Interview by: Noel Smart & Craig Sternberg
SDM: How has the reception been so far to The Story of Anvil?
Robb: The reception to the movie has been overwhelmingly mind blowing. Everyone who has seen the movie fully engages it and they fall in love with Lips and myself. Even people who aren't into metal start becoming metalheads!
SDM: How have people outside of metal and critics of movies responded to it? You are turning people into metalheads, huh?
Robb: Absolutely, man. It's amazing, even Dustin Hoffman was just recently headbanging to 666 when we were playing it.
SDM: How long did it take to put the movie together?
Robb: It was shot from the end of 2005 to the beginning of 2007. We had twenty hours of footage, and cut it down to a ninety minute movie. We could have made five movies.
SDM: Was the process of making it tedious at all for you guys?
Robb: If it was tedious for anyone, it would have been for Lips. Lips fell in love with the making of it, the editing stages. I was the last one to see the movie finished. The director made sure that's how it ended up.
SDM: Bill Butler of Death was very influenced by your playing; Benediction covered "Forged in Fire". How does that make you feel, knowing that you've influenced these guys?
Robb: I guess there must be something that I'm doing that everybody likes. I don't know what to say to that, I've been hearing it for thirty years and it's not stopping. I'm humbled and flattered, and if I'm inspiring people, it's a great thing — it honestly is. The only good imitation Robb Reiner that I've ever heard is Mikkey Dee of Motorhead. Everybody else is just guys who own drums who think they can play!
SDM: Is there any secret to being in the industry this long and keeping up with the young drummers of today? Any advice you can give?
Robb: As far as young drummers goes, I'm not aware of it, I'm not up on it. I don't even know what guys are doing. No one tells me there is anything worth listening to, so I don't.
SDM: Have you ever sustained injuries on tour over the years that maybe worried you or made you unable to play?
Robb: No, thank God. One time, I ripped my finger open on a cymbal grab, but that was an on-the-spot injury, and I kept pounding and blood was flying everywhere. No injury sustained yet that has threatened my drumming career.
SDM: You're not a fan of any of the metal drumming today? You don't know much about it?
Robb: No, I'm not up on it at all. I'm schooled in jazz drumming; Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, the old school guys to me are the only guys. They all play with real honesty and feel. Today guys I think miss the boat on what it's really all about.
SDM: Have you ever heard of any these underground metal drummers? Guys who can play fast double bass, blast beats, et cetera?
Robb: I have had enough blast beat drumming subjected to me to last me eighty lifetimes. That's not feel, you know? Real drumming and awesome drumming is all about feel and creating and moving with feel. When you play linear style drumming like thrash and blast beats there's no groove to that. It just sounds like a robot. Robb Reiner does not come from that school.
SDM: What do you think is the one song out of Anvil's catalogue that is the most intense to play?
Robb: There are too many of them. They're not difficult to play, really, just some find it impossible to copy.
SDM: What's your favorite one to play, then?
Robb: Right off the cuff I loved Winged Assassins. It has a great drum pattern to it.
SDM: How would you describe your drumming style?
Robb: It's technically metal-jazz drumming. If you can't play snare drum, you can't play drums. That's where it all starts. It's about being able to tap dance with your left hand and doing all those chops and feels. That's drumming to me. I wish a lot of these young kids would know that and apply that to their playing.
SDM: You listed some of your jazz influences, tell us more about your rock influences?
Robb: Ian Paice of Deep Purple is God to me. John Bonham is no different. Ginger Baker, Carmine Appice, Don Brewer, Cozy Powell; these guys are all great influences. That's the world of drumming I really, really live in. I listen to only old school rock when I listen to rock. All the drumming I heard in the late '80s and stuff just sounded like bad Robb Reiner to me.
SDM: So many bands have come out and said their thanks to Anvil, bands like Metallica, Anthrax, and so on.
Robb: Bless their souls that they've gone out and told the world everything that I've always done. I love those guys for telling the world.
SDM: Does it frustrate you at all to see those guys saying that, and seeing how famous and popular they are?
Robb: No, it doesn't frustrate me, because the truth is out now, isn't it? The story has been told, and it's all good for me. We kept making amazing records, and Lips writes the heaviest metal riffs on this planet and always has. We just carried on making the most honest music and being Anvil. Staying true to ourselves, that's what this is really all about. We came a long way to tell a story, and it was really beautiful, and we are lucky that it has gone beyond our expectations.
SDM: What's the next chapter in Anvil's story, in your opinion?
Robb: We are just going to continue rocking out like we always have. We are just going to continue playing more and more, get discovered, re-discovered like we are right now. The next studio album is called Juggernaut of Justice, and we are recording it near the end of the year.
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