INTERVIEW WITH MARTY FRIEDMAN: 'Cryptic Writings', composition, and guitar gear

Marty Friedman

“In the winter of last year. I think we started it in September and finished it in February.”

Marty Friedman

“We do it in different ways many times. During soundchecks, instead of really soundchecking, we rehearse and play things that occur to us. So it's like a moving rehearsal room. We always record these soundchecks. When we finish the tour we listen to the tapes and continue writing at our homes. We also write music together but fundamentally there is not just one way to make songs in Megadeth. For example, the song 'Trust' was written practically in the studio and the middle part, the one that is kind of classical, comes from something I had written six years ago.”

Marty Friedman

“Usually what happens is that if Dave (Mustaine) has one part and I have another part, he usually remembers something I did previously and so we include it in a song. Generally Dave hears the basic idea of the song in his head and I add melodies or passages or guitar counterpoints.”

Marty Friedman

“I am the one who does most of the solos, both on the records and live.”

Marty Friedman

“Not much, but what there is are real strings: violins, cellos. Where there is a synthesizer is at the beginning of 'Almost Honest'.”

Marty Friedman

“Yes, I heard it before. That something sounds similar to something else already existing does not make it better or worse. It is not very important, it is not the end of the world. If there is something that sounds familiar to you, perhaps it turns into a good thing.”

Marty Friedman

“Our song is about drug use and how bad it is, so it was like an irony to use such a cheerful song as 'Needles and Pins' as an introduction. It's black humor in the Megadeth style.”

Marty Friedman

“I write the songs that, perhaps I shouldn't say are more pop-oriented, but rather with more melody, and it is usually preferred to start an album with this type of song.”

Marty Friedman

“It's difficult to see the credits and realize who wrote what, because regardless of the name of the person listed at the bottom of the song, we all work on it equally. However, we all have our publishing arrangements written down between the band members, regardless of who is listed as the author of the song.”

Marty Friedman

“Yes, he was the guitarist of the group Giant and is currently one of the most requested session musicians in Nashville. He works with all the country artists and is also producing with Mutt Lange, famous for his work with AC/DC and Def Leppard among others.”

Marty Friedman

“He saw us as a kind of challenge. He wanted to make us bigger and heavier, because since his image was not that of a heavy music producer, he had to show that he could do the job with Megadeth. I think he mainly brought the possibility of experimenting with guitar sounds. Usually Megadeth goes to the studio, plugs in the guitars and records. But this time we sat down with different amps and pedals for hours and hours, creating sounds for each song. This way, each of the songs has its own personality. Dann was very patient with us and his knowledge of sounds and effects helped us a lot. We spent more time listening to sounds than playing.”

Marty Friedman

“No, we did everything separately. Drums, bass, guitars, everything separately.”

Marty Friedman

“In many different ways. For most of the songs I used my Jackson Marty Friedman model with the Crate Blue Voodoo, but for more textural things I experimented with more than twenty effect pedals. I used an MXR Phase 90, I used my favorite pedal called The Zipper by Electro Harmonix, I used flangers, I used a lot of things but always as background guitars. For example, what looks like a wah wah in certain fills is actually The Zipper, which is an envelope filter. I don't like using a wah wah in solos because you lose a lot of the tone of the guitar sound. You only hear the *wah wah wah* (imitates the pedal noise) and not the *tara ra ra...* (sings a little) of the melody.”

Marty Friedman

“He is a great engineer and he is a person I have known for many years. When we work in the studio, he can read my mind. Things happen very quickly because he understands what I want to do. He is a great critic regarding my style. I tend to play better when someone is with me in the studio because I like to listen to the opinions of others. When I hear other suggestions, I can play in many directions, I don't know why, that's just how it happens to me. On the other hand, when I'm alone I feel like I'm in a small box. So if Fontano tells me to play faster or slower, I can present him with different options.”

Marty Friedman

“I always believed that there is a time and a place for it. The time is almost always never and the place is also almost always never. And if you listen to my playing, it is not really fast. It feels intense but it is not speed, speed, speed. Even on the first albums. It is simply an illusion because I play in irregular timings, so it seems like I play fast when in reality I don't. It is always based on melodies and emotions. So when a fast passage comes it is very exciting and the speed of it has to be felt. If I always played fast it would feel like sh.... it's boring because if you play in sixteenth notes or thirty-second notes, the notes you play don't matter much because everything sounds the same.”

Marty Friedman

“Solo albums for me are a personal pleasure. I don't have a company telling me what to do. If I listened to them, maybe I would sell more records but I already sell enough with a successful group like Megadeth and I tour around the world. Furthermore, I think many of my fans appreciate the honesty of my albums, since I make them for myself. Surely my next album will be different from 'True Obsessions'.”

Marty Friedman

“That is the Jackson brand in Japan. It is the same guitar but they have a different license for the name there.”

Marty Friedman

“I like a sound that is not muted, that has a lot of 'note' (pitch) in it. For example, I really like Brian May's sound. When you hear him play a melody, it's like listening to a violin. I hate the sound of muted strings in solos. I want a warm sound, with a lot of tone and a lot of body, where the notes keep sounding with sustain.”

Marty Friedman

“In the past I only used Crate cabinets with four 12" Celestions and when they launched this amp they asked me to try it. At that time I used VHT heads, which are very good but are not very reliable for touring. I play with the Blue Voodoos around the world and they always sound the same. They never have a single problem and for me, as a musician who is always touring, this is very important. Most people use Marshall and sometimes they modify them to achieve a better sound. To my ears, the Crate Blue Voodoos sound like the best Marshalls, only all the time.”

Marty Friedman

“I have five heads, but I only use two or three. The volume is usually between five and six. As for the equalization, I don't touch anything, my tech is the one who does everything. I don't even know how to turn on my amp (laughs). Well, maybe not to that extent but I reached a point where I depend on him for everything since he has been with me for many years and he knows everything about my equipment and my Bradshaw switching system.”

Marty Friedman

“I use different types of distortion throughout a show. I use the amp's, with one head. With another, set clean, I use a Boss Metal Zone. I do this because if you have the same sound for rhythm parts as for solos, everything will sound similar. Changing amps, the sounds will be different and that's what I want.”

Marty Friedman

“I go from the guitar straight to the amp. I think that when you do a clinic, people don't want to see an equipment demonstration. They want to see you play, and if I went to a clinic where I saw a guy plug his guitar straight into the amp and get a good sound, I would surely want to buy that amp or that guitar. If you have a lot of pedals between the amplifier and the guitar, you never know when each thing sounds.”

Marty Friedman

“It refers to the way I hold the pick, and I do it that way because I don't like the sound of muted strings for melodies and solos.”

Marty Friedman

“Ah, that's the trick. It's quite difficult to do, but my ear is already so trained that I hear the feedback before it occurs. So I avoid it in advance, either with my thumb, with my arm, with my p... I cover the strings that are not sounding, I don't mute the ones that are sounding.”

Marty Friedman

“Yes, we only recorded the show we did in this city and we will record it again when we return in the winter of '98. So our live album will have the best songs from our shows in Buenos Aires. Our live album has to be very special, not just something to release so we can take a vacation in Hawaii. It has to be like the old live albums from the '70s by groups like Kiss, Cheap Trick, Judas Priest, Peter Frampton or Lynyrd Skynyrd. Albums like that are no longer made, so we want to be at that level. For now, we recorded this performance and we are going to take our time so that it comes out as best as possible.”