Guitarist Marty Friedman (ex-MEGADETH) is featured in a new interview with New Guitar. An excerpt is available below:

Q: The music you showed us on a few last releases contains many elements of dance music. Do you like and listen also modern dance music (I mean that presented by DJs in clubs), etc?

Friedman: "Very much. It usually has very little guitar in it, and I always feel like I can give dance music a new guitar heavy flavor.

Q: The music on Tokyo Jukebox (I and II) sounds very optimistic and happy – a kind of opposite in comparison to what we heard in Megadeth. I guess you are a in very happy period of your life. Any comments?

Friedman: "That is a very good observation. I was happy in Megadeth and I am happy now. However, I have many more musical challenges now and that`s why my music has so many more emotions now. Positive feelings come out in my music much more now, even when the music I`m making now at times is much heavier than Megadeth."

Go to Friedman's official website here for the complete interview.

As previously reported, Friedman made a surprise guest appearance at the Saitama Super Arena on stage on December 25 with Japanese phenomenon MOMOIRO CLOVER. They played two songs and a guitar solo corner with an excerpt from Friedman's 'Valley Of Eternity'.

Friedman recently recorded Momoiro Clover's upcoming single, 'Moretsu', with producer Maeyamada Kenichi at the helm. Maeyamada is being hailed in Japan as the hottest new producer in recent times, racking up several hits with his twisted and instantly recognizable style.

Adds Friedman about the collaboration, (translated from ENTAME magazine) "...this song is like the (QUEEN's) 'Bohemian Rhapsody' of idol/girl group music. It has all the elements you would never expect in the genre-aside from the five girl singers, there is a 100 person choir, odd-time signatures, high speed tempo changes, unusual key modulations, and my guitar over the top of all of it. Actually, if you could imagine a two-hour long Japan-themed Broadway show fast forwarded and squeezed into five and a half minutes, that might describe the song. No question this is my favorite collaboration since I moved to Japan. It`s also the kind of thing you either loathe with a passion, or you love it so much you can`t get enough of it."

The single will be released in early 2012, and even though it will be a Japan only release, for fans of Friedman's playing all around the world it will be well worth looking into.