shretit

Other than the music, the girls, the taxi cabs, the cleanliness, polite people and all the other usual stuff people like about Japan, what is the best thing about Japan you can't find in the US? And what do you miss about the US other than cereal?

Hi Marty, I made the request for this AMA and it has made my year that you decided to do this thingy. I'd really like to know whether there's a strong possibility for a Tokyo Jukebox 3, and if there is, will you do covers of older Japanese songs (like from the 90's, maybe some J.A.M?) ? Tokyo Jukebox 1 and 2 were absolutely fantastic and I loved your interpretations of the songs and how you rearranged them to truly make them your own.

I usually dislike the super saccharine nature of most J-pop vocals and the general production of the music with dance beats because I'm more of a rock/metal guy, and normally I dislike girl groups like Perfume or boy bands like SMAP even when the melodies are superb, because it's hard to ignore all those other things that make me dislike the song as a complete package. I think you did an amazing job in capturing the essence of the melody in those songs and made them really rock in your own style. It certainly helped me to appreciate Jpop more when listening to them through the filter of your interpretations. Those songs had been changed so drastically and uncompromisingly "Marty-fied" that those covers felt like Marty Friedman solo albums even when I had listened to the originals for comparison.

I've heard that Japanese people can be very standoffish towards foreigners and that immigrants find it hard to assimilate. Did you feel treated like Charisma Man at at first? When was the point where you felt that you had truly assimilated?

What led you to choose Megadeth as the band you wanted to join after Cacophony? How did you prepare for the audition? Did your hand injury affect your initial joining and the recording of Rust in Peace? With the touring to support the album, how did it manage to eventually heal?

In the early 90's your albums Scenes and Introduction were really mellow and dreamy, with great clean tones. Did all the heavy distorted music you had to play with Megadeth influence your approach to having whole albums with less heavy, almost ambient sounding music to feel balanced out? Will we ever see songs that have a laidback feel like that in future, as opposed to the intense ballads and aggressive shredding/riffing on most of your songs? Also, what was it like to work with Kitaro? Does he continue to influence your songwriting and do you see yourself collaborating with him again in future?