Interview: Anvil Steve Lips Kudlow, Robb Reiner

Sacha Gervasi, VH1 Classic Documentary on Canadian Thrash Metal Band

Apr 2, 2009

In Part #3 of this exclusive interview, Canadian thrash-metal pioneers Anvil talk about being independent musicians and why their next CD will revolutionize metal.

Filmmaker Sacha Gervasi's documentary, Anvil! The Story of Anvil, has catapulted the thrash metal pioneers back into the public consciousness, thanks to appearances by contemporaries and protegés like Lemmy of Motörhead, Slayer's Tom Araya, Lars Ulrich of Metallica and Slash from Guns n' Roses/Velvet Revolver.

In the previous installment of this exclusive interview, founding members Robb Reiner (drums) and Steve 'Lips' Kudlow (vocals/guitar) talked about watching their lives laid out on film, and why they're the only band that matters.

In this installment, they talk about being independent musicians and why their next CD, Juggernaut of Justice, will usher in a whole new style of metal.

S101: So now you’re selling your CD’s through your website –

How’s that been working for you?

Lips: "Look at these statistics: when a record company sells your record, you get a dollar or a dollar-fifty for a record sale. If you manufacture and sell those records directly to the fans, it’s the other way ‘round: it costs you a dollar or a dollar-and-a-half to create the CD, manufacture-wise. Not to record it, we’re not talking about that. If you sell your CD for $20 . . . you see what the difference is."

You’re making $18.50 instead of $1.50 per CD.

Robb: "Well, you still need a record company, they just don’t like to pay you."

Lips: "And by having those huge corporate buildings and 5,000 employees, how the hell are they going to pay everyone unless they take all the dividends from your record sales?"

Robb: "And that’s why you have to sell so many CD’s to make them pay for itself. It’s a cesspool of manifested diarrhea (sic)."

As an independent artist, how many CD’s do you have to sell in order to break even?

Let’s take your most recent CD, This is Thirteen: how many copies would you have to sell in order to break even?

Lips: "I would say . . . thirty thousand CD’s sold to be completely, utterly paid off."

And have you managed to do that?

How many have you sold so far?

Robb: "Well . . . we’re getting there. We’re definitely getting there. We’re working on paying Rhonda back." (Writer's note: Anvil financed This is Thirteen by borrowing money from Lips' older sister Rhonda Kudlow)

So what’s different about This is Thirteen, other than getting your old producer Chris Tsangarides?

Lips: "We’d gone on a long journey through what I call the Integrity Jungle: we were creating music that was very unaccessible (sic), very hard-core, self-indulgent, showing musical prowess to a point that some of the original fans thought we'd become too heavy. Coming out of that, we ventured to where we’d began –"

Lips: "Yeah, we started out being commercial, and became heavier and heavier, as opposed to the other way ‘round." (laughs)

What did you start listening to in order to get you back to a more commercial sound?

Robb: "Nothing. We live in our own little bubble, you know? We morphed back into ourselves. We tried different things and we came back to who we really were."

Lips: "I live in the Sixties, musically. The old stuff is the great stuff. Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Cactus, Grand Funk, Foghat . . ."

And you’re about to record a new CD?

Robb: "The new one’s called Juggernaut of Justice. We haven’t recorded it yet, but it’s ready to go. It's going to be the best album we’ve ever done. We’ve invented a new genre, we’ve invented metal-jazz."

How so?

Robb: "We’ve pioneered something that I believe is going to be revolutionary. I’m a jazz drummer: the world knows that I just happen to be in a metal band. And Lips listens to a lot of old-time swing jazz these days."

Lips: "I’ve been getting into Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa, really fast swing. It’s really similar to speed metal, it’s just that it’s done with horns."

Lips: "Instead of on the double-bass drum, the feel is on the hi-hat." (demonstrates with vocables)

Robb: "We play this stuff live right now, and it blows people away beyond anything I’ve ever seen. We’ve innocently created something that’s never been done before."

So what’s next for you guys?

Robb: We’re gonna be touring the Anvil Experience, which is: we show the movie and then we play right afterwards in the theatres. It’s like Beatlemania. We’re going to be doing that all through the States and Japan . . . we’ve already been doing it in England. I’d like to do it in Canada, hopefully we will do that, in the next year. We’re gonna do the new album, we’re gonna be Anvil, we’re gonna keep rockin’."

The copyright of the article Interview: Anvil Steve Lips Kudlow, Robb Reiner in Speed/Thrash Metal is owned by Dominic von Riedemann. Permission to republish Interview: Anvil Steve Lips Kudlow, Robb Reiner in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.