Kreative Kontrol

Richard Thompson returns to discuss Hippies, Thugs and Heroes , making things work with his current music collaborators, including his grandson, inheriting talent and genetic predispositions, being a creative conduit, the fulfillment he gets from teaching at his annual Frets and Refrains songwriting and guitar camp near Woodstock, NY, observations about how music students learn to play via the int...

Lex Walton is here to discuss ULTIMATE LOVE FOREVER , being displaced by an apartment fire and rescuing her damaged, beloved Matsumoku guitar, a cleansing post-disaster reset, figuring out her singing voice generally and after transitioning, why the vocal registers of singers like John Maus, Nico, and Ezra Furman resonate with her, pondering righteous violence in the U.S.A., how she got into music...

Will Schwartz and Jone Stebbins from Imperial Teen are here to discuss All Over You , the difference between California and Nevada, Will’s time at Beverly Hills High School where he was friends with Monica Lewinsky and familiar with another student who’s still serving time for an infamous murder, Jone’s Fat Mike from NOFX connection, how Imperial Teen first became friends and are writing songs tog...

Norman Blake from Teenage Fanclub is here to discuss Do Not Dare to Dream , being back in Scotland after living in Canada where we first met backstage at a Neil Young with Crazy Horse show in Kitchener, Ontario, Teenage Fanclub’s rotating line-up and why he and Raymond McGinley are the sole remaining original members, how Don Fleming urged them to harmonize, the new record’s vaguely prog or psyche...

Chris Forsyth and Douglas McCombs from BASIC are here to discuss their new, self-titled album , how they first met and bonded over the iconic band Television, Chris receiving guitar lessons from Television’s Richard Lloyd and Doug interactions with the band’s Tom Verlaine, the social import of a good Chicago breakfast or brunch, the significance of the 1984 Robert Quine/Fred Maher album Basic , wh...

Giles Martin is here to discuss his work with the Beatles and the new deluxe reissue of their 1965 album, Rubber Soul , challenges and surprises he encountered delving into the original session tapes and his unique temporal mindset to mixing a sixty-year-old album, how the emotional tenor of a song can influence his technical approach, his history remixing Beatles music including Revolver and Sgt,...

Rick White and Julie Doiron are here to discuss Together , Julie performing an Eric’s Trip song with Status/Non-Status at Sappyfest, how Rick works on songs for people like the Sadies and why he wrote an eclectic record for Julie and him to sing on together, his retirement from music and why he returned, how losing friends like Dallas Good and Gord Downie might prompt them to work with each other...

Joe Casey from Protomartyr returns to discuss Hotel Usona , raising a family who enjoy visiting the zoo, how having a child can focus one’s once random anger at the world in hopes that things might improve in the future, the United States of North America and my perception of Joe’s obsession with Alberta, Canada, how transient hotels and 1950s exotica inform this new record, nostalgia for a phonie...

Walter Schreifels from Quicksand returns to discuss ‘Bring on the Psychics ,’ his recording studio in upstate New York, making a relatively short album and musical urgency, reflecting upon the foundational aspects of punk and hardcore in his life, a gorgeous new Quicksand song called “Days You Run To,” his dynamic and extremely powerful singing voice, timeless band names like Youth of Today and Mi...

Jake Xerxes Fussell returns to discuss his new album, The Old Beloved Path , us meeting up at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival just moments before I took my daughter to see AC/DC, Jake’s limited experiences at big shows beyond Bob Dylan’s and a band he’d love to see one day, a lengthy discussion about “Rock Island Line” and The Compleat Beatles , contemplating aging and transience, the historical...

Michael Cloud Duguay and Andrew MacKelvie are here to discuss Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go , the many Canadian provinces and territories involved in them meeting and connecting musically, driving Jake Nicoll’s solar powered mobile recording studio all around Newfoundland to capture the sounds of seven church organs, improvising and composing on woodwinds and other instrumentation at the same church se...

Morgan Greenwood , Clinton St. John , and Chad VanGaalen are here to discuss their new self-titled album as CG Tears , a Nina Nastasia and Silkworm show I should’ve attended, the story behind the band’s name and its formation, the time Chad misunderstood the assignment, Clint’s improvisational approach to writing lyrics and singing them and Morgan’s unique ability to organize songs, musical loops...

Jon Mckiel and Jay Crocker are here to discuss Gold Horatio , how living in the same town has impacted their musical collaboration, why someone like Jon may possess the “Amherst strut,” how Jay is managing without regular "beach time," why the Shakespearean character Horatio is invoked here, exactly how Jon and Jay work together and who did what on this album, pondering existentialism, theology, r...

Owen Williams from the Tubs returns to discuss Hard Life , university vs. college and miles vs. kilometres, ideal recording situations, why this new album contains three narrators who all might be him, intriguing instrumental ideas, great songwriting in Ramones and the Magnetic Fields, heaven and hell, suicide, and survivor’s guilt, raising a family, writing even newer songs, touring a lot, other...

Ray B. from Chat Pile is here to discuss their raging new album Who Loves the Sun , climate change denial and the links between socio-political apathy and fear, despondency about falling literacy rates and our addictive dependence on our telephones, missing cultural community hubs like video stores and libraries, how artificial intelligence is hunting down our humanity, pondering Pantera and John...

Larry Hardy and Henry Rollins are here to discuss their work on Gravest Gravy by the Cramps , how they first heard of and met each other, Larry seeing Henry’s first show with Black Flag and Henry being impressed that Larry released Kim Salmon’s music on In the Red , how they each first encountered the Cramps, the band’s stylistic and cultural impact, how Larry came upon a mixed but unreleased Cram...

Michael Balazo is here to discuss Pizza Pals , living in Toronto’s ascendant Danny neighbourhood, Croatia and when the World Cup descended upon his city, how he encountered and fell in love with comedian Sooz Kempner, the Rolling Stones playing in Oshawa, SNL vs. SNL UK , the state of standup and how some of its most popular figures haven fallen off, his work on the Evil Men and Long Distance, Bit...

Elena Setién and Black Duck ’s Bill MacKay and Douglas McCombs are here to discuss their self-titled debut album , their history as collaborators, Douglas’ recent travels with Tortoise, BASIC, and Yr Knives, the role improvisation and composition plays in their respective and collaborative work, the significance of musical intuition and listening, why Elena was keen to learn more about Native Amer...

James Hartnett is here to discuss It’s Not Looking Good , making it on Broadway (Orangeville), his funny family, his hilarious podcasts, including Evil Men , being shy but playing the character of James Hartnett, voice acting and how philosophy studies may bolster a comedian’s work, how fractured cultural consumption can impact a stand-up set, comedy malaise, a celebration of Chris Locke, World Cu...

Jeremy Gaudet and Brian Murphy from Kiwi Jr. return to discuss Blowin’ Up , wondering if your dog Angus is related to another dog you saw on the street, missing PEI occasionally and the time a lobster in PEI grabbed my foot, pondering partying and upping the lyrical danger and tension, the current hype around guitar bands like Geese and Angine de Poitrine, making albums differently than Kiwi usual...

Kurt Wagner from Lambchop is here to discuss Punching the Clown , not working from home, his close collaborators Ryan Olson and Andrew Broder and the inclusion of drops, producer tags, and dramatic, powerful choral singers, which might surprise some listeners and why surprises are a great thing, why he appreciates happenstance noises and thoughts making it onto his recordings, what prompted his re...

Adam Goren and Brian Sokel from Dead Best are back to discuss GOD: Out of Order , the recent episode I did with !franklin and that band’s status, how Dead Best have evolved as a recording and live music concern, playing music with your kids and why so many young people seem to be so darn good at their instruments now days, thinking about Public Image Ltd., Pailhead, and Lard, a good Nine Inch Nail...

Ella Williams from Squirrel Flower is here to discuss Say a Prayer to the Gods of Getting Going , not having a real home, living in many different cities, and the joys of transience, when relationships are complicated by the city of Cleveland, which can be depicted in song or on the comedic TV show 30 Rock , playing a show where Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested, when ghosts steal your CDs, finding m...

David Carriere and Amery Sandford from Born at Midnite are here to discuss Eternal BAM Nation , the illustration Amery drew as part of a live taping of my talk show in St. John’s, Newfoundland, the Montreal music industry event that TOPS was playing when David and I first met, the education and very good times that Amery had learning about letter press poster making at Hatch Show Print in Nashvill...

Mariel Buckley is here to discuss her album Strange Trip Ahead , her busy summer festival circuit, what winning the 2026 Juno Award for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year in Canada has meant to her, how some folks miss the humour in her emotional, personal songwriting, her fondness for Calgary but also why she wound up night writing songs in Edmonton, her musical family, being a huge fan of Gord...