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Canada’s Anvil may not have achieved the same commercial success as some of their heavy metal counterparts, but they did receive major acclaim when the award-winning documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil was released in 2008. The band, started in 1973 by guitarist and singer Steve “Lips” Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner has shared the stage with just about every old-school metal band in the business, has toured the whole world and has seen all of the excess and debauchery associated with the genre — and then some. They are traveling the U.S. in support of their aptly named new album, One and Only and will be hitting the Launchpad Aug. 2. “Lips” gave The Paper. the scoop on the band’s inspiration, longevity and influence.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The Paper.: What makes anvil different from other metal bands?
How many other guitar players play their guitar with a vibrator? How many bands yell in their guitar pickups and introduce the band through the pickup? No one sounds like me. I have a unique sounding voice.
The whole term rock singer is still an oxymoron. Because none of them are really singers. They’re all character voices. You know it by the sound of it, not necessarily by the quality in which they’re singing. And that permeates all popular music all through the ages.
Do you want to describe how the new album compares to your previous body of work?
Everyone says, “Hey, you know Anvil, they did the same album 19 times,” and I’m going, “No, that’s not right. They did it 20 times.” It’s like, go look at all of Van Gogh’s paintings. Did Van Gogh all of a sudden start painting like Leonardo da Vinci? You know the flowers in the vases? I think he did 35 of those paintings.
What is your history with the band?
Rob [Reiner] and I have been writing songs since we were little kids. That was what made us different than all the other kids on the block is that we wrote our own songs. When people tried to say whether we were good or bad, they could only judge us on our own music.
My life has coincided with the invention of the electric guitar, basically. So it started out in 1956. And by the time I’m 3 years old, I’m already singing Elvis Presley. I think the first song I ever was aware of was “All Shook Up.”
Are there any unifying themes or is there an identity to Anvil in your lyrics?
Lately, I’ve been very, very angry at media. It’s mostly TV news conglomerates. They’re the worst of the worst. They’ve destroyed our world. They’ve wrecked democracy by the proliferation of fucking bullshit, endless bullshit, non-truth everywhere.
There’s a lot of frustration that I was able to get out in the making of the new album, in a certain sense. Like “Condemned Liberty.” I’m really angry at one person’s abuse of our freedom, and it changes life for everybody on the planet. It’s just wrong. An example: Some guy gets on an airplane with a shoe bomb. Now, everybody has to take their shoes off.
A lot of people may have been introduced to Anvil because of the famous documentary that you are in. Do you want to talk about the documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil?
There are similarities to the [This is] Spinal Tap movie, but I think every band that has ever existed in the rock genre is somehow related to Spinal Tap anyway. Because it’s all taken from real life stuff anyway. So then when you see the real thing it’s like wow, it’s like Spinal Tap. No, Spinal Tap is like it. We’re the real Spinal Tap, they’re the fake one.
You have played with just about everybody. Who are some of your favorites or some of the most memorable, or the craziest shows that you’ve played over the years?
It’s one thing to meet a famous rock star but it’s another thing when a famous rock star wants to meet you. That’s all I can say, man. It’s bizarre.? Some of the moments, and not necessarily even with just people in the rock business, but movie stars. So far, it’s been quite the journey,
As a result of the Anvil movie I was asked by Sir Anthony Hopkins to do the movie Hitchcock. So the director and Anthony Hopkins were out for lunch. And Anthony Hopkins says, “Hey, man, get me that guy Lips on the phone. I want to talk.” So my cell phone rings, and I answer and I hear, “Hellooooo, Lips.” It’s like, “Oh my God it’s Hannibal Lector on the fucking phone.”
How do you feel about the smaller, more intimate venues compared to the large stadium shows you’ve played over the years?
Oh, I’ll take the small club any day.
The bigger the festival, and the bigger the whatnot, you end up watching it on a fucking screen because the musicians look like two little specks on the stage. Because it’s such a big place. That, to me, is not ideal. That’s not really seeing a band live. Seeing a band really live is actually getting the musicians sweat on you. Or his spit when he’s singing.
Anvil with Pulsifier and Blood Oath
8 p.m., Friday, Aug. 2
Launchpad
618 Central Ave. SW
$17
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