Marty Friedman, October 2002
This interview is a bit different since it was for an essay that I was researching,
and had nothing to do with The Metalfreaks Graveyard at all. It's fairly
short and specific, but I thought it might be of some interest to some people
so I'm posting it up here. This e-mail also appears on Marty's site.
1. Who/what are your non-metal musical influences? (genres or artists)
check 'faves' on the site, almost all non metal
2. When the band first started getting airplay on commercial stations and once MTV
finally caught on, were you concerned that hardcore fans would think you were
going mainstream?
Of course, but we were more concerned with making a good record that we could
live with.
3. Although I was too young to know that the band even existed in the 80's I can
imagine you guys got a lot of flak from authority figures about messages in the
music. How did the band get around accusations of satanism/obsessions with death/violence.
I wasn't around in the early days of the band, and I always considered any
kind of publicity good. That said, I don't really care for some of that negative
imagery.
4. I noticed that the last few albums released aren't as politically charged as the
earlier ones - was it just because of a lack of political material or were you
guys avoiding beating the topic to death?
Me personally, I hate mixing politics in music. I think we just had more
relevant topics on our minds.
5. Right now most good metal is back underground with the exception of approximately
2.5 bands. Do you think metal has any chance of being resurrected again to
the height it reached during the 80's.
Depends what you call 'good metal'. I think there is plenty out there
now, and unlike in the 80's, you can actually hear it on the radio now. Lots to
be thankful for!
Thanks for your time Marty, hope to see you guys on the road again sometime!
cheers!
Tina :)
p.s. You + Jason Becker = speed demons! God, I was
almost convinced that level of guitaring is not humanly possible!
Hey, who are you calling human??
Thanks for the q's!
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