Kreative Kontrol

Meg Remy from U.S. Girls makes her sixth appearance on this show to discuss Scratch It , her twin boys’ interest in sports, the influence that John Carey’s book  Eyewitness To History had on her latest songs, remembering her late friend Riley Gale of the band Power Trip and reflecting upon death, celebrating and working with the great Toronto songwriter Alex Lukashevsky, the xenophobic trap t...

Gaz Liddiard from Tropical Fuck Storm is here to discuss Fairyland Codex , running into kangaroos and routinely having one of the world’s most poisonous snakes show up in your house, the Gutenberg printing press, the internet, and extremist ideologies, Kurt Cobain and cultural conformity vs. galvanization and shared experiences, his musical trajectory from Australia to London, a long tour includin...

Grammy Award-winning producer, engineer, and musician John Congleton is here to discuss his Animal Rites recording studio, the aftermath of the California wildfires and its air quality impact, American empathy and cruelty, why evil always loses, his dad’s inspiring musical pursuits and parental expectations, finishing his friend Steve Albini’s final recording session, starting a new all-star band,...

Steve Sladkowski discusses PUP and Who Will Look After the Dogs? , sports and loud, boastful sportscasting's Canadian connection, Metallica’s Some Kind of Monster , The Beatles’ Get Back , and dysfunctional band communication, working closely with producer John Congleton, Steve’s background in jazz and improvised guitar, PUP’s ambitious, sentimental six-date Mega-City Madness Tour of Toronto, conj...

Asher Case and Isaac Lowenstein from Lifeguard are here to discuss Ripped and Torn , doing a podcast on the very day you graduate from high school in Chicago or while you’re stuck in New York City, side projects and hectic schedules, fine arts and electrical engineering, Electrical Audio , Tortoise, and other inspiring Chicago things, who Asher’s dad is and why he was once a guest on this show, th...

Bells Larsen is here to discuss Blurring Time , performing duets with his old alto voice and his new baritone, cancelling an American tour in the wake of government policies that persecute and harass people with non-conforming gender identities, the widespread attention his statement on the matter received, addressing transphobia in public and his general interest in discourse, dichotomies and mul...

Jake Xerxes Fussell discusses When I’m Called and Arthur Russell’s “ Close My Eyes ,” misperceptions about his relationship to folk music history, his late mentor Art Rosenbaum, why he couldn’t rebel against rebellious parents, Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music , the work of Vic Chesnutt, his own evolution as an interpreter of songs, perspectives on the merits of writing original lyri...

Scott McCaughey discusses Oar On, Penelope! by the Minus 5 , the vast collection of records in his Dungeon of Horror, the recently departed folk artist Michael Hurley, how suffering a stroke in 2017 has impacted him as a musician and songwriter with a penchant for music production perfectionism, songs about the sky, Neko Case’s memoir and Peter Ames Carlin’s recent book about R.E.M. and Scott’s th...

Alan Sparhawk discusses his stunning new album, With Trampled by Turtles , being home between tours, collaborating with Circuit des Yeux, how the internet affects the risks that audiences and musicians take, his daughter Hollis’ band Willem Dafoe Fanclub, mourning his late wife and musical collaborator Mimi Parker and ways friends can help you grieve, Trampled by Turtles and the gift of normalcy,...

During my recent conversation with Andy Shauf about the new Foxwarren album, 2 , he mentioned that one of his primary production influences for this record was Liquid Swords by GZA . And so now, I present the first interview I ever conducted with GZA. This phoner took place on Monday, October 6, 2008, just before midnight, and was focused on his solo album Pro Tools , and we covered other things t...

Chris A. Cummings , Thom Gill , and Joseph Shabason discuss Way Through by Cici Arthur , Toronto life and the city’s best pizza, making music without drums, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Gregg Turkington, and Frank Sinatra’s Watertown , Chris’ child acting gig on SCTV , what Dorothea Paas and Owen Pallett brought to this record, songs about working, playing shows, other future plans, and much more. EVERY...

Andy Shauf returns to discuss Foxwarren ’s excellent album 2 , making his recording studio as efficient as his father’s accounting practice, Foxwarren’s origins, trying to make a live-off-the-floor record together, whether people like Paul McCartney are annoying when trying to keep recording sessions on track, not drinking and feeling healthier, the album Liquid Swords and obtaining a sampler to m...

Teeny Lieberson returns to discuss Lou Tides and Autostatic! , living in America as a Canadian, why she chose a person’s name other than her own for her solo work, making “beautiful and scary” music, how celebrating antiheroes in pop culture is working out for all of us, employing different voices as a singer when dealing with difficult lyrical themes, sobriety, shame, and psychedelia, working wit...

David Longstreth is here to discuss David Longstreth’s Song of the Earth , Performed by Dirty Projectors and s t a r g a z e , life in Los Angeles in a tumultuous ecological era, working with s t a r g a z e and the influence of Gustav Mahler, the revenge of the Earth, orcas, and using gardens as a metaphor, despair and the Beatles, why Phil Elverum from Mount Eerie might be the poet laureate of n...

During my recent conversation with Niko Stratis about her new book, The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman , she described her affection for Jason Lytle ’s band Grandaddy , and I mentioned I’d interviewed Jason before. Well, this got me looking for that talk and here it is! This phoner between Jason and I took place on Tuesday December 4, 2012 at 11 AM ET and was focused on his solo album Dept. of Disa...

John Dieterich, Satomi Matsuzaki, Ed Rodríguez, and Greg Saunier from Deerhoof discuss Noble and Godlike in Ruin , the band’s history and recurring lyrical themes about animals and magic, seeing Dokken and Krokus, the evolution of DIY music culture, the state of immigration, dehumanization, and capitalism, the Anishinaabe concept of “all of our relations,” working with Saul Williams, celebrating 3...

Niko Stratis discusses her wonderful new memoir-in-essays, The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman , moving to Toronto by driving across Canada with a cat, Bruce Springsteen and fluid masculinity in rock, the ingenious, inspiring writings of Hanif Abdurraqib, living up to what we think our parents’ expectations of us are and honing a work ethic, love and addiction, Jon-Rae Fletcher and Kurt Cobain, phys...

Comedian Nikki Glaser and I spoke on the phone at 3:30 PM ET on Wednesday, July 6, 2016, not long before she was set to appear at the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal. At the time, the prospects of Donald Trump becoming president of the United States of America seemed slim, but we discussed that, the political climate and how it influenced her incisive TV show Not Safe with Nikki Glaser , why...

Nina Nastasia, Clinton St. John, Jeff MacLeod, and Morgan Greenwood from Jolie Laide discuss their new album, Creatures , Nina’s championship Kuriky skills and remembering Steve Albini, a spooky synthesizer part that was written by either Morgan or Clinton’s cat, the Edmonton/Calgary rivalry, the characters that populate the post-apocalyptic landscape of their latest songs, fifth member/producer C...

Haley Fohr returns to discuss Halo on the Inside by Circuit des Yeux , stylish, warm hats and accessories, the end of a long-term relationship and how women and men are treated differently when they create "diaristic" art, exploring new music technology and song ideas in the middle of the night, her four-octave voice, existentialism and cathexis, honesty and artifice, Diamanda Galás and havin...

Toronto’s METZ were recently asked to reunite for a performance on Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney , and so I dug into my archives for my first conversation with the band’s Alex Edkins. My digging led me to our second conversation as well, so I’ve combined them here for you and other METZ fans. Alex and I had met a number of times at METZ shows before our first interview, which was a phoner tha...

Ian Blurton and Rob Taylor discuss the return of Change of Heart and In the Wreckage , their first album since 1997, Rob’s 1992 departure and its impact on Ian who carried on, the savvy lawyer who oversaw Change of Heart’s major label deal and helped them retain their masters, whether we might see reissues of Tummysuckle and Steelteeth , why they made a new album, Toronto themes and socio-politica...

William Tyler returns to discuss his alluring new album, Time Indefinite , moving home to Nashville from Los Angeles during a pandemic, our perspectives on a paradigm shift and political contentions about a nebulous status quo, utilizing lo-fi media sources out of necessity to write songs and make films, the state of documentation and cultural erasure, exploring family histories, trusting artistic...

On the afternoon of Thursday, September 17, 2009, I interviewed Nick Cave in (what I recall was) the Park Hyatt's restaurant located in the Yorkville area of Toronto, Ontario. The occasion was to discuss his then new novel, The Death of Bunny Munro , and we also covered his work with Warren Ellis and the filmmaker John Hillcoat to score the film, The Road , why his new novel’s depiction of sexuali...

Yves Jarvis returns to discuss his astounding new album, All Cylinders , artistic growth and personal maturity, musical colours and poetic symbolism, dynamic inspirations like Paul McCartney, Prince, Stevie Wonder, and King Crimson, employing multi-instrumentalism, the admirable autonomy of stand-up comedians, expressing every single thing, tour, other future plans, and much more. EVERY OTHER COMP...