Long-form arts talk with real scene memory.
Kreative Kontrol gives artists room to explain how the work actually gets made. Recent conversations move from fuzz pedals and cello tones to home studios, album sequencing, improvised music, songwriting memory, publishing, and the uneasy economics around culture.
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Kreative Kontrol is a long-form interview show about artists at work. Its center of gravity is music, but the conversations stretch naturally into books, visual art, comedy, publishing, memory, scene history, and the practical business of keeping creative life moving. The show likes context. It asks the kind of questions that arrive with a little backstory attached, then gives the guest enough space to complicate the premise. Recent episodes show that range clearly. Janel Leppin talks through cello, guitar, fuzz pedals, Ensemble Volcanic Ash, and the way certain sounds carry expectations before a note is even played. Rheostatics discuss improvised music, structured music, non-linear playing, water bodies, and a long history of leaving, exploring, and returning with different musical instincts. Joe Pernice’s conversation turns on how an album becomes cohesive rather than just a pile of songs, with Warren emerging as a trusted outside ear. The New Pornographers episode gets into home recording, studio pressure, technical self-sufficiency, failed ideas, and the freedom that comes when the clock is not bleeding money. Charlotte Cornfield’s episode follows songwriting into theatricality, autobiography, Lucinda Williams, imagined scenes, and the useful distance between lived experience and a good lyric. The Rick Fröberg art-book episode moves from music into publishing, creators making books directly, and the fragile economics around both records and print. The show is not frictionless. Long supporter appeals, sponsor reads, and charity spotlights often sit near the front and back of episodes. That material can feel like part of the independent-podcast infrastructure rather than a cleanly separated wrapper. Once the conversation settles, though, Kreative Kontrol becomes a reliable place for deep, slightly wandering cultural talk. It favors musicians and makers who can speak about process without sanding off the mess. It also respects listeners who already care about albums, lineups, scenes, instruments, and the small choices behind a finished work. The tone is warm but not glossy. The best moments sound like a knowledgeable friend asking one more question because the first answer opened a better door.
Made for: For listeners who want musician and artist interviews with process, history, and practical detail. It especially suits people who care about records, songwriting, experimental music, publishing, and the culture around independent art.
What sets it apart: Kreative Kontrol stands out by letting conversations stay long, specific, and occasionally messy. Instead of trimming guests into promotional sound bites, it follows the working questions behind songs, albums, instruments, books, and creative scenes.
Thoughtful, funny, heartfelt interviews and in-depth documentaries about musicians, authors, comedians, and other cultural creators. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/kreative-kontrol. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Kreative Kontrol makes artists' decisions audible, tracing how songs, sounds, and performances take shape through unusually attentive conversation.
Kreative Kontrol turns artist interviews into close examinations of musical decisions, with Vish Khanna following an answer until process, taste, and uncertainty come into view.
Cello fuzz pedals can apparently sound like flying crystals, if your music curiosity runs that deep.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A focused gear-and-tone conversation with a cellist who treats sound as a working practice.
Janel Leppin comes across as a musician who pays close attention to tone, touch, and the practical life of a cello in improvised music. The strongest stretch centers on the gear talk, where she describes trying different fuzz pedals, keeping two on her pedal board, and swapping…
DC connects the Rheostatics' nonlinear music to a long history with improvisation.
Rheostatics come into focus as a band interested in what happens when music slips past the usual verse-chorus path and becomes something more nonlinear, more instinctive, and less tied to lyrics.
A close look at how a record gets arranged, argued over, and settled.
The piece tracks a musician working through the practical challenge of turning a stack of songs into a record that feels whole. It stays with questions of sequence, judgment, and who gets to decide when a track belongs.
A grounded home studio conversation about time, pressure, and what failed ideas can teach.
The episode settles into the quiet liberty of making records at home, where ideas can be caught before they vanish and shaped without the clock pressing so hard.
A thoughtful conversation about imagination, autobiography, and the theatrical power of vivid lyrics.
The episode circles a slippery but useful question: when a songwriter tells a vivid story, what is really being offered as lived experience? Lucinda Williams's memoir gives the discussion a clear way in, especially through the imagined hotel-room encounter in "Just Wanted to See…
Janel Leppin talks about making the cello feel distorted, theatrical, and unexpectedly bright.
Janel Leppin comes through as an artist who treats the cello as a shifting presence rather than a fixed classical object. In this episode, the instrument can feel heavy, theatrical, distorted, or suddenly bright, and her best moments come when she connects those sounds to real…
Rick's music past leads into a grounded, creator-minded conversation about publishing through recurring crisis.
Rick's book opens a path into the shared terrain of music and publishing, with the guest looking back on time in Girls Against Boys and Nouette Kojak before moving toward books.
Art historian Tamar Avishai interviews critics, curators, and writers about single paintings and ideas.
Russell Tovey and Robert Diament interview artists about their materials, biography, and process.
Cinematographer Roger Deakins and James Deakins interview film crew about the craft behind specific shots.
Robert Bound interviews artists and reviews new film, book, and music releases with critics.
Sound art from places, recordings, and memory.
This episode features an introduction to an interview with Mark Medley, highlighting the podcast's supporter model and including promotional segments about AI medical research and LGBTQIA+ community support.
Host Vish Khanna interviews musicians Sohrab Habibion and Johnny Temple about the book 'Plenty for All: The Art of Rick Froberg.' They discuss how they met Froberg, his wide-ranging visual art beyond his music in bands like Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes, and the book's creation after his death.
This episode features promotional content for supporting the podcast through Acast and GIFGAF, along with a call to support Youth Empowerment and Support Services (YES) for youth homelessness prevention.
A listener shares how the podcast Creative Control inspired their career in radio and support for the arts, while also promoting the Pride Centre of Edmonton.
This episode features promotional content for supporting the podcast, wildfire research at UBC, and youth homelessness services, along with a listener testimonial praising host Vish's arts interviewing skills.
Cellist and multi-instrumentalist Janel Leppin returns to Kreative Kontrol to discuss two new albums released on March 27, 2026: the solo record 'Slowly Melting' and the ensemble album 'Pluto in Aquarius' with Volcanic Ash.
Chris Forsyth and Doug McCombs of Basic tell Vish Khanna how they met at Chicago's Empty Bottle around 2014, when McCombs opened a solo set for Forsyth's Solar Motel Band.
This conversation stays with sound, gear, and the way a cello can move through improvised music.
A listener shares how the podcast Creative Control with Vish Khanna inspired their radio career and appreciation for independent media's treatment of artists.
Joe Pernice spends the conversation on sequence.
A supporter testimonial promoting the Creative Control podcast, which features long-form interviews on music, comedy, and art, while also highlighting youth homelessness prevention efforts.
This episode features an interview with musician Bill Callahan, discussing his career, songwriting, and artistic journey.
Charlotte Cornfield says Hurts Like Hell grew out of life in Toronto, Montreal, and New York, plus the shift of becoming a mother to an almost three-year-old daughter.
This episode features an interview with Sohrab Habibion and Johnny Temple discussing the art and legacy of Rick Fröberg.