Marty Friedman’s Planning to Release a New Album Next Spring
Ex-Megadeth guitarist and Cap’n Crunch truther Marty Friedman has been making the rounds lately, what with his recent stints back on stage with his old band. And while it’s been great to see him ripping through some classic Megadeth tunes, it’s important to remember that the dude doesn’t need to come back to Dave Mustaine and company, as he’s HUGE in Japan and has a successful solo career.
To that end, it turns out that 2024 could be a big year for Friedman and his solo output, as he’s thinking his next solo album will drop some time next Spring. During a recent interview with Chris Akin Presents, the guitarist said his new album is roughly 75% done and on track.
“I’ve been recording my upcoming album for almost a year now. And it’s gonna be finished by the end of the year, and it’s gonna come out in the spring of 2024. And boy, it’s an ambitious one. But, of course, I say that every time. But every time I have to top the one that was before it, so the task keeps getting more and more insane. And right now I would say I’m about 75 percent done with that.”
When he says his next record’s “ambitious,” that’s gotta get fans excited. The dude’s a master at his craft, so anything that even he thinks is ambitious should be wild, to say the least.
Friedman said the push to create something new, exciting, and ambitious is the driving force for his career, stating that he’s trying to outdo himself all the time.
“I’m not really so much into trying something that I haven’t done for the sake of trying something I haven’t done. I’m trying to impress me with something that I’ve never done before. It’s not like I’m gonna suddenly wake up one day and say, ‘Okay, I’m gonna be a rapper’ or something. I do what I do and I have my musical vision and sound. I just try to do deeper things with it.
“I try to make more complex emotions, deeper emotions in the music, more interesting, melodic twists and turns, more adventurous things, things that I wasn’t deep enough to do last year or two years ago, or five years ago, things that I couldn’t hear back then, things that I can only hear because life has given me more experiences since then, and, of course, more musical experiences, and just to consciously be aware of stuff that I’ve already done and not repeat it.
“It’s a natural challenge that I’ve been doing forever, and the hardest part is that blank sheet when I just start from zero. It’s, like, ‘How am I going to top that last thing that I just did? I worked my ass off. I’m completely done. I have nothing left. I’ve got zero.’ And so that’s the challenge. But now that I’m about 70, 80 percent done with this new record, I’m pretty confident with it. And I really am looking forward to letting everybody hear it.”
In addition to his new album, Friedman said he also thinks he’ll be able to release his autobiography next year, as well as an instructional video for TrueFire.
“I’m editing my autobiography, which will come out also next year. And also, I just did the most exhaustive instructional video series for TrueFire — the most exhaustive one they’ve ever done and the most exhaustive one I’ve ever done by far. It’s the deepest dive into just the way I see music, which apparently is not the same as how others see it. Not that it’s better or worse, but it’s just completely different. So for the first time ever, including any of my other instructional things, for the first time ever, I’ve really actually worked hard on it and created this thing. And I did it at the end of the tour, the U.S. tour that I did earlier this year, and now it’s just about finished. We’re just putting the last edits on and just about done with that. So, it’s kind of a lot of post-production work at this point.”
If you’d like to hear more from Friedman, be sure to check out the full interview over at the Chris Akin Presents… YouTube channel.
