NITA STRAUSS Wanted To 'Come Back Full Circle' By Recruiting MARTY FRIEDMAN To Guest On 'The Call Of The Void' Album

In a new interview with Spain's Made In Metal, Nita Strauss spoke about her collaboration with former MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman on the song "Surfacing" from her second solo album, "The Call Of The Void". She said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The first heavy metal song that I ever heard in my life was a MEGADETH song with Marty Friedman playing guitar. And that was really my introduction to heavy metal, to the style of music that I love so much. And then, of course, over the years, I discovered Marty Friedman's solo music and CACOPHONY and everything else. And so when it came time to write this record, I didn't want to collaborate with a lot of guitar players because I already had so many collaborations with the vocalists. But I thought, 'How cool would it be to come back full circle and have the very first heavy metal guitarist I ever heard on this record?' So we reached out to Marty."

She continued: "Working with him was just amazing. He is very hands-on. He cares a lot about the song, the arrangement, the song as a whole, not just his one part, but he cares about the whole song, the production, the bass playing, the drum playing — like everything. He was very involved with it, which was a great experience for me learning how he does things."

Nita previously discussed her collaboration with Marty this past summer in an interview with Total Guitar. Asked what she learned from working with Friedman, Strauss said: "Talk about a storyteller. I've learned so much from Marty over the years. He knows what he wants.

"This collaboration was such an education for me, as a sort of young guitar player at the foot of the master. The first metal song I ever heard had Marty playing guitar on it.

"We fleshed out the whole concept together. I sent him some riffs and then he sent back this crazy song with his own ideas. Funnily enough, there was a quote I read from him recently which said something like, 'Nita's not afraid of a little hard work,' referring to how this song went back and forth. I wanted him to critique me."

Regarding what kind of advice Marty gave her, Nita said: "He would tell me how I could make melodies better and what notes I should use instead of the ones I'd initially chosen. I came out the other side a better player. He sent pages of detailed notes and through him I learned you have to know what your story is and what you're trying to say or convey. Pick phrases that help tell the story. Resist the temptation to use your songs to show off your fastest licks. It's about the message of the music rather than a bunch of notes you can play fast one after another.

"I had Marty's 'Exotic Metal Guitar' instructional DVD growing up. Honestly, I learned so much from that — as well as John Petrucci's 'Rock Discipline', Yngwie's 'Play Loud' or Frank Gambale's 'Modes: No More Mystery'… which is how I learned you can go from A natural minor to G Mixolydian or C Ionian and move between those shapes. It's just a case of taking a little walk down the neck through the different modes of the same scale. That's when the whole fretboard opened up for me. All of these greats shaped what us guitar players do now."

Back in 2015, Nita told Cosmo Music that she started playing guitar at the age of 15. "And I think was the first heavy metal song I ever heard, which was 'Trust' by MEGADETH, that really sparked my love of heavy metal," she said. "And ever since then, it was sort of a non-stop train, a non-stop train of heavy metal… crazy train, if you will. [Laughs] And, yeah, I mean, when you feel it, when you really feel a kind of music in your heart, and you know what you're supposed to be doing, it's a beautiful thing. I feel really lucky that I did."

Strauss released "The Call of the The Void" in July via Sumerian Records. The LP is a star-studded affair featuring guest vocals from DISTURBED's David Draiman, ARCH ENEMY's Alissa White-Gluz, HALESTORM's Lzzy Hale, MOTIONLESS IN WHITE's Chris Motionless, IN FLAMES' Anders Fridén, Hungarian-born vocalist/writer Dorothy Martin, Alice Cooper and Lilith Czar.