Sister act

Meet the multi-faceted siblings of radio

They're both studying Graphic Designing and Advertising at the American University of Dubai. They write poems and turn them into songs. They also sing. And now they host a show on Radio1 called PsychoSis. And they happen to be sisters.

Meet Shereen and Nesreen Al Tayeb Zarrouk. Broadcasted live every Thursday night from 7.00pm to 10.00pm, the show provides updates on the club, concert and music scene in Dubai.

It all started while surfing the Net. "It was New Year's eve, and Shereen and I were stuck on what to do and where to go. We decided to checkout this website crazyspin.com for some info on the parties and happenings in Dubai that evening," says Nesreen.

"At end of the web page was a small box, where they asked people to submit suggestions and ideas. Since the two of us were always interested in music, we suggested a radio show. When they called us the next day, we were stunned. Shereen and I had always dreamt of doing something like this, but never ever thought it would work."

The demos and trials followed. And finally they were asked to go on air.

But how did name of show - PsychoSis - come about? "When we were asked to come up with some name - something to do with 'crazy' - we looked up the thesaurus and came up with words such as delirious, insane, etc.

Psychotic and its noun form, psychosis, struck us right away, as it blended perfectly with the idea of the show and our own personalities. Moreover, the word "sis" was something that seemed perfect. We are the psycho sisters," says Shereen, who is the younger of the two. Call it coincidence, their father is a psychiatrist.

So is there any method to this madness? "Because we're part of the crazyspin team, they give us a lot of information. And a few phone calls here and there is enough for us to collect most of the details about the gigs, concerts and parties in Dubai," says Shereen.

But there's more to the show. "We talk to DJs, do music reviews, and have a lot of interaction with our listeners, too. We also play dedications and requests in between," adds Nesreen.

With both of them into different kinds of music, there's always a nice mix in their shows. Shereen is more into rap, R&B, and soul, while Nesreen enjoys rock, alternative and the like.

"What makes our show different is that we're young. Most of the hosts do not seem to be aware of the likes and dislikes of our generation. We like to be trendy and hip," say the DJ sisters.

"We like our show to be exciting, enjoyable and pure fun. Because we have this knack of laughing at ourselves, the atmosphere is sort of wild when we're around," says Nesreen. Both prefer spontaneity to scripts - except when there are specific details.

The sister are good time managers. They easily juggle the roles of students and DJs.

Nesreen used to do a part-time sales job earlier and is used to such routines. "Because this show is only once a week, we do not spend much time on it. Moreover, this is something that we like doing. So it's more of fun when we try to gather information. Some sort of unwinding from our regular college work," feels Shereen.

And the response to their show?

"Incredible, unbelievable," claim the two. "We had this impression that most people are out on Thursday nights and might not really listen to the radio. But from the number of calls we've been getting, we're now beginning to think otherwise. Some people call us home (wonder how they get the number) and tell us that the show is great."

The two are, however, undecided about the future. It's because they have several options.

Shereen still has two years to graduate, while Nesreen is in her last semester. As of now, they don't mind continuing with the radio show forever.

"But who knows," says Nesreen, "one can really never say for sure about the future. It's better not to plan much. Like the Rain Dance we will be hosting on May 2 at the Al Nasr Leisureland. A whole lot of reputable DJs are expected to perform there, and we've been selected to host it."

"We'll take it by the day. If this show leads us to singing, we might just latch on to that. Or an advertising agency, maybe," adds Shireen. But what the psychotic sisters are sure about is that they would always do things together.