The Tongue on the Reed

SWEEP is the culmination of a slew of varied ideas about music, and a few latent punk rock tendencies toward pleasuring audiences with loud and aggressive live performances. The band's singer and saxophonist, uses the same mic for both, and does so by crouching down to belt out the lyrics in between wailing on the sax in an unorthodox manner. This all makes for an interesting live show and a great rush for anyone who appreciates loud, heavy, and energetic music. Sometimes drifting into a mathrock frantic trance, the band maintains a high level of intensity while blasting through their set. This may contribute to the fact that they have mostly a male audience, something the band has accepted. We don't want to frighten girls away, but it is mostly guys out there. When asked to describe their sound, they basically summed it up simply as, "Intense and technical with a horn." After several years and numerous road shows, the band has now reached another level. The newest addition to Sweep the Leg Johnny is bassist John Brady who came in last year to replace former bassist Matt Alicea. Says John of the band, "We all come from totally different sides."


Steve Sostak demonstrates
his own style of mic control.
 He goes on to state his influences as, "experimental, noise, goth, and a lot of older classical stuff."This is in sharp contrast to the other member of the Sweep string section, Guitarist Chris Daly, who had always been into classic rock. To add to the mix, singer/sax player Steve Sostak grew up listening to Eric B. & Rakim. It wasn't until he was in college that he began listening to what he calls, 'college radio stuff'. Steve laughs when asked about his influences, "Living Colour was actually my first step into listening to anything else. Then, I started to listen to different stuff like Unwound." This collection of personal tastes transforms itself into a frantically calculated tight rock band, meshing together quite nicely with the Stewart Copeland influenced drumming of Scott Anna.

Marge the Van
When good friend, fine cook, and notorious Slug bodyguard & party doorman in training, Asher, informed us of a late night encounter with the boys from Sweep where they engaged in several heated matches of four square with locals, we knew we had to hook up with them the next time they came through town. Apparently, Sweep had rocked East Texas so hard that Boomer Esiason felt it in Long Island! It is a definite fact, and proven not only by the excellent show they put on in Austin, but also by the presence of the Nature Boy Ric Flair action figure mounted to the dashboard of their tour van, MARGE. (featured in Band Wheels) Although they said that it's kind of taboo for musicians to be jocks, Chris and Steve admitted that they play in a rock and roll baseball league up in Chicago. It's fast-pitch hardball.

Singer/Saxophonist Steve Sostak
with William Zabka action figure
They actually just joined a real league team this summer. Sweep is on tour nine weeks, and then two weeks after they get back they will have their first game. Steve pitches and plays shortstop and Chris plays catcher.
We gathered on a mild Thursday afternoon, after the band finished doing a radio interview on local FM station KO-OP 91.7. A large bottle of cheap merlot was uncorked, and the questions went like this:
Salt for Slugs: Did you guys grow up in Chicago?
Steve: Scott and I grew up in and outside of Chicago. We're actually from all over. John's from San Diego. Chris is from Portland. Chris and I met in college at Notre Dame. I knew Scott from when I was 13 and he was 15, we went to camp together and just stayed in touch after that. When Chris and I moved back from Notre Dame, we wanted to start playing music and eventually we got Scott. Then after touring for three years with another bass player we got John. He literally moved in to the building next to us, and we knew him from his other bands.

SFS: Are you guys influenced by any Chicago bands?,br> Chris: I don't know if we're influenced. A lot of our friends are in Chicago bands, and we always go see them.
Steve: The Chicago sound is a general influence to a lot of rock bands in Chicago. It's got that blue collar, technical, kind of, I don't want to necessarily say 'math' sound, but it's a lot more like precision rock. The obvious examples would be Albini's bands, and stuff like that.


Show 40 of 63: Hobbs Wharehouse
in Athens, GA, Spring 99
 SFS: How long have you been playing the sax?
Steve: I've played since the fourth grade, did the band and orchestra, but I never played any jazz, which is good for us because I think the way we use the sax, it's very complimentary. It definitely has the melody at times, but it's also very second guitar-esque. I really respect the jazz, it's amazing. It's just something I haven't gotten into yet.
SFS: How long have you guys been playing together?
Steve: Three years ago was when it all came to fruition. Chris and I had Sweep the Leg Johnny as the name about six months before Scott joined. Three months after that we went on a nine-week tour. We didn't have near as many shows as we do on this tour, but it was hard.
SFS: You got the name from the Karate Kid?
Chris: Yea, we actually found William Zabka, who is Johnny from the Karate Kid, he lives in Beverly Hills and we got his address and we sent him our promo picture, a CD, and an invitation to our two shows in LA. Hopefully he'll come out.
Steve: Yea, we want our next press photos to have him.
SFS: That's the Equalizer's son.
Steve: He plays so many villains.
SFS: Yea, that's like his only good-boy role.
Steve: Well there's Back to School, where he plays Chaz...
SFS: So you guys are big fans?
Steve: Chris used to work in a video store, and growing up, I'd stay up until three in the morning watching real bad HBO and eighties movies. We're convinced the name is our big downfall though. (jokingly) But we do promote Karate and violence.

SFS: I hear that you're really good four square players.
Steve: (to rest of band) He knows us from Tyler.
SFS: You guys played Otil early the next morning.
Scott: Oh yea, that was awesome. On one of the first tours, in random parking lots.
Chris: Actually, the next time we came through there, we couldn't stay. We had to drive through that night and they got all pissed off at us because we couldn't play four square with them. They had the duct tape ready and even knew the parking lot they wanted to go to.
Steve: That was the first time we ever went to the West coast and it was terrible. We had a really bad tour and we were so depressed coming home and we got to Tyler, of all places, and these kids just embraced us and what we were doing. They were really excited about the show and it went well and we stayed up all night playing four square with them. It kinda got the whole tour going from there.

Scott: Yea, Texas was a life saver on that tour. In the whole state, all of the shows were good and the kids were really cool.
SFS: Do you have anymore cool road stories?
Scott: Pick a town.
SFS: Okay, Los Angeles.
Scott: Well, once when we were in LA, we got to the show really early and we didn't want to be the first people in this club. I won't mention it's name, but it's a shitty club. We were with our friend Marvelous and he's a real smooth guy. We went over to Union Station and it's two large areas separated by a garden and there was this big party going on in the garden. So we just strolled in, looking all road weary. We all smelled and were wearing cut-off shorts and t-shirts while everybody else was in ball gowns and suits. We just walked up to the bar and quickly realized that no one was paying for drinks, so we started drinking gin and tonics and went over to the buffet and loaded up on two or three plates of food a piece. We sat there for a couple of hours just eating and getting drunk. Then we found out it was a Ted Turner convention. No one said anything.
Steve: They were like, 'more power to ya'.
Chris: This guy was like, 'Are you enjoying your drink?', and I was like, 'Yea.'

SFS: How have you guys developed since your early recordings?
John: More rock.
Chris: It's been getting louder and more aggressive because when we first started playing, we went into each song tentatively and didn't know what we could do. Now we've been playing together for a while and John adds even more to that now. He comes in a gives it more of a rock edge instead of a bouncy feel.
Steve: I think also being on the road so much and seeing a lot of different bands has affected us. We've done about 300 road shows. There is a growth when you see other bands that you respect, and you're able to pick certain influences from them.
John: The music has gotten a lot more layered compared to before. There's a lot more going on.

SFS: Your latest CD on Southern Records, Tomorrow We Will Run Faster, came out great. What was it like making that?
Steve: Were really psyched about the new record. I think it captures as close to what we've ever done live on recording, but I think we like to play live more than being in the studio. Last night was a good indication of what it can turn into. (The previous night, Sweep put on an amazing show, closing a packed Wednesday night SXSW Southern Records Showcase at Emo's.)
SFS: How much time did you guys spend in the studio on that record?
Chris: About a week. Six days.
John: Yea, from like 11 am until two in the morning everyday.

SFS: What do you have planned for this year besides this tour?
Steve: Another tour.
Chris: Hopefully, we want to go to Europe for sure. Southern helps out a lot because they have an office in London. We did a split with this band in Japan, The Cowpers, so we want to go to Japan as well. Maybe in the fall or the winter time.
Steve: We're going to some shows with this band called Cole from North Carolina. And we're going to Canada for the first time and we're playing with this band Do Make Say Think that's on a small label called Constellation.

SFS: Well, is there anything you guys want to say before we end the interview?
Chris: Yea, if anyone out there videotapes us or takes pictures, please send us a copy so we can put it on our website that we have linked through the Southern Records site.
Steve: Also, just come and see us play. We tour all of the time. We'll be in your town. It's just hard these days because there is so much shit you have to get through to find something that excites you.

SFS: Thanks for the interview.

<-- Back