Anvil! The Story of Anvil: Anvil and Sacha Gervasi interview

In 1982 the demigods of Canadian rock, Anvil, release their second album Metal on Metal. Although hugely influential on their peers such as Metallica and Guns N' Roses, the record failed to break the band into the big time and they've been trying ever since. Now, over 25 years later, success has come from an unexpected direction in the form of a documentary by The Terminal writer and lifelong Anvil fan, Sacha Gervasi. Hilarious and heart-warming, it's This is Spinal Tap, but with a real band. We caught up with Sacha, front man Steve "Lips" Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner in between their London screenings/gigs to ask how it all came about and what's changed for the band.

LOVEFiLM: Lips, Robb, how have the fortunes of the band changed since people started seeing the film?

Robb Reiner: It's changed dramatically. It's opened many doors. You know, we have a real manager now, a real big-time agent, we have one or two record deals… Things have changed quite a bit.

Lips: It's unbelievable, man. Imagine if you had an idea in your mind's eye, what you dreamed of for years and years, and then to go out and it is that, a dream come true. I think part of it is because of the years of struggle. We were that much more starved for it, you know? It's really, really remarkable.

RR: We're being discovered by a whole new generation, more or less. My ears have been burning from people telling me how much we turn them on to metal.

LF: Has your personal relationship changed with success?

All: [Laughs.]

L: Actually, the real truth is that we're exactly the same guys as in the movie and everybody else is changing, and we're going, "What the f*** is going on?!"

RR: Nothing's changed between the two of us. It never will.

LF: Sacha, one thing that struck me about the film is that there could have been a lot more of the band's music in it. Was that deliberate?

Sacha Gervasi: Absolutely, because I wanted to avoid all the tried and tested aspects of the rock documentary, which would be to show at length the construction of songs and hear the music. But it was never meant to be Behind the Music. It had to have a reach way beyond metal fans. It was for a general audience always.

The way it was originally conceived was as a two-part piece of art. It was a film and then it was always a plan for the band to come out and play immediately after the film. So you create this mystery in the film about the band, almost like Jaws, you know? You just don't show the shark until the end. So when the band comes out and rocks, it blows people away.

LF: Although the film looks like it's just one of the band's mates following them round with a camera, it's actually more structured than that, isn't it?

SG: Yeah, I always knew that there was a certain journey people had to take that had to be plotted out. People would walk into it being judgemental and cynical about heavy metal, because there is the stereotype, you know? Long haired, stupid, loud. Knowing the boys in Anvil, I knew once people actually got to know them, it would turn the whole thing on its head. I knew that in order to maximise the surprise, what I had to do was build up the similarities to the stereotype. Confirm it and tell the audience that this is really funny. You have to say to them, "Hey, this is quite like Spinal Tap". So we deliberately not only embraced the whole Spinal Tap aspect, but also configured things so that the audience would have a sense of being on familiar ground. Then we just completely turned their world upside down.

LF: How did your relationship with Anvil start?

SG: [Laughs.] How did it start?! I turned up in their changing room after Lips was in tears from playing the Marquee Club in ’82. I cornered Robb and I said I was just blown away by his drumming. You really had to really be there to understand the ferociousness and intensity of seeing Anvil play as a 15-year-old. I was just freaking out! I just went on and on. I think because I was so enthusiastic, they thought I was really funny.

L: There was a comedy to you, man.

SG: And they kind of adopted me. They'd never been to London, so I showed them around. I took them back to my house and they met my mum, and my mum said, "They have to leave immediately!" [Laughs.]

And then I went to hang out with them, because I had family in Toronto. And then a few times they said, "Hey, come on the road with us."

And then, what can you say? I lost touch with them for 20 years and then got back in touch and it was just like old times, but now it's even more fun because it's on a completely different level. I think if 25 years ago you'd said to any of us, “25 years from now, you’ll become a movie director and make a movie about these guys and the whole thing will blow up across the world”, none of us would have believed you.

RR: We'd have checked you into some kind of psychiatric hospital!

SG: And it doesn't matter where we play the film, in Sydney, LA, London or Africa… They want it in Bali now. [Explaining what Bali is to Lips and Robb] In Indonesia we've been asked to be part of the Balinese cultural festival in July. I don't know if we can do it. It's like 23 hours away. It's a completely different part of the world. It's a tropical island paradise.

L: Let's do it!

RR: Perfect.

Alexander Pashby