Classic metal act Anvil return to Australia in November for a headline tour on the back of their latest release “Anvil Is Anvil” which came out last year. During this run of shows that includes performances all over the world the band made time to write and record another album which will be due out sometime next year but in the meantime, we caught up with Anvil frontman Steve Ludlow, otherwise known as “Lips” to talk about the tour, the success of Anvil since the documentary came out a few years back and what the future holds for the band.
Andrew: We’re excited to be talking to you today because you’re coming back to Australia!
Steve: Yeah exciting, it’s fucking off the chart man! Holy fuck I’m freaking out! We’ve worked so hard to attain this, you gotta understand that this is part of the big trophy to me. Ultimately that’s what it is, when you’re in a band you only dream about going to these exotic places that noone else gets to go and particularly if it’s your music. It’s like my music is going to get me to Australia? Get the fuck out of here, holy shit!
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah that is amazing stuff.
Steve: You can see what I mean when you put it in those terms and understand what I mean. Yeah I’m going to pull out $3000 bucks and pay for myself to have a visit to Australia – how about no! But how about your popularity has paid for you to come and play for us, how about that! Even if I’m not making a profit, just the thought. What? I get a trip to Australia and play there too? Oh wow it’s like I get my cake and I get to eat it too.
Andrew: [laughs] Dream come true! So I know you have been here a couple of times, I know you were here a few years ago and you’ve also been here for Soundwave so how has your previous experiences been like then?
Steve: Oh they have been absolutely amazing! We made so many friends and there are so many people that have been in touch with us, people have been coming up from New Zealand and friends that we met from the last time. It’s just unbelievable so it’s the places you go and the people that you meet, still is [laughs]. It’s still all about that, my closing statements of the movie and I’m still living it so it’s like wow this is even better than I thought it would be. A lot of living some pretty spectacular moments like last week I’m standing right on the equator in Ecuador in Quito and they call it the middle of the world, I guess it’s where all the magnetic poles and everything kind of converge. It’s just wild, where am I now? Where has Anvil brought me now! Everything from standing in France at the Cannes festival talking to Tilda Swinton, what am I doing? Where am I now?
Andrew: Well you are also coming here to celebrate what will next year be 40 years in the business and it’s such an amazing career so I guess even after 40 years it seems like still you have a great appreciation for what you guys do for a living.
Steve: Because I didn’t get burnt out in my 20’s, 30’s and 40’s. I was doing hard labour work keeping myself in top physical condition and making a living, that’s what I was doing. And trying to make my music work so that I didn’t have to go do deliveries, the movie made that come true. I haven’t worked a regular job in 10 years, it’s amazing.
Andrew: That is amazing and that’s the ultimate dream for anyone in a band.
Steve: Like I said and I’ll say it over and over again, it’s not really about money, it’s about survival and who gives a shit about excess. I’m not a person who lives on excess, I’m just a person that lives hand to mouth. All I ever wanted was give me a living, let me make a living doing what I do. I’m good enough, I’ve done everything it takes, why am I not making a living from doing it? Well the answer was there was no publicity and there was no infrastructure to make it so. The movie came along and changed that completely and I haven’t come off the road, I have not stopped working. I’ve retired from doing menial fucking horrible jobs to doing a beautiful, relaxed life of rock and roll and what I mean by relaxed life, I’m travelling and doing what people do in retirement and at the same time I’m not retired, I’m actually getting paid to be here which is absolutely phenomenal. It’s like, look at that I’ve got a retirement plan, it’s just insane.
Andrew: That is great to hear! So over the years then, has there been a particular moment or highlight of your career that’s really stood out for you?
Steve: Oh geez how about Moncton, New Brunswick, 2009 I think it was, opening for AC/DC in front of 80,000 people. How about that?
Andrew: That is a definite highlight!
Steve: There’s a highlight! [laughs]. Never saw an audience that big at any point ever! And as a special guest of the headliner? And Ok not only are you playing in front of that big of a crowd and then to go ahead and play for an hour? Are you kidding me? You wanna talk about opportunity, wanna talk about a kid in a candy shop? Holy fuck, a highlight. A life changing experience, life altering for the band’s career in Canada which completely turned it into a new thing. It’s a whole new horizon. So there are a number of moments in my life and my career that I can talk about in the same sentence but that’s one of the more recent ones and it just so happens that AC/DC happen to be from Australia. They were some of the most wonderful people to actually go out and work with, certainly the most easy going as far as stage hands and people treating you with respect. Off the chart, just awesome! Introducing my 10 year old son to Angus, can you imagine that moment? I mean I hadn’t even met Angus and there’s my 10 year old son going, ‘Oh my god there’s the guy that wrote “Dirty Deeds Done Dirty Cheap”‘ Are you kidding me?
Andrew: That is amazing! Well coming back to your tour here in November, what can we expect? I know that you have been working on a new album that’s going to be released next year so can we expect maybe a couple of new songs at all?
Steve: Oh no that’s a big no-no. This is essentially the end of the touring for “Anvil Is Anvil”, we just happened to put a hole in our really busy schedule to go record it. So we go record it and we’re already back out still touring from the last album and still going to places that we never played any of the songs from that album to the people, nevermind what’s on the next one.
Andrew: Sure that’s fair enough.
Steve: Yeah so we’re in around 200 shows.
Andrew: So what are the new songs sounding like? How did they come out?
Steve: I think it’s a superior album to even the last one, I think it may be the best album we ever recorded since the old days. That’s not an easy thing to say.
Andrew: Yeah definitely, you’ve had so many albums over the years that it must be a challenge.
Steve: I’ve done a lot of recording, I’ve done more than most bands dream of and then some. So let’s just put it this way, from the onset of the movie and the drive that it’s given and the piss and vinegar that it’s loaded into our gas tanks, there’s no stopping it. It’s got it’s own momentum, it’s been an upward motion ever since the movie, the productions and the people that we’re working with gets better and better every time. We’re getting wiser with our choices as far as who we’re doing business and how we’re doing business which brings us back to, why the hell did it take so long to get back to Australia. It’s not easy, you gotta be lined up with the right people and most of the time it’s done by chance and luck. It’s not necessarily how famous we were, you look at that movie going for us and go, ‘Why didn’t we tour 8 years ago?’ And now we’re going to do a proper tour of Australia. I mean all we got was a 45 minute set at Soundwave, 4 or 5 shows and it was done and that was our Australia. It’s unfair man in a certain sense, someone give me a break! It wasn’t easy to find that of course but with perseverance and never giving up and always trying to find a way somehow, eventually you do. I mean I could have given up and said, ‘Ah forget about Australia’. You never ask anybody any questions, ‘Do you know anybody in Australia?’ Because we’re constantly interested, how do we crack that market? How do we get down there? How do we get past the guy that does Soundwave so that we can go play the clubs and play like a regular band does? I don’t need to do Soundwave, I need to get to the people and play to our fans. Soundwave was everybody’s fans and you’re fighting for a little, tiny turf, ‘Hey check us out’. And that’s what something like that does so you never really get to play for your audience, how about letting me play for my audience for the people that will come to just see Anvil? That makes for a lot better show, I get to play longer, I get to give you the full monty so to speak. These are the things that I want as a musician and as a performer, I want my chance to play for the people and when you’re given a 45 minute set and everything is rushed and people see you in a blink and then that’s it, it’s over. When do you come back? Who knows, we may never get back. The way that whole system works, the way the whole music industry works you may never get back. So my approach on a constant consistent basis is that when I go do shows, I play it like I’m never coming back.
Andrew: Yeah give it your all I suppose.
Steve: Yeah every second, every moment has got to be perfect and legendary and unique and spontaneous. It’s imperative that everybody that walks out of there goes, ‘I’ll never forget this’. Just like I should never forget it. What I’m talking about is really important, a lot of musicians forget about that aspect but the truth is if you don’t go out and play and mean it, you might as well stay home. You don’t deserve to be there and that’s the way I look at it man, it’s 100 percent or don’t bother.
Andrew: That’s a great way to look at it, give the punters value for their money so to speak.
Steve: Yeah and it’s even more than that, it’s beyond the money. You won’t remember what the ticket cost you but I’m sure you will remember seeing my face when I’m standing 2 inches from you, sweating all over you. You won’t forget that, it’s not something you can buy, it’s something you experience. So the whole thing is that it must be a memorable experience, every show is that important and believe me because I think a lot of my philosophy comes from my age. Although I don’t like to admit my age or talk about my age but nonetheless it comes from the wisdom of living for a while, you come to realize how important each moment is, how important each human being is and to not take things for granted because in a heartbeat the road can end. At any moment for anybody and that means people you love, yourself. It’s a very vulnerable and vicarious thing and every moment should be cherished because you only get one crack. These things you don’t realize until you’re faced with loss and these things come with age unfortunately and ultimately I think that’s how I found what ageing is, basically I’ve been the same person all along but what ageing is, is the weathering. The weathering of things that happen to you, good and bad. The negative experiences and what you learn from those things and how you fix them as you move along, it’s a philosophy and I’ve gotten to the point in my life where I really appreciate when I get the chance to do things like this. This is not something that came easy, the first time coming to Australia took me over 30 years to get there and then the second time it took another 4 or 5 years before we came back and now it’s been another 4 years. It’s not an easy target, it just isn’t, it’s just the nature of it. You don’t get to places like that often because you are not going over there every year, the only way you will get there every year is if you have a brand new album that is selling ridiculous off the chart numbers and maybe you’ll come back every year but even Kylie might have trouble playing every year!
Andrew: Well we are looking forward to seeing you back here, it’s going to be good stuff! Do you have any last words for the Aussie fans before you come here?
Steve: Nothing more other than I’m going to make it an experience of your life just like it’s going to be an experience of my life. I’m never going to forget it and neither will you!
ANVIL AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES
Wednesday 8th November –BRISBANE – Crowbar
Friday 10th November – SYDNEY – The Bald Faced Stag
Saturday 11th November –MELBOURNE – Prince Bandroom
Sunday 12th November – ADELAIDE – Fowlers Live
Tuesday 14th November – PERTH – Rosemount Hotel
TICKETS From –https://metropolistouring.com/anvil/
