Marty Friedman tuh salah satu gitaris yang paling aku suka, dia yang bikin megadeth jadi tambah menarik, dua album pertamanya megadeth menurutku rada garing, soalnya "jiwa seni" nya rada kurang, dave mustaine cuma jago bikin lagu ama bikin riff metal yang keren tapi solo2 nya cuma main cepet doank ato orang2 ngasi istilah "masturbate his neck guitar", yang namanya memadukan teknik ama seni emang bukan hal gampang...
baru deh waktu marty gabung megadeth tahun 1990 n berduet sama dave mustaine mereka menghasilkan album heavy metal paling keren yang pernah aku dengerin "RUST IN PEACE" hehehe sebenernya ak orangnya rada skeptis dalam hal2 musik heavy metal lawas, yang ada dipikiran pasti musik yang itu2 aja^^, tapi serius waktu pertama kali denger RUST IN PEACE rasanya langsung beda, mainnya gila2an ( istilah semarang e "mbulet mbulet"^^ ) tapi tetep aja kedengeran enak buat telinga orang awam kaya' aku. good job marty!!

Pada desember 1999 marty bikin pernyataan mengejutkan tentang pengunduran dirinya di megadeth ( beda sama gitaris2 megadeth sebelumnya yang keluar karena dipecat dave mustaine, marty keluar dari megadeth karena keinginan sendiri ) dan memulai petualangan barunya di dunia J-MUSIC

berikut ada potongan2 wawancara soal hal-hal yang melatar belakangi dia keluar dari heavy metal amerika dan memilih masuk ke kancah musik jepang, wawancara ini diambil dari majalah Japan Times

"Toward the middle of my time in Megadeth, like around the mid- to late-'90s, I started really getting into Japanese music. At first it was B'z, Zard, Hitomi, Glay and Ayumi Hamasaki. Every time we'd come to Japan for a tour, I'd go back home with a suitcase full of CDs and listen to them constantly."

wow aku juga suka glay ama ayumi!!! hihihihi kaya'nya di sekitar tengah sampe akhir 90an emang musik jepang lagi rame2nya, masih inget waktu jamannya laruku sama glay saingan memecahkan rekor konser dengan jumlah penonton terbanyak?? ato waktu album deep river nya utada hikaru duel sama a best nya ayumi?? haduh jadi inget masa2 indah dulu ( halah )
so si marty suka ayumi... sip sip mungkin dia suka karena gitarisnya ayumi ( yo-chan ) juga suka main solo yang rada berbau rock klasik gitu, n mereka juga kaya'nya pernah kerjasama di proyek apa gitu.. ( lupa )

ga cuma musik jepang, selera marty juga merambah dunia pop asia lainnya kaya' taiwan, aku pernah liat video marty di salah satu acara tv jpn lagi ngisi acara bareng leah dizon n mereka bahas soal musisi favorit, leah dizon kaget setengah mati waktu marty bilang dia ngefans sama jay chou^^

wheii!! I love jay chou juga!! meskipun cuma tahu november chopin doank^^

"I found that you can listen to a J-pop artist in Japan and they might have one really heartfelt ballad and then a death-metal track and then a disco track or a ska sound, but it's all the same artist on the same album, and with good songwriting all the way through. This made me think, 'I wish I had that kind of freedom in the States,' because if you're a metal musician in the U.S., you can't really step outside of that image very much. I love metal, but there are a lot of other things that I like, too, and I found that Japanese artists have way more freedom in that sense."

jelas banget kalo perbedaan utama musik barat sama jepang tuh emang ada di segi kebebasan berekspresinya, mayoritas musik amrik selalu aja terkotak2 di genre tertentu, sementara di musik jepang tentu kita udah ampe bosen denger kata2 "it's hard to put this artist into a certain genre"

"In the States, you either love heavy metal or hate it," says Friedman. "The mainstream pretty much avoids it. The sound of distorted guitars turns some people off. But here in Japan, everyone is kind of used to it. In the enka music that older people listen to, there are distorted guitars and twin lead guitar solos, just like Iron Maiden use. But people's grandparents here sing along to it! And there's some metal that goes out to the mainstream, but in small doses. Japanese bands like Orange Range, Asian Kung-Fu Generation or even Glay have riffs that are straightup metal, but they don't overdo it. They take metal but homogenize it in a way that mainstream people can dig it."

ini yang menjelaskan kenapa di konsernya X japan dulu sering terlihat ada orang2 tua, bapak2 nonton konsernya mereka sambil bawa balon ato kadang2 semacam pom-pom buat nyorakin x japan. menurutku kecenderungan selera musik orang jepang tuh bukan ditentukan dari jenis musiknya tapi lebih ditentukan faktor gender. umumnya cowo suka rock n cewe suka pop tapi kalo di jepang yang cowo suka musik yang dibawain wanita ( apapun dari danger gang, perfume, momusu, chatmonchy dll ) sementara yang cewe bakal suka apapun yang dibawakan sama musisi cowo ( mau keras ato menye2 ga masalah, yang penting ganteng )

dan tampaknya si marty ini juga ikutan terpengaruh ngefans sama artis2 idol cewe yang sebenernya bisa dibilang "ga mutu"^^ ada seninya tersendiri dengerin mereka nyanyi!!
"The idol herself may not be able to sing all that well — many Japanese female singers have a voice that seems out of tune half the time — but it's cute because she's out of tune. That adds to her charm as well as her charisma. Here is a point that the West might never get about idol singers: in Japanese they call it 'heta-uma.' It's bad but good at the same time. I love heta-uma when it's done right. Instead of honing their craft to become great operatic singers, it's about having their own personality and having their own voice. They don't have to be the next Mariah Carey"

teknik emang bukan segalanya, jadi aku suka ketawa sendiri kalo orang ribut2 komentar soal acara idols, suara ga perlu bagus2 amat yang penting lagunya menghibur n penyanyinya bisa membawakannya dengan enak, buktinya tuh bunga citra lestari bisa sukses, soalnya lagunya emang enak2, meskipun suaranya ga istimewa tapi dah cukup buat menghibur orang

"I love America and I'm a huge fan of it, but every time I go back, I get bummed out on it as a country. And when I'm in Japan, I'm happy, so it's real simple to say where I'd rather be. I think TV in America is too negative and mean-spirited, and it's also very dull. In Japan it's very upbeat and colorful and the music is happy"
si marty emang keliatan betah banget di jepang, ngomongnya udah lancar, terus rajin muncul di acara tv, meskipun acara tvnya rada konyol ( bisa dibilang dia bener2 menghancurkan imej sangarnya alias melakukan "heavy-metal suicide"). yang paling aku suka acara ROCK FUJIYAMA, pembawa acaranya cakep!! namanya SHELLY