Legendary guitarist and ex-Megadeath member, Marty Friedman makes his solo debut down under. With a career spanning three decades, one third being with Megadeath in the nineties, the American, Japan-based, guitarist is set to wow audiences across five cities, including a sold-out Melbourne show, with his critically praised and influential guitar technique.
“We’re pumped for it! This is my first time ever to take my band from Japan to Australia. We’ve been everywhere else and it’s just about time that we went there. As excited as I am, my band are even more excited because for Japanese people who grow up playing music and rock music, it’s very, very rare for them to get to go to Australia ever so this opportunity is a big first for them and I’m really glad that I get to be the one that gets to take them there,” Friedman says. “Hopefully we’ll have a really great time and we’ll be able to come back to Australia on a more regular basis.”
For those guitar enthusiasts who took a leaf out of Friedman’s book, get you’re shredding fingers ready. Friedman notoriously improvises, not only on guitar but with his sets. An amp and guitar will sit side stage ready for those waves of opportunity that present.
“I like to do crazy things like bring audience members up on stage to jam sometimes. I get the feeling that there are a lot of good guitar players out there in the audience and Australia is probably going to be one of the places that that is the case,” Friedman explains.
“I happen to know there are a lot of great guitar players in Australia. I judged a guitar contest when I was doing my Inferno album and I believe that the winner of the contest or one of the top guys was from Australia and I just remember that the bar is pretty high down there.”
Along with his insight into the guitar and metal world of Australian music, Friedman also has a deep appreciation for one particular Australian music icon; Geelong’s own, Chrissy Amphlett.
“I was a huge fan of the Divinyls. Chrissy Amphlett is such a one of a kind. There was no one like her before or after. It’s so sad that she’s not with us now but she left behind so many great recordings and I think it’s a really awesome very Australian type of project. There’s nothing like it anywhere else. That leads me to the question of there must be other artists now that are just as impressive down there that the rest of the world would love to hear and I’m sure I’m going to discover a lot of that when I’m down there.”
Australian music, however, sits in a different realm to that of Japan. The musician, music columnist and media personality, cites the music and culture as a partial reason for his move to the country, and has even dipped his toes into the sonic collisions of pop meets metal that Japan presents on ‘Marine Bloomin’’.
“In Japan, I think there is a lot less fear of trying something that is strange. If you look at the concept of Baby Metal, especially when they started, it was young girls singing over the top of very, very real heavy metal music. Experimentation is encouraged in Japan and the result of that is that there is a lot of interesting fusing of metal into pop music in Japan.”
While ‘Marine Bloomin’ is not likely to appear on a setlist, what we can expect are soul-lifting guitar solos across Friedman’s massive catalogue, and possible nods to his Megadeath days.
It’s not one to be missed. The show at Bendigo Hotel, Melbourne on December 13 is sold out, but tickets to the second Melbourne show at The Evelyn Hotel on December 15 are available via Oztix or Pinnacle Music. Visit Overdrive Touring
Written by Tammy Walters
