While Marty Friedman was first known as a shred pioneer in Cacophony (with co-guitarist Jason Becker) and ’90s metal master with Megadeth, his latest solo set, Drama, shows another side of the axe hero.

The album has Friedman celebratingmelody as a tool of expression, creating grand, sweeping pieces that evoke a film score. Fans already know Marty can play fast as the devil, but his goal this time is to move hearts with emotive lines, riffs, and leads.

A key part the project was a collection of vintage guitars and amps owned by his gear tech, Franco Piona. While still a devout Jackson endorser with a longstanding signature model, Friedman was happy to discuss the thinking behind his latest sonic adventure – and conversion to one of the vintage faithful.

Like much of Drama, “Illumination” serves as a reminder that melody and feel – not speed – drive your guitar playing.
Melody is all that matters. The way a melody is arranged, interpreted, and presented is the most important thing to me. There are so many wonderful melodies in the world, but had they not been presented to us in the particular context that we discovered them; we might have never heard them. Context is king.

You live in Japan, but recorded part of the album in Italy. Was there a specific studio or group of players you wanted to work with?
My dear friend and world-class guitar/amp technician, Franco Piona, lives in Italy and has the most-elaborate and well-maintained collection of vintage guitars and amps I have ever seen. He was kind enough to tech the album and allow me to use his precious and historic instruments

“Acapella” has bell-like tones? Which guitar is that and what was your approach to the composition?
That’s a ’57 Strat, and the first time I played it was in Franco’s house through an old Fender Twin, gently playing the melody of “For A Friend”; I noticed a tear come from my wife’s eye. Franco’s living room sounded like a cathedral; it was such a powerful moment that I knew I wanted that guitar on my album. “Acapella” is what you might hear if I pick up a guitar unplugged sitting around at my house; something I might play while watching my wife out of the corner of my eye, preparing something in the kitchen. I have never before documented that type of playing – it’s very personal. No big theme, melody, or thought-out construction. It’s a peek into the everyday life of my home.

Along with the melodic emphasis, there’s a feeling of film music on Drama. “Triumph” has acoustic, electric, and layered guitars, bringing to mind a rock version of an Ennio Morricone soundtrack.
I love soundtrack music, but it’s a little unfair to compare it to what I do. Soundtracks have the benefit of a story and visuals to add significant weight to the music and, most importantly, 90 minutes or so of time to groom the listener with different interpretations of the same theme. In the climactic scenes, the theme you’re familiar with comes back and knocks you out. I love that about movie music, and I try to do that in little five minute mini-symphonies, so to speak.

Which classical and film composers inspire you?
Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and Dvorak are wonderful, and my favorite film/musical of all time is West Side Story – the most beautiful “cacophony” imaginable.

“Thrill City” is the main representative of modern gear on the album. I wasn’t going to put any metal songs on the album – just keep it all ballads. But I found that by putting one heavy, uptempo track in the middle of all the romantic music, it made the other songs have even more impact, if only by contrast. “Thrill City” is the first time in my career that all the members of my live band have played on a studio track of mine. I used my Jackson MF-1 Signature model with EMG pickups and my Engl Signature Inferno amp for much of this, but also some funky vintage guitars for hidden textures.

Overdubbing harmonies often makes guitars sound smaller. How did you keep tones fat when you overdub, as on the ending of “Dead of Winter”?
A great singer doesn’t need to have a direct harmony on his voice that much. Same goes with an expressive guitar line. I use harmonies sometimes, but when I do, you can bet there is a reason for it. At the end of the “Dead of Winter” solo, which is almost a minute long, I only harmonize five notes. It puts an exclamation mark on the climax of the solo, allowing the post-solo phrase – which is a softly played ending tag – to sound incredibly delicate. The harmony only has five short notes, yet you noticed it and even thought it sounded fat. I believe the “fat” impact here was less a product of gear choice, and more a result of careful and intentional solo arranging.

Tech’s Treats

Marty Friedman’s guitar tech for Drama, the talented Franco Piona helped guide the guitarist’s selections from his extensive collection of vintage guitars and amps. Here, Piona provides a behind-the-scenes look at the experience – and his trove of groovy gear.

What are the lower-sounding guitars on “Mirage”
I use an Ibanez baritone or seven-string any time I need to go deeper than normal, which is quite often on my bed tracks.

“Tearful Confession” is full of classical bombast.
The idea for that was to start with something desperate, bleak and hopeless, yet somehow bring it to a satisfying, uplifting, and a hopeful crescendo and peak. Easier said than done, but I wanted to do something that would make the listener feel that way. It was a huge challenge. My favorite thing about music is that sometimes when you listen, you wind up feeling better about the situation you are in than you did before. That’s magic, and I try hard to tap into that, even though most truly magical musical moments are unintentional.

“Icicles” feels like the final scene in a movie – something introspective. How did you convey that with your guitar?
I am blown away that you got that from listening to it, as that’s exactly what I was shooting for. As with most of these songs, it is the unique way of arranging the song that allows me great freedom in interpreting each note. With each and every note, I am asking myself, “Is this really what I want to say?” It’s kind of an annoying and time-consuming chore, but once you get used to it, you just do it as part of the process. It’s like choosing your words in an important conversation with a loved one or an important work relation. When creating music, you have much more time to pore over each nuance, than in conversation. The sum of all the tiny decisions makes the whole piece of music exactly what I intend it to be, usually.

Tell us about the guitars, amps, and pedals used on the album. What drew you to vintage gear?
I have a new love and appreciation for vintage gear. Honestly, I was never interested in anything vintage. Worse yet, nearly all my interactions with vintage gear left me unimpressed, at best. I did a TV show in Japan where they had me play all these expensive vintage guitars. They all stunk. One made noise, another buzzed, one would not stay in tune. I was told, “But this guitar is worth $40,000 and was owned by Eric Clapton.” It was all I could do to keep from firing back with, “No wonder Eric didn’t want it.” It seemed every time someone showed me some rare, expensive guitar, to me it was just a beat-up old guitar. Nice to display, maybe, but completely useless in any professional situation.

What changed your perspective on vintage?
My guitars are work tools and need to consistently sound phenomenal, with a great variety of sounds and uses. They also have to withstand the extremes of touring, crazy weather changes, and sweat and blood getting in the pickups. I figured vintage gear was for doctors, lawyers, and people who enjoy and appreciate the history of the instruments, but definitely not for people who are out there making music in the real world. Enter Franco Piona. He’s a top-tier tech and builder; like Carnac the Magnificent, he’s the all-knowing, all-seeing sage of anything related to guitars and amps. He also has the most-extensive and beautiful collection of guitars and amps I have ever seen. He knows them inside and out, and maintains them like an artisan. Franco’s guitars and amps are main characters on Drama.

What was the process for choosing which instrument to use on a given track?
On every part I played, Franco “auditioned” each guitar and amp combination separately, making important adjustments along the way. As a result, I played everything a million times, but on everything I played – from main solos to barely noticeable supporting parts – we didn’t move on until we got the magical combination. Now I can never go back to the old style of recording! Well-maintained vintage guitars are a gift from the heavens, with so much new music left in them… as I learned.

Looking back, your career launched with the collaboration with Jason Becker and your own Dragon’s Kiss album. Was there a specific moment when you broke through to the guitar masses?
One thing I remember was that Jason and I wanted nothing more than a Soundpage (a thin plastic record) in Guitar Player magazine. That was our gauge of “making it” at the time. We were naïve to what went on behind the scenes that gets artists a Soundpage. We just knew it was awesome. When we finally got one, we thought we had arrived somewhere, at least in the world of guitars.

Jason talks about a magical moment when you both had a breakthrough in regard to sweep picking. Do you have any memories of that era?
Both of us just did whatever it took to be able to play the music we wanted to play. Established techniques with names and common music-theory lessons were not of much interest to us. What we liked was analyzing weird things that turned us on, like Philip Glass’ “Mishima” and Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” and using what we learned to develop our abilities and write music. Slonimsky’s book Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns for Guitar was big for us, too, but good luck trying to wedge that stuff in any kind of mainstream music.

Japan has deep passion for western music, from The Ventures to Mr. Big. Do you have a large fanbase there? Most people here don’t know the extent of your musical output in Japan.
In the mid 2000s, a few lucky breaks found me doing television there, so much to the point where I have since done at least 800 TV shows of every possible variety. As many people know me from TV, commercials, or being a government-appointed Ambassador of Japan Heritage as they do from my music. It’s an insane story that’s part of an autobiography I’ve been working on for two years, hopefully coming out by the end of this year.

Can you tell us a bit about making Drama ?
Working in the studio with Marty was a fascinating and amazing experience for me. It was the first time I found myself taking an active part in the selection of the equipment for a recording project. Being an electronic engineer, my previous experiences were mostly related to the construction of guitar amplifiers for Italian artists and, more recently, guitar tech for live situations. But the studio is a completely different environment – we need to make what the artist imagined become reality and the equipment and sounds are the means. Plus, I’ve always followed Marty since Cacophony and Megadeth, so it was nice to explore new sonic territories with him.

Marty told VG he wasn’t really interested in vintage guitars until he tried your collection. Describe his evolution to vintage, and your role.
Marty and I met through a mutual friend who stopped by my place for lunch. The guitars and amplifiers were in the living room, where I usually record and play and I made him try some guitars with different amplifiers to make him understand how using different instruments gives different timbres and can also influence the way of playing because they make you feel the music from another angle.

How did you approach the sessions?
We wanted a space where, in addition to the amplifiers and guitars, different cabinets with different [speakers] could be placed. All this allowed us to modify the guitar/pedals/amplifier/speaker/microphone chain to obtain the desired sound without having to heavily apply EQ or filter at a later time. In other words, we tried to have a beautiful and balanced sound from the beginning.

Were there pieces he instantly connected to?
One of the first guitars he tried was the ’56 Telecaster through the blackface Fender Twin, which had a beautiful and very soft sound. Then he tried the ’58 Stratocaster and the ’69 Les Paul with a Fender Super Reverb. Little by little, we found nations that generated sounds with great personality. Tones are like a painter’s color palette, so that’s how we approached it.

Marty also said you auditioned each piece of gear to help him find the right piece for each track.
I’m not a collector; I’m a guitarist lucky enough to have some good guitars. Generally, if I buy an instrument it’s because after trying it, I just can’t leave it there. I know all the equipment I have and there are not only good tools, there are synergies and good combinations. Marty sent me the demos and I did a bit of pre-selection, picking instruments that would give maximum flexibility in the studio. Once recording began, we chose the instruments that were best suited to the direction we wanted to take.

Did he have to adjust his playing style?
Obviously, some vintage guitars are not as easy to play as some modern guitars, but not for Marty! I think the encounter with vintage generated in him the desire to bring to tape the sounds he had heard in my room. My role was to understand by listening to the demos and the explanations that Marty gave, which were the right tools. Sometimes we got it right the first time, sometimes it took a bit of experimentation.

This article originally appeared in VG’s June 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.