Kreative Kontrol

Simone Schmidt from Fiver returns to discuss Fiver Trois presents Cleaning House , seeing a psychic who encouraged them to re-organize their living space and rid themself of belongings, how stuff can memorialize people who are gone, hoarding and archiving, losing and then re-gaining artistic metaphor, how life being a joke morphed into “That’s a Joke,” the gamification of everything we do, importa...

Sook-Yin Lee returns to discuss her new album 72RHR , her home studio and a story about breaking her leg, the constant presence and enduring wisdom of her late partner and collaborator Adam Litovitz, an interest in the human resting heart rate and life and death, a dangerous MuchMusic assignment, a gift from Jennifer Castle, making dirt and bone music, when helpful things are also harmful, if thin...

Jeremy Pahl from G̱a̱mksimoon is here to discuss their debut album Gyiin Naxnox (Feeding the Supernatural), the Hartley Bay region of British Columbia where he and his community reside, his personal linguistic journey and keen interest in cultural and language perpetuation, entering death metal and folk music realms but finding both to be problematic or stifling in some way, getting into metal as...

Jacob Bannon from Converge is here to discuss the band’s 2026 albums released to date, Love Is Not Enough and Hum of Hurt , the penchant for DIY workers to multi-task and take on various kinds of projects every day, the increasing demand for artists to execute all manner of album release-related and promotional tasks, his thoughts on the impact of artificial intelligence on visual art and design a...

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Claire Devlin and Eli Davidovici from Bellbird are here for a springtime talk about their new album The Call , the McGill University music program, why so many musicians from British Columbia wind up in Montreal, their respective early interests in top 40 pop radio, mainstream and classic rock, and eventually jazz and free music, how improvisation can feel like freedom but also be quite frightenin...

Aidan McConnell, Ben Rositsan, Josh Sparks, and Steven Noronha from Potions are here to discuss the potions95 EP and their new album, Beebo, Make a Wish , being Toronto musicians, the Edmonton/Calgary rivalry, the good, the bad, and the fortuitous aspects of studying music at the University of Toronto, the Liverpool, England rock combo the Beatles and a band Potions is associated with called Ben M...

Nicholas Krgovich and Joseph Shabason are here to discuss the wonderful new Shabason & Krgovich record, Four Days in June , scary but also somehow fortuitous car trouble, their working and social history, how Dan Bejar and John Collins from Destroyer connected them, everyone loving Nick’s record On Sunset , writing observational lyrics about other people’s lives and how it’s harder to make fri...

Hamilton Leithauser returns to discuss growing up in D.C. and being influenced by bands on Dischord Records, working as recording engineer Don Zientara’s assistant at his Inner Ear studio while Fugazi was recording Red Medicine , recalling how Roy Orbison helped him find his singing voice, getting into home recording, having restraint and foresight as a one-man studio band, pondering the tenth ann...

Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley from SUNN O))) are here to discuss their new self-titled album , American artists moving to Porto in Portugal, why they relate to author Robert Macfarlane’s vivid liner notes and his essay about being overwhelmed by a standing wave, reflecting upon our experiences at a memorial gathering for Steve Albini and what we learned about him, how this album’s producer Br...

Jon Spencer returns to discuss his new album Songs of Personal Loss and Protest , making the trek to play shows in Canadian cities like Edmonton, the uncertain status of Jon Spencer and the HITmakers, how his new trio featuring Kendall Wind and Macky Bowman came to be and whether or not this band will have a name, the comprehensive Jon Spencer fan site, Pop Catastrophe , what it’s like playing in...

Evan Cartwright, Tim Darcy, and Ben Stidworthy from Cola are here to discuss their new album Cost of Living Adjustment , the first Ought interview ever, why Ought ended when it did, group dynamic stressors and Buddhism, the way Cola work together, cool beats and whether or not Ben could be a music producer, delving particularly deeply into the songs “Hedgesitting” and “Much of a Muchness,” the ban...

Gina Gershon is here to discuss her new memoir, AlphaPussy: How I Survived the Valley and Learned to Love My Boobs , creating the perfect breakfast cereal, how this new book came to fruition, similarities shared between cats and men, why some younger artists see a toughness in her they feel they can’t harness themselves, writing a reflective book about being an independent, somewhat unparented chi...

Mike Stroud and Nick Thorburn from the Creem are here to discuss their new album A Taste of Cherry , why Los Angeles may in fact be hell, standard items available at most Connecticut shopping complexes, their social and working history, Mike’s gifts as a producer of instrumentals and how that inspired Nick to write clever lyrics and vocal melodies very quickly, expressing joy and humour in your ar...

Craig Dunsmuir and Sandro Perri return to discuss Glissandro 70 and their new album G70 2: Bones Of Dundasa , getting emotionally attached to your neighbours who are cows, a table reading of this album’s promotional one-sheet, embracing your own creations after periods of self-doubt and reflection, Andy Magoffin’s playful humour and underrated songwriting genius in the Two-Minute Miracles, the key...

Zoh Amba is here to discuss their astonishing new album Eyes Full , making their podcast debut and a recent hang with folk bitch trio, how they got into guitar, songwriting, and rock music, recurring lyrics about God, eyes, searching, and observational behaviour, why “Southern Soil” is such a key song for them in their Tennessee trajectory, the story behind their collaboration with Jim White and G...

Steve Holmes and Steve Lamos from American Football are here to discuss American Football (LP4) , the joys of marking final papers by the college students you teach, the story behind the alluring, unsettling drum part in “Man Overboard” and an appreciation for James Bond soundtrack songs, why Lamos left and returned to American Football in recent years, the factual aspects of LP4’s lyrical themes...

Marisa Anderson returns to discuss her compelling new album, The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music Vol. 1 , the joys of touring, responding to a Patreon subscriber’s inquiry about her new band Ruminants, exploring the Bob Dylan Center and immersing herself in the private record collection of the late, famed cultural collector/curator, Harry Smith, how she landed on recording her own three-album s...

Brian Borcherdt, Matt Schulz, and Graham Walsh from Holy Fuck are here to discuss their new album Event Beat , moving back to Toronto and leaving New York City for Ohio, receiving noise complaints from studio neighbours because of the band Slayer, the growing trend of musicians not having access to isolated practice spaces, whether a hiatus ever placed the band’s future in doubt, making music for...

Jeff Miller is here to discuss his captivating debut novel, Temporary Palaces , living all over Canada and seeing an Edmonton Oilers hockey game in their championship heyday, our unexpected comedy connections, being inspired by bands like Shotmaker, Kepler, and Fugazi among others, hardcore punk rock lore and mythology, how Ottawa's punk community inspired him to participate generally and start wr...

Spencer Krug returns to discuss his excellent new album, Same Fangs , local pigs under duress and songs inspired by animals, sharing early and in-progress versions of his new songs with his Patreon subscribers, philosophical notions of what songs actually are, parasocial interaction and the increased intimacy between creators and fans via crowdfunding sites, the ups and downs of Sunset Rubdown and...

Alex Edkins returns to discuss the new Weird Nightmare album Hoopla , leaving Toronto to live in his childhood hometown of Ottawa, how touring and work travel can be difficult for a husband and a father, why the Buzzcocks and the Replacements inspired this latest batch of songs, the time a broken up METZ played Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney at the host’s request and interacting with him and C...

Tucker Elkins and Aaron Graham from Ray Bull are here to discuss their new album, Please Stop Laughing , loving New York, being reunited with your old furniture and coffee mugs after your roommate moves out, art school, high art, academia, and folk art, their efforts to create viral segments to draw people to their music, having eclectic musical interests and learning how to play music on some of...

Eric Bachmann returns to discuss the wonderful new Crooked Fingers album, Swet Deth , his recent heart attack and an update on his health, the eerie nature of the lyrical themes and his son’s cover art for Swet Deth , working with featured guests like Sharon Van Etten and The National’s Matt Berninger, sentimentality and self-loathing, why this new album was almost two separate but similar records...

Raymond Biesinger returns to discuss 9 Times My Work Has Been Ripped Off – An Informal Self-Defence Guide for Independent Creatives , what inspired him to write this book, his personal experiences with intellectual property and wage theft, distinctions between patented inventions and homage and emulation in artistic realms, the role A.I. plays in creative plagiarism, the scourge of uncredited work...