INTERVIEW: SLEEPING BODY (PART III)

Tony Rettman

May 9, 2023

Photo: Justine Demetrick

In this brief third and final installment of the Sleeping Body interview, we speak about post-Sleeping Body musical endeavors and the recent interest in the 90s American underground.

What happened for you two musically after Sleeping Body?
JL: Me and Carl had a band called The Sparrows that was pretty prolific. We recorded some stuff and never did any touring. Ever since my daughter was born, I haven’t done much.
JH: One of the cooler things that I was a part of, in Amarillo, was a band called The Subamrines that I did with the twins from Voice of Reason. We randomly put it together when we were all in Germany and played our first show over there, then came back to play in Fort Worth, and a show at the rodeo in Amarillo. I moved to Austin, after Amarillo and I was in a couple of bands there, none of which recorded. Then when I moved to San Francisco, I was in a band called Crime In Choir and we actually put out we put out a CD and LP. After that, I was burnt out on playing with people. I still have my same Sleeping Body bass sitting here. I'm looking at it right now. I play from time to time, but I haven't done anything in a while.

In the past few years, there’s been some nostalgia going on for this era of punk in the 90s with boxsets and reissues and bands reuniting. How do you feel about that?
JH: I love it. I was at the Numero Group show in LA and saw The Hated. I’m careful not to get stuck in the nostalgia, but I like to pick it up, touch it, and be stoked and inspired by it.
JL: I'm on the same page as Jeff. Carl said that he wouldn't do the same thing today, and I wouldn't either, but I'm not hiding from it. I love what I did and if anyone wants to spread it far and wide, I'm very down with it.

For the most part, I’m fine with it. I’m just not into how some labels are loose with the truth. I think you can put the music out there for people to respond to it without all the purple prose. But hey, what do I know? I don’t run a successful record label.
JH: Maybe five or six years ago, I noticed someone put the Sleeping Body seven-inch up on YouTube and began to read the comments. People were talking about how the record changed their lives. Changing lives is a crazy pill to swallow. It’s cool to get these stories out because this scene was kind of obscure and it touched a lot of people's lives. But now we are where we are in the world and if we can get it out to even more people and people who weren't even fucking alive then, that’s great. I appreciate you doing this. That’s all I have to say.