Marty Friedman was asked by Full Metal Jackie to single out the “biggest culture shock whenever you come back to America,” to which he replied:
“It’s definitely the audience, because I’m so wrapped up with what I’m doing in Japan that I really have no idea what the atmosphere of who’s gonna show up to my shows in the first place and what their response is gonna be like.
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“Especially on the last ‘Inferno’ tour, I really had no idea – I hadn’t been in America for a long time – and I was just absolutely blown away, completely overwhelmed by the energy of the audience and the excitement of just seeing their faces when I come on with my band from Japan.
“And we have a very different energy than I think that is common in America; we really tear it up. And the audience was so incredibly supportive that it really confirmed to me that I was so glad that I came back to America and it made me wanna come right back again.”
During the rest of the chat, Marty was asked on “how does Japanese culture and sensibility steer your ingrained Americanisms in terms of creativity,” to which he replied:
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“I was born in America, grew up in America, but luckily, I’ve been everywhere.
“I lived in Germany as a kid and, obviously, toured all over the world and everywhere and seen every different possible kind of culture and worked with people of every possible nationality.
“So it kind of gets blurry along the way and you just realize that everybody is exactly the same wherever you go. Culture shock is kind of not that big of a deal.
“That being said, having the language really makes things different, because the language of Japanese, compared to American English, is quite polite [chuckles] and it’s kind of got a built-in politeness about it, a built-in kind of consideration for the other person that you’re talking to.
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“Whether or not you like this person is a completely different story; it’s just in the language, and that’s not really in the English language.
“So the dynamic between people, one on one, is quite different from the American way of life and way of talking.
“So I noticed that when I go back to speaking English, like I’m talking to you, I sound rather polite when I’m not really that polite, I’m just a regular dude.
“But just by speaking so much Japanese, it’s kind of made me become a little bit more polite, so to speak, if that answers your question at all.”