Dag Juhlin

I first saw and interviewed Dag Juhlin more than 30 years ago when he was singing, writing and playing guitar with the power-pop trio the Slugs. He’s had many musical lives since then, including playing in Poi Dog Pondering’s expansive Chicago lineup, performing deep-cut covers in Expo’76 and Courtesy Patrol, supporting Len Kasper’s songwriting in Sonic45 and singing and writing songs with his latest trio, Sunshine Boys. He’s also about to hit the road with Michael Shannon & Jason Narducy and Friends to mark the 40th anniversary of R.E.M.’s Lifes Rich Pageant. He talks about all that here, including the striking popularity of the R.E.M. project, whether it’s a tribute band or something else, and how that amazing photo of Juhlin with Michael Stipe came to be. He also tells the Sunshine Boys origin story and explains how that band “unquit the music business.” (Photo by David Kindler.)