When we wrote about the “sun-stroked and beautiful ambient” score to the rock documentary, “Anvil! The Story of Anvil,” we included it in our Best Soundtracks, Scores and Movie Music of 2008 piece — but we got one thing crucially wrong.
We credited the score to composer David Torn (“The Wackness,” “Lars & The Real Girl”). And while he did compose four or five cues for the Sacha Gervasi-directed documentary, it was in fact, L.A. composer David Norland who wrote the bulk of the score. We fucked this up because we saw ‘Anvil’ last summer before there were proper press notes, the credits whirled by and the name we seized upon (and only remembered) was Torn’s because we know his work and are fond of it.
To back up a bit, ‘Anvil’ is a documentary about the ’80s Canadian metal band that never got their proper due during the Metallica thrash heydays, but the two-founding best friends Steve “Lips” Kudlow and Robb Reiner have persevered like cockroaches for 20 years regardless. The film basically picks up where they left off: forgotten in the annals of metal history trying to mount a European tour and comeback album. As many have noted it’s kind of like: What if there was a real-life, aged and over-the-hill Spinal Tap that kept at it? The film is sad, hilarious and inspiring.
We decided to talk to Norland and set the record straight. ‘Anvil’ his first major film score and some of us included it in our best films we saw in 2008 list.
Alright, we messed up. How did you hook up with the ‘Anvil’ movie?
Sacha and I have remained close friends since we were at school in England. We played in our first band together — he the drummer, I the guitarist — and notable gigs included a disastrous school pantomime, where the stage collapsed beneath us as we struck our first chords. At the time everyone was into Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, Bauhaus and The Clash — everyone wore long dark coats and pointed shoes. The first time I saw Sacha, he rather stood out walking across the schoolyard wearing a studded leather jacket and spandex trousers. Which I later realized was a much more punk rock statement in that context than what the rest of us were doing. He would regale me with stories of this band he was into, that he’d met and been on the road with. We were perhaps 15. Cut to 20 years later and we both live in Hollywood, and he invited me over one day to see a rough cut of a movie he’s spent the previous two years on, and even in that form it was breathtaking. The press reception [in the U.K] has been pretty unbelievable so far.
Let’s explain our goof and what your work was as opposed to what David’s work was.
I love David Torn’s work, he’s one of the most original and moving voices in contemporary film music. When I was called to score ‘Anvil,’ he had done some cues for it, but there was a big rush to get the movie ready for Sundance. So I jumped at the opportunity to have a shot and ended up doing the majority of the score. I wanted to really bring home the bittersweet feel of the story; their struggle was heartbreaking, but in it was huge human success, the simple and majestic triumph of remaining utterly pure in your motives and not giving up an inch of that integrity no matter what hand you’re dealt. “Magic, rooted in pain!” is what I was directed to make.
What does Anvil’s music music mean to you?
Even though I wasn’t a metalhead, I’m certainly not immune to the joy of cranking the amp to 11 and letting rip. But the universal truth is that any creative person has to face the possibility of the world shrugging its shoulders and moving on. Every time you make something, it may not connect, or people may not get it. And that can persuade you to stop doing what you personally think is great, and true to you. But these guys didn’t, and that’s a powerful example for all artists, not just aspiring metal gods. Oh, and “Metal on Metal” should have been a huge hit. And may yet be!
So many! [European bookers trying to give gig] payment in goulash, Robb’s German “poo paintings,” trans-generational Transylvanian metal maniacs… all of it: hilarious. But I think my fave parts are the really poignant ones: Lips’s soliloquy on being fifty, and still not giving up on their dream to be rock stars. From anyone else it would seem like insanity, from him it seems utterly right and movingly brave. And the moment in the Japanese garden on their return to Japan after 25 years, as the mood of the film moves towards hope and possible fulfillment… I tried dozens of versions of that cue, and finally decided to voice it simply, just on the piano alone. I played it on the phone for Sacha, who came rushing down to the studio with Lips, they were there as I put it against the picture, and we knew we had it. I was so delighted that Lips loved it too, after all, it was a theme for him.
The documentary, “Anvil! The Story of Anvil” hits theaters in U.S. limited release on April 10. The film opens up in the U.K. on February 20.
Anvil photo by Brent J. Craig