Rock Steady: An Interview with 'Lips' of Anvil, Part 1 of 2
Monday, January 25th
Emos (603 Red River St)
$15, doors at 7pm
[info] | [tickets]
Leading that band, Anvil, for the past 28 years is Steve “Lips” Kudlow. His pact with lifelong friend and blood brother Robb Reiner--made at age 14--to rock together forever merges with the music so perfectly that audiences are unable to tell where the brotherhood ends and the songs begin. And this is, Lips confirms, the entire fucking point.
Anvil’s commercial success after nearly three decades was propelled by the film, fittingly directed by a former roadie, Sascha Gervasi. What he managed to capture in documentary form is not the “real life ‘Spinal Tap’” that Anvil! has been labeled, however fun it is to watch. Anvil! may contain some great footage of Stonehenge, but it’s closer in scope to Aronofsky’s The Wrestler: both deal primarily with questions of retaining dignity in the struggle to stay a commodity. We were lucky enough to speak with Lips himself about how the documentary changed Anvil and how metal is changing the way we listen to music:
Is there anything you have to say to fans just coming to metal through the documentary? People who may feel like outsiders to an outsider culture?
Anvil’s not really very typical. There’s a discovery. People are going to have to go through it on their own. But I like the timeless aspects of the genre. Remember, it’s only labels. It’s fragmented; the definition of what heavy metal was is fragmented by today’s standards. It’s not all the same… like pop music. And I’m not a big fan of all of it. It’s so wide a genre now. Anvil’s more of a timeless style- we never went down the road of becoming… thin. Of [becoming a] subgenre. Older bands have a much more diverse sound.
The metal scene has historically been obsessed with artistic purity and adverse to commercialization; has the success brought by the documentary changed the way you view the music industry? Was it a case of being ‘in the right place at the right time’ or rebelling against the industry- a way to change the rules of the game?
It’s the only way. To make it in the metal genre, you need a miracle. Nothing less. It doesn’t matter what that miracle is, as long as it’s a miracle. We only hear the end product on an album- we don’t see how much it takes to get there.
May be a silly question, but did the success of This is Thirteen strengthen your superstition?
Absolutely. We had no idea in calling the album Thirteen that this was going to happen. That’s not a silly question- it’s a burning question. It’s a phenomenon… it’s bizarre. There was all kinds of foreshadowing. How do you predict in 1982 that a kid you met then is going to come back and make a movie of your life?
People mention ‘deserving.’ It’s not even a question of deserving. It’s… it’s a question of magic.
Thirteen is rebirth. We weren’t at the beginning thinking we were going to have a resurgence- this is before the film was even known about. So was it coincidence? I don’t know! Was it meant to be? Likely.
Is there something going on culturally right now that makes metal particularly resonate?
A bad economy. People feel angry, frustrated. It’s a way to vent anger. A healthy way.
Do you think this new fanbase will stay separate from metal as a culture because they’re listening to other music as well, or will metal culture just accept and absorb them?
Absorb. As time goes on, it’s going to be harder and harder to distinguish fans by which fragments [of the genre] they listen to.
Would metal lose some of its power if it became mainstream?
No. I really believe that it has become mainstream. What we’re really talking about is the evolution of the electric guitar. At some point, you get into these arguments, saying “that’s not really metal.” But metal is in country, it’s in jazz music. It’s already happened; there are all these cross-genres.
And there’s not as much of a division between generations. My 12 year-old son listens to Green Day, and the guitar sound in Green Day is not that much different from Sabbath. It’s not like my dad, who listened to Big Band music, hearing what I listened to at that age and saying “What’s that music?”
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Stay posted for part two of our interview with Lips. Austin will be treated to the Anvil Experience on January 25th at Emo’s: Anvil is currently touring in support of the release of their latest album, This is Thirteen, and the DVD release of Anvil! The Story of Anvil, which will screen at Emo’s before Anvil(!) takes the stage. If you want to further experience the Anvil experience, you can purchase a VIP package, which includes a meet-and-greet with the band and a fanny pack. Yes, a fanny pack.
Anvil [Myspace] [Official]
Broken Teeth [Myspace] [Official]
