From setting fretboards alight with Jason Becker to being Megadeth’s talismanic virtuoso, Marty Friedman has shared stages with some incredible talents. And he’s given a shout-out to one of his favorites.
When Friedman left Megadeth, he relocated to Japan. There, he’s embedded himself in the country’s guitar scene, and he feels the guitar sphere needs more eyeballs on the Land of The Rising Sun.
“There are a lot of super female rock guitarists in Japan, but if I were forced to choose a favorite, it would be Hal-Ca,” he tells Guitar World in a new interview.
“Her band is called Asterism, and we’ve done a lot of cool things together, notably performing the song Gyutto, which we wrote together on Sony’s The First Take video series.”
That video series recently featured Ichika Nito as he looked to put fake-guitarist allegations leveled against him to bed. Friedman and Hal-Ca locked fretboards in May last year, and they made for an incendiary pairing.
“Hal-Ca is an extremely aggressive heavy metal player, with a precise machine-gun right hand for rhythm that I wish I had,” the guitarist praises.
“Her soloing is wild, well thought out, and performed with ease and abandon. Hal-Ca will be doing some shows with me as my second guitarist on tour, and that requires some pretty high-level abilities.”
The song they played together shows how locked in their playing styles are. There’s a heavy dose of hyper-pop-flavored Japanese vocal melodies, but underneath, the pair unleash fire and brimstone. There are harmonies galore, too. The experience gave Friedman flashbacks.
“On Rock Fujiyama [Japan TV show], we played one of her Asterism songs, Stars, and it reminded me of playing with Jason Becker,” he details.
“She does all the guitar things I don’t do – like tapping and whammy bar stuff – but does them in a way that I like, which is saying a lot. Asterism are a power trio unlike any heavy metal three-piece you ever heard.”
The last time Friedman sat down with Guitar World, he recalled his experiences of working with Becker and their grueling 18-hour studio days as they worked on their late ’80s solo records.
Guitar World’s latest interview with Marty Friedman will be published online in due course.
