Anvil, Band

Canadian heavy metal band Anvil have a discography going back to 1981, though the foundation of the band was laid out in the early '70s. They've got 13 albums and 30 years of touring under their belts, and if you still haven't heard of them after all this time, that's about to change. The history of the band has been documented for a newly-released film called Anvil! The Story of Anvil, jolting them from cult status to rock stardom in the blink of an eye. Watch the trailer here, then go check out the rock on the big screen. Even Michael Moore himself said it "may be the best documentary film I've seen in years! This movie rocked! And those of us who love metal owe a huge debt of gratitude to the band that helped kick it off." Drummer Robb Reiner recently told us about the band's journey up until now.

How did Anvil come to be? That goes back to 1973 when me and Lips first met as kids—and here we are 33 years later. We met as kids and we said we were going to make a band and rock together and here we are. There’s a book that tells the whole story… it’ll take me an hour to tell the whole story.

Does Canadian Heavy Metal differ from American Heavy Metal? Um… wow how do I answer that? Well, we don’t sound Canadian. Anvil has never sounded like a band from Canada… we sound like a European metal band. Is there really a difference? Some what, I think there’s more rock and roll in American metal than there would be in bands from Canada. I don’t listen to a lot of metal, so I’m not very good to ask, I can’t answer that accurately.

Can you give us a little history of the making of the film? The director of Anvil! The Story of Anvil, Sacha Gervasi, when he was a 15 year old kid in 1982 in England came to the Marquee Club to see us play. He befriended us and we went shopping together and I asked him if he wanted to come on tour with us. He came with us to Canada the following year. We just became friends and basically for six or seven years after that we just continued being friends and then Sacha disappeared and we just continued being Anvil and rocking out. Cut to 2005 we got an email from Sacha—and we always wondered what happened to him—and without us knowing he had become a Hollywood screenwriter who wrote all these great movies (The Terminal, The Big Tease). Lips went to LA to hang with him and it was like 20 years had not passed. Sacha was impressed with the unrelenting desire to not give up and the passion we had. Two weeks later, Sacha comes up to Canada and tells us that he wants to make a movie about us and that’s how the film came to be.

How is it being in the public eye again? It’s awesome. We’ve been working hard to get here for the last 30 years… so it feels good. There’s a lot of love going on.

Last week you had a premiere here in NYC, how did that go? Any interesting encounters there? The premiere was mind blowing and sold out. There were rockstars there, Twisted Sister, Dee Snider, Anthrax. Tons of rockbands—it was amazing. Totally New York electric and on fire. It felt like an amazing Anvil gig. Everyone said it was fucking amazing… I had a great time and the band smoked.

What's next for Anvil? We’re continuing on with the Anvil Experience which is showing the movie and then the band plays after. We have lots of gigs coming up. We’re going to be recording Juggernaut of Justice. I want the world to discover the majesty of Anvil. The songs are written, we just need to record it, perhaps this year to come out next year. This movie has a lot going on. We have Japan and Australia. Lots of good shit coming up. We’re going to keep on rocking.

Do you have a notable "only in New York" story you can share? Back in 1986 we were doing concert in NYC and we were in the hotel room at 3 a.m. We were partying away and we hear beautiful gunshots ricocheting against the buildings—we were up high like 20 stories up. Another memorable story is walking down the streets and seeing hookers giving blowjobs to guys in cars. But they’ve cleaned up the city its’ not the same anymore. It’s beautiful, all brand new taxi cabs, the building sandblasted… I love New York.

Which New Yorker do you most admire? Ed Koch!

What bands are you currently listening to? I don’t listen to anything contemporary. I listen to 60 and 70s rock. Psychedelic rock from the 60s. I listen to old school stuff like Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Cream, Hendrix, the Action, Knickerbockers, stuff like that…. And Cactus, lots of Cactus.

If you could form an all-star supergroup with any musicians (dead or alive), who would be in it? Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath on guitar. Rob Halford from Judas Priest as singer. Steve Harris from Iron Maiden on bass. Me on drums.

If you could play any venue in NYC what would it be? I would love to play Madison square garden! That would be surreal if that happens.