Anvil frontman Steve "Lips" Kudlow is featured in a new interview with Rock Hard With Jay Conroy. In the clip below, Lips discusses the band's early years, being named as an influence by their peers in the metal world, and the 2008 documentary, Anvil: The Story Of Anvil.

On being named as an influence by members of Metallica and Anthrax

Lips: "Who were they going to credit? In North America, there really wasn't anything to credit. There's no one else to credit. To be honest with you, there was nothing else. That was another part of the problem, because we were doing… you know, when David Krebs (former manager) is watching us playing '666' and 'Motormount', he's going, 'You guys shouldn't be doing songs like that. No one understands it.' Including himself! He was going, 'You shouldn't be playing songs like '666'.' That's where Slayer and Metallica picked up the ball and ran with it and left us in the dust."

Alan Dixon from Canada's The Metal Voice spoke to Lips Kudlow and Drummer Robb Reiner of Canada's Legendary band Anvil, on May 9th in Montreal, Canada on their Quebec tour. The two talked about the musical direction of the new album as well as a new label.

When asked about their new upcoming album and the musical direction:

Robb: "We have a new album that will be coming out January 2020. In term of musical direction the fans can expect more Anvil, it's just a continuation of what we have been doing for the last 4-5 years. On this album there will be some very powerful riffs. It's going to be more smashing, crushing Anvil.”

Lips: "Of course also it's fresh and new music but the roots are very much Anvil. Everybody who liked us before will still like us and people who didn't like us are still not going to like us. I am not going to tailor my music and songs to the people that don't like us and hope that they will. I'm going to do the exact opposite. I think this new album has the best slow pounders and some of the best fast stuff we have ever done. We are trying to be different because you don't want it to be the same cause then you are just repeating yourself and not being creative. If you don't write hit singles and you’re not a pop band you have to stay relevant by writing great metal music that is supposed to be timeless and that is what we have been doing all of our lives. We are not catering to radio we are catering to metal fans and that is what we do."

 

(Photo - Rudy De Doncker)