M5: How does a Radio Dupree day start and what is the usual routine?

Sigurd: It usually starts in the evening after a days work. We check the statistics. Which songs are popular? Which ones are not? And then we change a couple of songs each day.

Neb: An ever-changing playlist. That's a way to keep it interesting for us and - hopefully - the listeners as well.

M5: And what's the story behind the birth of RadioDupree, back in april 2003?

Sigurd: We work at the same place and have some common interests ... like vinyl records, obscure vinyl records, obscure artists of the 60's/70's, droll humor, Åsa-Nisse movies ... well you get the picture. I told Neb about a thing I had discovered on the internet the previous night ... the possibility to make broadcasts of your own. "Hey, how about starting a web radio station?"

Neb: Is Åsa-Nisse the Swedish equivalent to The Three Stooges? Maybe ... not.

M5: How old are you if i may ask?

Sigurd: 41

Neb: 45

M5: Are you friends since childhood, or how did the two of you meet?

Sigurd: Met 10 years ago at work. Down the mine shaft.

M5: Ok. Can you tell us something about where you live, your city in Sweden?

Sigurd: Alleys with birches, almost polar area, hockey in the winter, annual jazz festival, womans soccer team - UFC, not too far away from the north Sweden mining area ...

Neb: Hey! Don't forget it has been voted this country's Most Gay Friendly City two years running now, which -I happened to read a couple of days ago- is one of four important must-haves for cities wanting to expand and grow successfully in the future. But I digress...

M5: What is the biggest difference between the music you play and the stuff that comes out nowadays, in your opinion?

Sigurd: The music we play will never be played on regular radio. It does not fit in. It may be considered awkward. I do not care. But I like the underdog perspective. I'm not sure I would like to hear "our" music being played on every other radio station. Then maybe I would get tired of it. That's how music works today. They play it over and over again til you go nuts.

Neb: I could see more of "our" stuff being played on other stations without me objecting. As things stand you could argue that it's never been easier to find and listen to different types of music - as long as you've got your satellite radio hook up and Internet access. The biggest difference? That we have some sort of bond to the stuff we play. That the music released now is done in a more commercialized industry/world, where it's more about the "product" at the expense of music.

M5: What kind of 'contemporary' music do you like?

Sigurd: The last album I was knocked off my socks by was Bowie At The Beeb ... Hardly any contemporary music at all, I just listen to the stuff that I like ... I do not try to keep myself updated with the new stuff ... Takes too much energy and does seldom pay off. But I would love to find new music that blew me off again! Maybe someone out there ...?

Neb: With a soft spot for 60's soul, 70's r&b or whatever you want to call it I found my fondness of "black music" in general helping me slide comfortably into hip hop and rap.

Sigurd (interrupts): You know, Neb is a modern man ... a real hipster compared to me, actually ... (chuckles)

Neb (a little pissed off): Can I just continue? Are you finished? I find someone like Missy Elliot or Outkast well worth a listen. I try to keep at least one ear open for new things and sometimes find myself hooked on stuff sounding like the music of my youth (Kings of Leon, Soundtrack of Our Lives), sometimes turning it off because "I've heard it all before". But I've always been a sucker for a hit record, so I end up humming along to quit a lot of the current crap of one hit wonders as well.

M5: What's the first singles or LP's you ever bought?

Neb: My first rock album was Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Cosmo's Factory". A close second to my very first LP; a children's record starring a frog and some other assorted animals

. Sigurd: Uh, I'm afraid it was a LP by Abba and I was about 9. The 2nd one was a much better choice however ... Burn by Deep Purple.

M5: What kind of music do you absolutely detest and why?

Neb: Generic pop products that has little to do with music and all to do with marketing. I'm not 10 anymore.

Sigurd: I can't stand hearing Robyn wailing. Robyn is a Swedish artist in the r&b genre. I'm sorry, Robyn, I'm sure you're a nice person but I just can't take that.

M5: The significance of LP covers is something to be very nostalgic about, right? You talk about covers on a regularly basis. In a nutshell, what's the attraction, meaning of a LP cover? Can it be considered art?

Sigurd: Sure it can. When you buy a CD you also get a little piece of paper just as big as a post card. But the quality of the paper and print of a post card is just so much better than a CD insert. When you buy a LP the package itself is sometimes like a painting that is so fantastic that you would like to hang it on the wall.

Neb: Amen!

M5: You play a lot of Frank Zappa and Steely Dan, a lot of seventies music, experimental ... You also manage to get your hands on some real rare records, which is a main reason for people to tune into your station to finally be able to hear those tunes ... Is that part of your goal, a quest for music we hardly get to hear these days, or ever ...?

Sigurd: The thing is simply to play the music we love ... and we've also collected some oddities thru the years and it's fun to play them ... not just the regular stuff. Imagine some Zappa or Steely Dan fan listening and the reaction when we start to play this record that this person never thought existed. That's pleasure, that's value ... for us too!

Neb: It's fun to share!

M5: And can you name a few of those rare things you're proud to have?

Sigurd: It's kind of cool to own a copy of An Evening With Wild Man Fischer ... a 2 LP set produced by Zappa in the late 60's. The album is both weird and nice at the same time ... most people would hate it ... Wild Man was singing songs for a dime in the streets in his very own way when Frank met him. It's rumoured to be one of the few FZ products that Gail Zappa doesn't like and she will probably never release it on CD. We used to play short edits from it now and then on RadioDupree. That's another thing I'd like to say here: The sound quality on RadioDupree may sound low budget BUT we actually put a lot of effort on the technical side. We are doing edits of songs. We cut away too long chunks of dead air before and after each track to make a nice flow of music. We adjust the levels! The listener should not have to sit with one hand on the level knob. Compare with other stations and you will probably agree that we know what we're doing ... at least in that sense.

Neb: I'm not sure "proud" is the word, but a rare record I got my hands on recently is Terence Boylan's "Alias Boona". That was fun to get just to hear some really early studio work from Donald and Walter of Steely Dan fame. Can't say it was a hit with RadioDupree's listeners though ... Speaking of Steely Dan I have a couple of promos featuring otherwise unreleased songs that I'm happy to have.

M5: What records are you dying to find, is there something you wish you had in your collection?

Neb: If it's an artist I like I'm happy to have the music, not caring much for different pressings of the same stuff. I'd like to hear the quite widely circulated demos/outtakes from Walter Becker's underrated "11 Tracks Of Whack" someday ... and if he and Donald would compile a CD of their Hawaiian jams and leftovers from 2AN and EMG I have the address to send it to! :-)

Sigurd: I'm still looking for mint US pressings of many Zappa albums! ... copies with rare booklets and so on ...

M5: Ever saw any of the music you play, be performed live, did you ever see FZ or SD or ...

Sigurd: Yep, I saw Frank several times in the 80's, but I get kind of jealous when I meet people that have attended FZ concerts in the 70's ... the other day I got e-mail from a guy that had seen Frank and The Mothers in Konserthuset, Stockholm in 1967.

Neb: Got myself a ticket to London in 1996 just to catch the two shows Steely Dan did there. Then again in Stockholm and Copenhagen 2000. Was one of the unlucky ones with a ticket to the Toronto show in 2003 that was cancelled thanks to the major blackout. All I got to see was the white limo and bewildered fans waiting outside the arena for confirmation either way; was it on or off? Would've been a perfect end to a perfect trip to Canada, but ... Another musician I'm glad I got to see is the late Warren Zevon. A favourite of mine since the late 80s that visited Sweden on a couple of occasions. Great songwriter.

M5: What elements should music have to make it interesting or appealing for you?

Sigurd: I hate products set up by record companies and such. OK, The Monkees were pretty good sometimes. But the music has to come out of a prophilic creative person or a group. I like genius type artists like Zappa, Lennon/McCartney, Bowie, Robert Fripp ... Artists that almost are genres in their own. I guess the term creativity is important for me.

Neb: Give me a good hook and I am sold! Depending on my mood I want it rough and with energy or polished and sophisticated, but I've found that humor in music, lyrics or both is a crucial factor. Musicians with their own "sound" make me sit up and listen.

Sigurd: Well, then you may like my latest demo, Neb. You know, my neighbour said "How the hell can you get a guitar to sound like that? Cut it out!"

M5: Do you believe the music from the eras you play, is 'timeless' or 'ageless'?

Sigurd: Probably not. The Beatles for example do not sound timeless, I think ... They really sound "sixties" ... but they will probably always be played since they are so exeptionally good and since they are such a big part of what is considered to be the sixties. Maybe they will start to be forgotten when all the people that are attached to the 60's in one way or another are gone.

Neb: I'm not young enough to make the mistake of thinking that the culture in my formative years was the most important ever and will never be forgotten. I am sure some stuff will stand the test of time, but judging by the acccelerating entropy I think that it will mean a lot less than some of us are ready to accept or realize. Life goes on ...