very rarely if ever probably never on a personal level at all. So I think people are going to enjoy reading that and then of course, everything that happened after that. Everything, because my life is just in a complete 180 after that and all the Japanese stuff. I think it's going to open up a lot of people's eyes but like, you know, back to mega death I think people were real they're going to really enjoy it. I think it's going to be very, a very pleasant read for them because they're going to like, Oh, I didn't know that. Oh, I didn't know this and, and just a lot of things that don't get talked about and that I really never had an opportunity to bring to light and a lot of good things and a lot of you've always been a little bit of a mystery to me. And I mean, as a fan, I mean, I didn't know a whole lot about you but I sure have enjoyed your work throughout your entire career. So, I know that. Thank you very much. And so, for the most part, I think the book will be a pleasant eye opener to your life and times. That you haven't talked about and I'm looking forward to checking that out. Yeah, I mean, the reason I sort of framed the question the way I did is because I think most people, if you go out on the Internet, which I'm guilty of, and that's what most people do, you kind of get one representation of that era of mega death. And I think what Marty saying is, you can't always believe what you read on the Internet and he's going to tell his side of the story in this book. And I'm really intrigued now because I want to hear his side of the story and we won't make you blur it out. We're all right here because we want people to read the book, but that's very, very interesting that you you offered that contrasting perspective. Because I hope I hope at the very least you're very proud of all that time with mega death because you gave us some incredible music and whatever the drama may be or the conflict or friction or whatever you want to call it. And between you and Mustaine or whoever I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I hope it didn't sour the experience to such a degree that you can't look back on that time in your life and be proud of all the great music you gave us as fans and listeners. Well, absolutely. I think you're going to be very, very pleasantly. I don't know about surprise, but I'm incredibly proud of all of that time in mega death, what we did, what mega death did for my career. It was absolutely my first step into the real world of the music business and how incredibly grateful I am for that opportunity. I think people are, there's absolutely no sourness related to mega death at all. Yeah, there's absolutely no negative feelings and none of that so there's no like kind of bashing kind of there's no negativity. There's just truth. There's just all the things are exactly from my eyes. How it happened, how I wrote it. I was completely clean and sober the entire time I was in the band. I didn't even drink a beer. When I was in like 14, 15 and 16, I was a maniac. I lived like three lifetimes of doing all the drugs, all the drinking, all the partying, all the rock star shit. In my first band dues. I did so much of that. And there was something that made me just stop cold turkey right there, which is a long story, which I got into but by the time I was in mega death, I was like straight edge way before straight edge was even a term. So I remember all that stuff with clarity and great appreciation. So, you know, like you said, people read things on the internet and I would hate for people to think that I have any negative feelings towards that era because it's absolutely not true. Some of my favorite music that I've made in my career was done in that, in that period of time. So I really enjoyed outlining exactly the process, how all that music got created, how it got made, how it got put down to tape. And it was a definite process and it was a process that was only, only Megadeth did this one process and all the projects and bands and, and artists I've worked with and all the albums I've made on my own. For instance, Megadeth had a unique process of making music and I got into great detail of what that meant to me and how it worked for me and all that stuff so you don't have to worry about, you know, feeling bad about music that you love, because I'm equally as proud of it. And I know how to feel because sometimes, like if I like a piece of music. I'm kind of afraid to find out what the artists thought about making that music. Because you're afraid they're going to say like, I didn't like it or this sucked or I could, I wish I didn't do that meant that kind of shoots down something in you because as far as I'm concerned the music I like that's mine. I like a piece of music that's mine now I like it. So I don't really want to know you know I'm a huge fan of Phil Spector's music. He's like my idol, but he's absolutely an abhorrent human being. Yeah, absolutely worth. Yeah, so I don't want to really know about that, because the music is mine. The music is mine. Yeah, so I really afraid to talk to my heroes and I remember one time when I was a kid. My friend, one of my great idols, Oolie John Roth, my friend wrote Oolie John Roth and Oolie John Roth wrote him back a letter. I was talking about the songs he liked and didn't like when he was in the scorpions. And I'm like, oh no I like this song but Oolie doesn't like it. And it's like I know as an artist he wants to be true and, and say the truth and I respect that. And I remember feeling, you know what if anybody asked me about something, I'm going to be careful with how I answer that because, you know, the fans own the songs now, you know once you put them out there it's theirs and their memories are connected to them. I try to be as honest as I can, and thankfully, I don't have regrets related to music that I've released so if someone says you know this particular song means something to me. I can, you know, relate a good story about that because I'm very fortunate that I've not released much anyway that I wish that I hadn't released so hopefully you can kind of rest assured on that front. But there won't be a lot of details how things got the way they were. That's awesome. Well, I know that I'm, I can't wait to read that book because I'm a big fan of that period of mega death and knowing now that there is a side to the story that hasn't yet been told and it makes me all the more interested, especially when it's coming from the man who was there so Marty where where did you grow up. I grew up in Washington DC. Right in between Baltimore and Washington. Okay, and were you living in California at some, I mean, were you living in the Bay Area at any time. Everywhere man I lived in grew up in Washington moved to Germany as a as a kid and then back to Washington. And then to Hawaii I live because my dad's job I moved in Hawaii in Germany and all that stuff and okay and then lived in San Francisco. And then I moved to LA and then later, Scottsdale Arizona and actually it's kind of weird to say that the place that I've lived the longest in one place has been Tokyo. Wow, oh my whole life. Yeah. Well, well you found your place. Yeah, I just found your place and it's been a journey and you know how it is like when you're touring a lot, you kind of feel like you feel at home in a lot of different places, you know, when you've been to a city like four or five or 10 times, and you start to know way around. You feel like I'm kind of at home here, you know, like, especially like the main cities where you go to a lot. London, Paris and in a lot of cities in Italy and in Singapore and places you've been a lot. I feel kind of like, I don't feel not at home, so to speak, you know, I feel like I can adapt. I don't feel so much like an outsider in different places, maybe that's because I grew up moving a lot, but yeah, he has touring artists as you know, you kind of get feel at home a lot of places. Here's another question that's probably covered in your book, but what can you tell us about your Aussie audition. Because I've read parts where you said it was a disaster, but I can't believe that because you're just too talented of a player, especially knowing the type of player that Aussie would be looking for. Why is it true that you thought it was a disaster and if so why. I don't know if I used that word I probably didn't but somebody probably just made a headline like that. It wasn't a disaster. Maybe it was a disaster, I mean the disaster was, I just didn't even think that an audition for a band is not just playing the songs. At that time I was very naive I just learned the songs and I learned them very well and played them. I think they were perfect it sounded absolutely perfect to me. At that time I was in, I lived in San Francisco so I was doing cacophony stuff and that stuff was like, it was like Ron's music was just like so full on difficult so like learning the Aussie songs was kind of like playing the Ramones to me it was really just not anywhere near as like mind bending is what I was doing normally so I thought I was going to have no problem with the music but even then I kind of over. I over practiced I really learned it very very well and I knew it backwards and forwards and so I did the audition sounded fantastic to my ears it sounded everybody was happy with the sound but I could just tell that I blew the audition for a completely other reason. And the other reason was I just wasn't the same kind of dude as those other guys were. I mean the bass player in the band of the time and the drummer in the band of the time they were like full on LA sunset strip and cuff bracelets and necklaces and black T shirts and boots and hats and and they were just like full on deck decked out LA metal and I was the guitar nerd with a regular T shirt and a pair of jeans and I know that's what did it I had nothing in common with those guys. We didn't talk which we played we played like four or five songs. I thought fucking killer we sound great we sound like a band gel that sounded musically it was fucking awesome. I think I mean you know I played everything exactly like the record as far as I was concerned and. But you could just tell in the air in the room it wasn't like dude let's party or dude. What do you think about this oh yeah I used to like like the dead boys or we used to be into generation X or whatever. There was none of that we just played the songs and it was like those guys were like can we get this over with and I want to go up getting drunk at the on the strip or something. Now it's just a really clean cut guitar nerd dude and, and as it turns out, they got Zach, Zach wild who is a thousand times better for the job than I would have been. From that you learn that a band audition is not about the playing if I was really clever. I might have done a little bit more research on who was in the band what they were like. What how I could have appealed to them on a personal you know personal level that goes a long way if I would have learned a little bit about for example. The influences of the drummers you know I didn't know anything even know those guys his names. Yeah, I could have gone. There was no internet but I could have like tried to figure out how you know what's the influence of the drummer and like. Maybe warmed up on one of his favorite songs or something and just done some little thing to get these guys on my side. Rather than just music play the music if you nail the music you'll get the gig that's so far from the truth. Right in real life as you guys all know that if you can play. That's like maybe 30% of it everybody can play you know anyone can play stuff. Now you got to be someone that the guys want to hang out with and someone that looks like you're in the same group and I didn't look like those guys I didn't talk like those guys. And you know it's very naive and so yeah I went into way more. We've had that conversation on the show a lot comes down to personality and chemistry. If you would have been if you would have been like you know like you were said party animal 15 16 17 maybe you would have got the gig. Yeah, if you audition when you were in. I could hang with those big party guys that back up. You're doing your time that they weren't ready for you. Is what. I got it. They did great. When I saw Zach coincidentally Zach had my exact same guitar tech. Wow. When he got the gig he got a guitar tech that I worked with before that so he invited me to the show and I'm like. Zach is like a thousand times better for me for the gig than I was. So I realized you know you know there's a gig for me somewhere it's just not this gig. Sure. You know Zach was the guy for that gig and he just killed it. So it wasn't like I was bummed out that someone else got the gig it's like when Zach got it I realized why I didn't get the gig. And it all made sense. You know it's it's all learning it's a learning curve man. It's just so much goes into a gig you know. Oh yeah. Well I was Mike and Nez the bass player at that. Mike and I was my. It was Bill. Phil. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was Randy Castillo. Randy Castillo. That's right. Yeah. Good players. Oh yeah. They wear a cologne and shit. You don't. Well they definitely are the LA party dudes that Marty described. Right, right, right. That's what I mean. So Marty did I read somewhere I'm a huge Ramones fan. Did I read somewhere that you got on stage with CJ Ramone when he came to Japan and you did a California son with him. Oh yes. You rock brother. Ramones man. Ramones are like my. Reason for existence. You know, love the Ramones anything related to the Ramones. If I get the call, I'm doing it. I've done a couple of Ramones cover bands. A long time ago, I would love to do that again. One time I put together this little thing. We did that. It's a live album from top to bottom. Literally exactly like the record, including the talk between the songs. Oh no. I just love that stuff. That's super nerdy though. I love that. He just nerd it out on that. So CJ comes to Japan and what happened? How did you guys do? I'm the king of the nerds, man. I love it. One of my dear friends in Japan runs the Ramones fan club. The Ramones Japanese fan club. It's a girl named Yuki and not only that, she's a very well known photographer in Japan. So one time she was taking pictures of something I was doing, started talking about Ramones and we became fast friends, of course. And then anytime any Ramones thing would happen in Japan, she would be all over in the center. And she's like, CJ is coming. Do you want to jam? I'm like, dude, where do I sign up? And I went over there and jam with him. She had Daniel Ray who produced a bunch of the later Ramones albums on guitar. Yeah. And I was a little bit upset, not upset, but a little bit let down that when this Daniel Ray guy was playing the songs with CJ, he was not doing all downstrokes. Oh, shit. Like doing up and down like any other guitar player. I'm like, how can a guy who was like so integral to the Ramones world not play those songs with all downstrokes? It was like, it was a sacrilege. And I really like the albums he produced. I really liked them a lot. Yeah. And I thought he did work with the band, but I was kind of let down. I played three songs with CJ, California son, Commando, and glad to see you go. Oh, of course, all downstrokes. And they were on YouTube. And I think somehow they got taken down and I used to. It was such a joy because CJ was so wonderful and. And just such a great, perfect person for the Ramones and gave the Ramones like many years more life and. Very responsible for the. Up taken Ramones. Finanicism after the Ramones retired. Very much thanks to CJ and the energy he put into the Ramones. I was honored to play with him and what a thrill that was. That's awesome. Yeah. He came to Austin for South by Southwest one year with his band Los Guissanos and I ended up being his tour guide basically drove all over the city in the van with him and helped him set up and tear down a gig and went to an after party and we had a great time as a great guy. So one more one more point and then we'll let you go because I know you got another one when you do go out on tour to support drama, which is going to be in 2025. You're going to be in Austin, which is going to be great. But your opening act is friends of ours. Patrick kennison and Nikki Springfield. That is your there. They're going to be your support on the tour. I was wondering how you know them or how that came about because I was really happy to see that for them. And I think it's a good fit for you. Well, I've only heard fantastic things about them. My American manager sent me a link to something that they did. And I looked at it and I'm like, yeah, great. Sign them up. I don't know them personally. But they're good people. Very good people. Yes. Exactly what I heard. And my manager is a super judge of character and when it comes to a tour like this and you got to live with people for a while, you know, a good character is like kind of on the top of the list. And they seem super cool and they are doing music that's different from what we do. And I just think it's going to be a really nice night. You know, I think what they get they're going to sing. And they're playing acoustic stuff and we are doing a lot of the drama stuff, the very dramatic things, but we're also kind of doing a lot of things from different parts of my career as well and my solo albums and my band is going to bring something very, very Japanese. To places like Austin, Texas and New Hampshire and LA and Detroit and all the kind of places where they don't get a lot of Japanese influence. So we're going to pretty much do the exact same show that we do in Japan. But in America, so I think people are going to really see something very, very new and they're going to get a new energy. They're going to walk away from it with a really, really happy and positive and refreshing kind of energy. And they're not going to be like, wow, that guy's a great guitar player. No, they're not going to think that they're just going to go. I had such a great time and Marty's band was just off the charts. They're going to remember my band more than they remember me. I think, wow, there's an art to that you blend right in with the overall, you know, yeah, the audio experience. Well, much success to the album drama and to your tour coming up and the autobiography. Yes, and the book. I can't wait for that. We appreciate your time. Very fantastic. Yeah. Marty, thank you for spending so much time with us. We do appreciate you going long. It's been awesome catching up with you and getting to know you a little bit. As Jason said, safe travels on the road. When you go out on tour, continued success with drama and your upcoming autobiography. Everyone can look for that now as a preorder. It'll be out later in the fall or early 2025. Physically December, December 3rd. There you go. December 3rd. Straight from the man's mouth. Marty, thank you so much on behalf of my co host, Jason McMaster. I'm Metal Dave along with our special guest today. Marty Friedman on the talk louder. Thank you guys. [MUSIC PLAYING]
