Steve “Lips” Kudlow is the lead singer and guitar player for the band Anvil. Anvil started it’s career in the late 1970’s and recently was thrust back into the spotlight due to the award winning documentary “Anvil! The Story of Anvil.” Movie Mikes had a chance to talk with “Lips” about the movie, the new Anvil record and the bands involvement in the FX original series “Sons of Anarchy.”
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Adam Lawton: When you were filming “Anvil! The Story of Anvil” was there any point in time where you and the rest of the band decided not to shoot something?
Lips: For the most part we didn’t mind. There were some points where I wasn’t happy about being filmed. Considering how much the cameras were around there was really only one time that I freaked out about the cameras. The funny part was that even after I freaked out about not being filmed the guy with the camera was able to shoot the conversation anyways from around the corner (laughs). In hind sight that scene added a lot to the plot.
AL: When you were approached about the movie was the original plan to do a large scale release of the film or keep it more indie and smaller?
Lips: When I heard there was going to be a movie and who was making it I expected everything that it ended up being. My expectations were a lot higher than even the filmmaker (laughs).
AL: You had know Sacha Gervasi, the writer/producer of the film, previously correct?
Lips: Yeah. We had actually met him when he was a kid. He was on the road with us for a while and we became friend but we lost touch with him for some time. One day he calls me and says he has been working for Steven Spielberg as a screenwriter and he wants to make a movie about the band. My perspective was that one of Steve Spielberg’s guys wants to make a movie about Anvil! I was convinced that we were going to be stars (laughs). I was really the only one seeing that vision at the time and even Sacha was saying we have a lot of work to do to get to that point.
AL: How did you and the band get involved with “Sons of Anarchy”?
Lips: We got to do a cameo appearance on an episode from season 2 as gun runners (laughs), Kurt Sutter, the producer and writer of the show, lives across the street from Sacha and is a fan of the band. He asked if we 
would be interested in being a part of the show. I was at Sasha’s one day while he was out and I hear this familiar voice calling his name. I turn around and it’s Kurt Sutter’s wife Katie Segal who is also on the show. I was like what the fuck is going on! She had just stopped over to say “Hi”. It was so crazy(laughs).
AL: Can you tell us about the new album?
Lips: The album should be out in March 2011. It will have about eleven or twelve songs on it. We recorded sixteen songs but we are only going to put a certain amount on there. We have an instrumental on there that is incredible! I think it’s something that has never been done before. It’s a cross between big band swing and heavy metal. I can’t believe we created something this cool! It’s something that people have never heard before.
AL: Any chance we will see a sequel to the Anvil movie?
Lips: Probably. But it’s not going to be for a year or two.
Click here to purchase Anvil’s movie and music