Marty Friedman may be known to some as the former guitarist for Megadeth which included work on some of the most iconic metal albums in history but with 14 solo albums in the back catalogue on top of all of that, there’s a much bigger story behind the guitar virtuoso. With a new live album released last year and a tour to Australia this December, there was much to talk about as we discuss setlists, visiting Australia and more.
Andrew: So hows things with you and what have you been up to lately?
Marty: Everything’s been great man, lots going on over here as usual but feeling good!
Andrew: We’re very excited to see you in Australia, it’s going to be a great run of shows. I was just trying to think, when was the last time you were down in our part of the world?
Marty: I was there in 2010 but that time I wasn’t doing any shows, I was just doing Master classes and clinics and things like that. So this is going to be the first actual tour of Australia ever for me to do a solo tour with my band and we’re really beyond excited to do that, it’s going to be special for all of us and we’re looking forward to it.
Andrew: Oh nice so for those that have never seen you on your solo tour before, what are we expecting? Will you be mixing it up with a varied setlist of a lot of your back catalogues?
Marty: We’re going to do a lot of everything, I’ve got 14 solo albums to choose from and since I haven’t played in Australia very much at all, there’s a lot of people who obviously haven’t seen me play the early stuff live and they haven’t seen me play new stuff live, they haven’t seen me play anything live so the setlist is going to be a little bit different from what I usually do in places where I tour often. So it’s going to have a lot of everything from the very earliest solo stuff to the most recent studio album “Wall Of Sound” and “Inferno” and all that stuff. I’m looking forward to diving into the setlist and seeing how we can get something really special.
Andrew: You mentioned 14 albums to choose from, that must be a difficult process to pick a setlist from.
Marty: It’s not really because I’ve been touring pretty much the whole time, since about 2002 I’ve been touring on my solo stuff and by doing that maybe once a couple months a year or once or twice a year you kind of figure out the flow of how things work and the set kind of comes together organically. Since I’m not really a singles type of guy, not really a prerequisite that I have to play a hit single or anything like that so I get to choose the setlist on the flow and the energy. The most important thing is to give people with a lot of energy with people feeling really good after they left the show and that comes from a kind of just watching people and seeing their reaction and using that as a barometer to choosing the setlist. But this time in Australia I really have nothing to go on because I haven’t played there so I’m just going to do a bunch of my favorite stuff and let it happen.
Andrew: Well we are definitely looking forward to it! You had a live album that came out year as well so I guess for those that want to know what you guys sound like live, and I was hearing it just the other day actually, it sounds phenomenal and obviously that has been quite successful for you as far as the live recording. Tell me how that came together and was that something you wanted to do for quite some time?
Marty: Yeah I mean I had done a live album before in 2007 but this live album that we just released recently is just so much better. It was done correctly, it was done all in one show, we just made sure it was done properly, recorded properly and it’s got all the excitement of documenting a show. The first live album was good, I liked it but the way we did that was we recorded about 10 or 12 shows on the European tour and we edited the best performances together and it was good but it wasn’t really representative of the flow of the show.
To be honest back then my show wasn’t quite as developed as it is now, back then it was very much like a recital just playing the music and hardcore fans really liked it and we enjoyed it but it wasn’t really a show per say. It was more a recital of music and over the last 5 or 6 years it’s really grown into something much bigger, much more exciting and much more energising and I wanted to document that. The only way to really do that is to record one show and just let that be the album and that’s what it was, of course the show was about 2 hours long and then we had to edit to about 80 minutes so that makes it even tighter. So it’s a really strong live album and really super proud of it and I think that’s the best way to judge what you’re going to get when we play in Australia, is to listen to that live album and you kind of get an idea of how it runs and how you’re going to feel and how we’re going to play. I’m really proud of that live record.
Andrew: Yeah it’s a great album and as you mentioned, definitely gives you an idea of what you sound like. You mentioned how it was recorded from the one show, did you feel a lot of pressure because of the fact it was just for the one show?
Marty: Actually not really because we had been on tour for quite a while before this live album was recorded so I knew the band was on fire and we were just having great shows every night. The only thing I was slightly concerned about was if there was a technical problem with the remote recording system and if there was, we would have to stop the show and do another song again and something like that. There might of even been something like that happening, I don’t remember but the only thing I was really worried about was coming home and not having a good guitar sound and we checked that very thoroughly in the soundcheck and we recorded several songs in the soundcheck. So even if something did happen live, we had a lot of it in the can before we did the show.
So none of that kind of pressure was on during the show, just enjoy the stuff like any other show. Of course there’s little mistakes and inaccuracies and things that I would of probably liked to fix but that’s part of what makes a live album fun, as long as it’s not a terrible train wreck, it probably adds to the flavour anyway. So we just left a lot of inaccuracies but nothing that I would be too ashamed of and some things that only myself or people in the band would even recognise being a mistake, there’s a couple of little things that are out of tune and out of time. I mean timing fluctuates a lot on the record but that’s how we sound live so just really happy with that record.
Andrew: So let’s go back in history and talk about, I guess it must have been many years ago now when you first came down to Australia. Do you remember that tour or any highlights or memories from that tour?
Marty: Yeah I remember the first time coming to Australia I had a camera with me and I took pictures and everything and when I got back home, all the film was ruined! I remember that because there was a lot of great stuff going on and I remember the fans were very into the details of music, they really knew a lot about the music that I was doing then and even my earlier stuff and I remember lots of really gorgeous girls which I was used to 80 percent male audience but there was a lot of girls there and cute girls so I was really excited about that. And just the people were extremely knowledgable about music and friendly and just a good time was had by all, I remember great things happened on that tour.
Andrew: Do you find that the Australian audiences, and maybe that has changed over the years, I don’t know, are a little different to other countries that you had played over the years?
Marty: I would have had a better answer for that the first time I went, it’s been so long but I just remember the feeling that when I talk to people they seem to know about details that people in other countries didn’t care about or didn’t know about. It just seemed very respectful and the concerts were loud and wild like every other country but I think when we did in-stores back then and I’ve done in-stores since then, I just remember there was a very intelligent group of people which still really sticks in my mind and I think more than anything people knew about details about record releases and details about songs and things that make you feel good that fans know that stuff. So I remember being really happy about it, especially since it’s so far from where I grew up and you go really far away and people know about what you’re doing, it’s just a great feeling.
Andrew: Well we are definitely looking forward to seeing you in Australia again, it’s exciting to have you back in our country. So before I let you go, do you have any last words for the Aussie fans at all?
Marty: I’m just honoured and so excited to play for everybody and I’m looking forward to seeing everybody and my band, nobody in my band has ever been to Australia so they’re really more excited than I am. I have to tell you that you’re going to walk away being more impressed with my band than you are of me! I think a lot of people come to my shows to see me or to hear my music and they walk away leaving the show talking about my band members and that’s the way I like it. I mean they outshine me every night and it’s really a band, it’s not just one guy showing guitar skills to people. Although I will be doing that at the Master classes in Australia but our show is a four corner diamond and you’re going to love my band members a lot.
TOUR DATES
Wednesday, December 11: Crowbar, Sydney
Thursday, December 12: Crowbar, Brisbane
Friday, December 13: Bendigo Hotel, Melbourne SOLD OUT
Saturday, December 14: The Basement, Canberra
Sunday, December 15: The Evelyn Hotel, Melbourne
Tickets on sale now via Oztix or
www.pinnaclemusic.eventbrite.com
