Vish Khanna, host of the podcast Kreative Kontrol, brings a warmth to his interviews that comes from deep research, a love of culture and a willingness to follow the natural flow of conversation.Michelle Lobkowicz/Supplied
Revered songwriter David Berman and prolific recording engineer Steve Albini had a couple of things in common. Each carried a reputation that could limit their public accessibility: Berman cultivated a mysterious aura, while Albini could come off as prickly. The other commonality is coincidentally Canadian: They each gave one of their last-ever interviews to Edmonton-via-Guelph, Ont., podcaster Vish Khanna before their respective deaths, in 2019 and in 2024.
That Khanna landed either conversation is a testament to a reputation cultivated over two decades of interviewing cultural figures across media big and small, from community radio to the CBC. Since 2013, his show Kreative Kontrol has been his primary outlet, featuring interviews with musicians both famous (Daryl Hall, Black Pumas) and cult (Rick White, the Tubs), comedians such as Margaret Cho, Roy Wood Jr. and John Mulaney, and authors including Kate Beaton and Niko Stratis.
On Tuesday, he will interview the California garage-rock musician Ty Segall for Kreative Kontrol’s 1,000th episode.
Khanna brings a warmth to his interviews that comes from deep research, a love of culture and a willingness to follow the natural flow of conversation: basic stuff in theory, but rarely executed so smoothly. His natural candour begets genuine enthusiasm from both subject and listener.
He recently started a chat with Steve Sladkowski, the sports-obsessed guitarist of the Toronto punk band Pup, by putting forth a theory about Don Cherry’s sartorial influence on sportscasters before transitioning seamlessly into a heartfelt conversation about Pup lyrics that Sladkowski didn’t even write. And last September, Khanna managed to convene all four members of seminal Washington post-hardcore band Fugazi for their first collective interview in nearly a decade, alongside Jem Cohen, director of Fugazi documentary Instrument.
Don Cherry, 91, signs off from podcast for the final time
Instead of opening with the kind of cool reverence a punk obsessive might give the influential band, Khanna riffed with Cohen about the social power of communications technology. The interview was not just fluid; it was a can’t-miss for any fan.
Kreative Kontrol has endured – and Khanna has built his reputation in the cultural world – in large part because he clearly cares. “Our appearance on that show was less about his power and more about our respect for him as a journalist,” says Brendan Canty, the drummer for Fugazi, Rites of Spring and, more recently, the Messthetics. Canty can’t remember how many times Khanna has interviewed him, but it’s led to a candid-enough rapport that last year, after Albini died, Khanna stepped up to the mic with the Messthetics to cover a song by Albini’s band Shellac at Guelph’s Hillside Festival.
Khanna, however, did not initially think he was the right fit to host a music show. “I always equated it with driving around your neighbourhood with your stereo blasting and your windows down,” he says.
Instead, he backed into the format as he grappled with a frustration he had as a freelance print music journalist: His interviews were getting longer, but assigned story lengths were growing shorter. An obsessive fan, Khanna wanted to leave less on the cutting-room floor. So he began conducting print interviews as if they were for broadcast – throwing to songs, pretending to pause for breaks. He’d then share them on the radio – first on the show he hosted with his wife, Michelle Lobkowicz, on CFRU in Guelph, then on CBC, including on its dearly departed digital Radio 3 station.
After the CBC let him go as a full-timer in 2013, he recorded his first episode of Kreative Kontrol, named after a Hot Snakes song but hinting at his new-found creative independence. Though Khanna toyed with the idea of a multisegment format, he settled into an interview focus. With no maximum airtime for his conversations, he began eschewing formal questions to just listen, react and improvise. Now, in spite of his deep preparation, he doesn’t write down any questions ahead of time. “Ever,” he says.
WTF with Marc Maron podcast to end after nearly 16 years
The casual nature of Kreative Kontrol has helped entice international guests such as Albini to come aboard regularly – while also warming up more press-shy artists such as Berman. But the local roots of Khanna’s enthusiasm run deep.
Steven Lambke, a fellow Guelphite, member of the band Constantines and co-founder of the label You’ve Changed Records, effectively grew up alongside Khanna. “When I hear Vish’s show, I hear the same thing that I’ve been hearing for most of my life: Vish in pursuit of a conversation, Vish listening closely to music, thoughtful and prepared, curious about music and its makers,” Lambke says.
And Nova Scotia author and illustrator Kate Beaton likens Khanna’s calm, Canadian connectedness – and two-decade near-omnipresence in the country’s music and arts scene – to that of Wayne Rostad, the long-time host of CBC’s On the Road Again. “It’s a small community,” she says. “You can’t survive in it as long as he has if you aren’t at the top of your game.”
After moving to Edmonton a few years ago and cycling through a couple of jobs, Khanna decided in late 2023 to make Kreative Kontrol his primary gig. It’s not always easy. He has nearly 600 donors through Patreon, but economic uncertainty has prompted more than a few listeners to cancel. Still, he’s able to focus on bringing conversations with interesting people to the masses.
“I view my role as not only spreading the word about something or someone that I think is cool,” Khanna says. “It’s getting to the humanity and the relatability of it all.”
