Marty Friedman

Marty Friedman`s presence in the world of music, the world of guitar, and Japanese pop culture is mystifying, bizarre, and nothing short of inspiring.

Born in Washington D.C., Friedman first gained attention with the band Cacophony, which he founded with equally enigmatic and now legendary guitarist, Jason Becker. They released two highly rated albums and then he was recruited by Megadeth in 1990, appearing over the next decade on some of the most influential metal albums of all time. His breath-taking range and unorthodox musical contributions to Rust In Peace’ in 1990 and ‘Countdown To Extinction’ two years later made him an icon as well as helped propel Megadeth to its peak.

Since 2003, Friedman has lived in Tokyo where he has become a household name, even beyond the world of music. Since moving to Japan, he’s appeared on over 700 Japanese TV shows of every variety, as well as motion pictures and commercials. He was also recently appointed an Ambassador of Japan Heritage by the Japanese Government. At the same time he continued releasing his solo albums and touring for them worldwide.

Starting in 1988 with ‘Dragon’s Kiss’, Friedman has regularly put out well received solo records. ‘Tokyo Jukebox 3’ is the latest in this distinguished, ongoing line. As the title suggests it’s the third in this series of albums featuring covers of Japanese songs and follows on from ‘Tokyo Jukebox’ in 2009 and ‘Tokyo Jukebox 2’ in 2011.

“I’ve been playing stuff from the first two ‘Jukebox’ albums live all over the world, and it’s taken on a life of its own, especially in places like North and South America, Australia, Italy, France and even India, of all places. My fan base is very dedicated, and what I have found is that lots of new fans have been introduced to Japanese music and culture through me, which is very gratifying. On the tours it seems like aside from the dedicated guitar fans, the Japan fanatics have been noticeably growing, so now felt like the right time to do ‘Tokyo Jukebox 3’.

“There’s also a second reason for the timing of this album. I have been performing at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Marathon for the last four years and hoped to be able to do something similar for the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020, before they were postponed to 2021. I’ve already been booked to play again at next year’s Marathon and with a little luck, I still hope to do the same at the postponed Olympic Games, so, I wanted to come up with a selection of songs that will get everyone, especially the athletes, really pumped up in a way that only music can make happen.”

Friedman put a lot of energy into selecting the right songs to cover for the album, as he explains.

“In Japan, you have to get permission to record and release cover versions, and that can be a very tricky and long process. So the last thing I wanted to do was to ask permission to do a song, get the permission, only to wind up not recording it for whatever reason. That would be very impolite. So I spent several weeks choosing songs and demoing them to see whether I could create versions that I could get pumped up about, before I even approached any publishers. I came up with a short list of 20 songs, and from this chose about 15 that I knew I could really score with, and then set about seeking permission to record them.”

Friedman has also included ‘The Perfect World’, which he wrote, recorded and originally released in 2018. This is the only track here with vocals.

“Back then I did the song with Jean-Ken Johnny from Man With A Mission on vocals, and that was used as the main theme for the Netflix series ‘B: The Beginning’. On the day of release, the song went straight to the top of the Japanese iTunes chart. Sadly, as sometimes happens in the music biz, there was a sudden shake-down in personnel at the Japanese label, key people working the record suddenly vanished, and as a result the song and all its momentum just went away. That seemed to me to be such a waste.

So I thought it was a good idea to do a new version of it, with a fresh new interpretation, and got Alfakyun (currently one of the premier female J-Pop singers) to do the vocals. It’s really a self-cover, so it fits in with the idea of this being a covers album.”

Friedman has also included ‘Japan Heritage Theme Song’, another of his own compositions