MARTY FRIEDMAN On Songwriting: 'I Look At My Guitar As Almost Being A Vocalist'

September 4, 2017

Former MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman was recently interviewed by Meltdown of the Detroit radio station WRIF. You can now listen to the chat using the audio player below.

Asked whether it gets more challenging to create instrumental music as he gets older, Friedman said: "Luckily, the more things that happen to you, the more things that you do, hopefully you get something out of every little experience and it hopefully widens your repertoire of things that you have to say and experiences to draw from.

"Whenever I write whatever music I'm writing — in this case, it's instrumental — I don't look at it as being instrumental; I look at my guitar as almost being a vocalist," he continued. "And that is kind of what, to me, sets it apart from other guitar music and other instrumental music. It's very much an elaborate pop-music structure. It's structured like music with vocals — it's not structured like instrumental music. It's structured like very ambitious epic vocal songs — like, for example, 'Stairway To Heaven' or 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' or something. Not your simple, two-three, verse-bridge-chorus songs so much, but kind of the big epic vocal songs are kind of what I… I don't try to mimic, but when I write my music, I don't have the benefit of lyrics, so I need to get a vocalist's existence in there, and I try to do that with my guitar. So it's kind of a unique challenge and something that I like to do."

Friedman's new solo album, "Wall Of Sound", was released on August 4 via Prosthetic Records. It was produced by Friedman, engineered by Paul Fig (GHOST, RUSH, ALICE IN CHAINS) and mixed by Jens Bogren (KREATOR, OPETH, SEPULTURA).

Marty's new CD was recorded in part at Dave Grohl's Studio 606 in California with engineer Paul Fig (ALICE IN CHAINS, RUSH, DEFTONES) and it features several guests, including prog-thrashers MUTOID MAN, Jørgen Munkeby of the Norwegian avant-garde jazz-metal outfit SHINING and Jinxx of Los Angeles theatrical rockers BLACK VEIL BRIDES.

Interview (audio):

Find more on Megadeth
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).