The former guitarist for Megadeth will soon release the third part to his “Tokyo Jukebox.” The series started in 2009, with a sequel following in 2011. Marty Friedman has adopted the culture as inspiration for the on-going series.
Marty says, “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. 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.”
It wasn’t as easy as picking a couple of songs to cover. According to Marty, recording copywritten work is a more “involved process” in Japan. 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, only to wind up not recording it for whatever reason. That would be very impolite. 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.”
He issued a pair of tracks, “Makenaide,”
as well as “The Perfect World” (which dates back to 2018). They will both be available for preorder this year. Marty recently posted a music video for “The Perfect World.”
Marty recalls, “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. It’s really a self-cover, so it fits in with the idea of this being a covers album.”
Marty recorded most of the series at Power House Studios in Tokyo. He was the producer and worked alongside drummer Anup Sastry and bassist Kiyoshi.
“Kiyoshi has been in my band for about six years now doing all my tours and recordings. She is a powerhouse, and I honestly have never seen anyone hit the bass as hard as she does, especially while keeping up with my kind of challenging music. Anup was a member of Skyharbor (an Indian/American progressive metal band) and has been on my last three albums. He is just plain phenomenal as well.”
