The most
famous DJ in the world right now isn’t really a DJ at all. Instead, Gregg
Gillis (better known by his Girl Talk alias) has attained an insane level of notoriety
for his “mash-ups,” or entertaining and jaw-dropping combinations of everything
from heavy metal to hip-hop to electro-pop to alt-rock and all genres in
between. Black Sabbath, Ludacris, and Jane’s Addiction. The Doors, The Ramones,
and Missy Elliott. Jay-Z, Miley Cyrus, and The Who. UGK, Rich Boy, and John
Lennon. If you’re an open-minded fan of the last 40 years of popular music, chances
are you’re gonna recognize nearly every sample. And as long as you’re OK with
Gillis’ methods of creating new “songs” out of other people’s old music, you’re
probably gonna find the whole thing irresistible.
Which is
exactly what happens at most Girl Talk shows. Gillis shrink-wraps his laptop,
which he uses and abuses, setting off each and every sample live in real-time to
initiate the wildest dance party this side of your neighborhood rave. On stage,
the 29-year-old Pittsburgh, PA, native — who actually worked as a
biomedical engineer before his music career took off ‘round about 2006 —
sweats profusely, thrashing his body around and regularly destroying tables,
speakers, and anything else that gets in his way. Best of all, an integral part
of Girl Talk’s live performance includes inviting as many fans as each venue
will allow to dance their hearts out right next to the man of the hour.
In a way,
it’s a decidedly democratic form of 21st-century music. Each of Girl Talk’s
albums are widely available for free download, and amazingly, neither Gillis nor
his record label, Illegal Art, have ever been sued for their flagrant use of
samples — 373 alone on 2010 album All
Day, which when it was released last December promptly “broke the Internet,”
according to a not-so-sarcastic MTV News report. Gillis has earned rave reviews
from The New York Times, plenty of
commendations from his hometown of Pittsburgh — and even his own line of
Nikes. And no matter how hard the haters keep on hating, the crowds just keep
on swelling. EasternSurf.com checked
in with the intelligent and gracious Gillis about his first original production
gig, walking the line between experimentalism and accessibility, and his
insanely tedious process.
ESM: You just did your first original
production gig a couple of weeks back, linking up with rapper Jim Jones for a
Pitchfork.com session. Tell us about the experience.
Gregg Gillis: I’ve never really done
too much traditional production work, and Pitchfork approached me and threw the
idea out there — I’d make a beat, get a rapper to freestyle over it, and
then do an interview about the production. I was under the impression that it
would be a quick throwaway thing, a 30-second freestyle with a 15-minute
interview. But once I got there with Jim it turned into something else —
he crafted a whole song, nailed it, and we ended up hanging there the whole
night. Just the other day they decided they wanted to push it as a single and got Lloyd to
sing the hook on it, so it definitely evolved into this whole other thing,
which is great because I love the way it came out.
ESM: Is that kind of traditional
production work something you might do more of in the future?
GG: Yeah. Preparing the material for
Girl Talk live shows and future albums is completely a full-time job, but when
touring slows down a bit and I get a little more free time I do like making my
own hip-hop beats.
ESM: You’re right — it must be an
enormous amount of work to condense 373 samples into one album, as you did on
2010’s All Day. How does your process
work?
GG: It’s really day-to-day. I’m home
for a couple of weeks, then I’m on the road for a couple of weeks, so I’m
constantly coming and going. But when I do get home I have a running list of
songs I want to sample, both new and old. I sit down and cut up loops, catalog
them, try out different pitches and speeds… so it’s really a trial-and-error
process. If I like something new, I’ll try it out with a hundred different
things, and some of them will never see the light of day. But since I trigger
everything real-time, if I have something new I’ll try and incorporate that
into the show. Then I can see the response to it, how I feel about it, and take
it from there — either scrap it or continue to build on it.
ESM: Do you find yourself going back to
samples you made when you first started the Girl Talk project?
GG: Yeah, on two different levels
— one being stuff from old albums. Fans who come to shows might have
their favorite album be Night Ripper from
2006, so when I’m doing a set I love to do reinterpretations of that old
material that people know. But also I have been cutting up loops and samples
for 10-plus years now, so maybe I cut something up in 2003 and it didn’t really
take form then, and now I’m going back to that material to see if I can find a home
for it.
ESM: In the beginning of your musical
career you were doing experimental noise stuff. How did that evolve into the much
more pop-oriented work of Girl Talk?
GG: When I was in high school I was
really into left-field electronic music and very abrasive noise, sure. But I
was also an active fan of pop and hip-hop, so I was at both extremes. So I was
interested in taking something familiar and manipulating it into something
weirder and more experimental. And although with Girl Talk I wanted it to be
more accessible than my high school band, the first Girl Talk record in 2002
was very hard to listen to. I was a fan of pop music, but just trying to
connect it to what I was doing prior to that — it just took growing more
comfortable with making my music more accessible. Also, in the early years, even
though my music was more experimental, I was yelling at the crowd to dance or
jumping on people trying to loosen everyone up, but the music wasn’t gelling
with the message. So I started doing things that were more traditional and
dance-oriented. That’s how it evolved into what it is today. But I’m still
trying to ride that line where the actual composition and the way it’s put
together is engaging. It doesn’t have to be experimental, but I do want it to
be complicated. Some people will enjoy it, and for some people it will be an
overload of samples. Just too much.
ESM: Well you have no problem getting
people to dance today, so it must be working. How important is that live energy,
having huge crowds onstage jamming out with you?
GG: The shows and the records have two
different goals. With the albums, I want them to be fun, absolutely — that’s
why I’m throwing together 300 recognizable samples. But I’m not considering it
a dance party; it’s more what is most engaging musically, because on the CD I
want people to go back to it years from now on their headphones or while
studying, whereas with the show I try to take the more dance-friendly tracks off
the album and highlight them. Make people physically react, which I think
connects with a lot of bands who try to play their more aggressive material
live. So sure, the show is more in-your-face, and I hear from people all the
time who like the shows more than the albums. But again, the entire goal is all
musical — everything has to musically engaging. I could put together a set that
just makes people dance really easily, but it wouldn’t be that interesting
musically to me. So I like to walk that line too, where it’s still something
that represents what I’m trying to do, yet something people can react to and
lose their minds.
ESM: You mentioned CDs, but your last
album was released as a free download. Will you ever put out a traditional
physical release?
GG: I love physical CDs, and I still go
to the record store to buy them — and not because of any moral obligation
either, just because I enjoy waking up and throwing on a CD. But it is a dying
trend, so I’m just trying to embrace what’s happening right now. I make a
living off of touring, and with this project there’s no real goal — me
making the music and a small label putting it out. It’s been a big experiment
to see how far it could go, so releasing All
Day for free was an attempt to push it further. There’s really no precedent
in my mind to base this off of, because this project is just floating in space
at this point. From day one I’ve always encouraged people sharing the music; in
the early days I put my stuff on Napster and always got excited to see people
downloading it or checking it out. I feel like a lot of artists like me get all
of their exposure through the Internet. I give things away for free, but I’ve
built up a fan base that allows me to make a healthy living touring as much as
I want to. It’s a comfortable place. You always hear about the industry dying,
but that’s coming from a label perspective — they used to sell millions
of albums, and they can’t sell quite as many now. But young bands have access
to so much more. It’s an exciting time for smaller bands and musicians. I might
release stuff physically, but even as a big fan of buying cassettes and vinyl,
I didn’t feel it was necessary to “release” the last one.
ESM: On the vinyl note, do you ever
catch flak from DJs for being what many would call a “button-pusher”?
GG: I’ve definitely heard it before,
but I’ve never considered myself a DJ in the traditional sense. My influences
starting this were John Oswald, Negative Land, Kid 606, Bomb Squad… all of
those people who use samples but aren’t considered DJs. To this day, I’ve never
played with a person spinning a record. Never played in a dance club. It’s
always been conceptual — I’m going to start a project where I perform
live using samples but present it as original material. I always want to make
something that becomes transformative. Only years later when this project
finally broke through did people start asking me to play dance clubs and DJ
nights, and I said, “No, I never do that. I get on stage and I tour with bands,
and that’s how it’s always been.” After 10 years of doing this, not once have I
played an unaltered song. It’s strictly taking bits and pieces and trying to
make something new, which goes for the albums and the live shows. I have heard
people talk trash, but I think they misunderstand where this is coming from. I
have lots of respect for DJ culture, but I’m not associated with it. I grew up
loving laptop musicians.
ESM: We know the live show is hard on
your laptop — that’s why they’re always shrink-wrapped. But how hard is
it on your body to be dancing just as passionately as your fans every night?
GG: It’s tough — I’ve had a
couple weeks off and I’m still hurting right now. That’s always been a part of
it, though — when you’re getting up on stage to perform, whether it’s in
front of five people or 5,000, it’s always been something where the
presentation is very important for me. I want it to have raw energy, like
seeing a rock show, confrontational, you know? I want to physically take it
over the top, sweating and hurting more than anyone else out there. If I’m
gonna go there then it can become contagious. A lot of times I’ll schedule the touring
in short bursts, because I really can’t go the entire year. The skin comes off
the bottom of my feet, or I’m bleeding where I can’t walk in the morning. That’s
been a fundamental aspect of performing from when I started that I can’t
abandon now. The moment I start standing still up there on stage is the moment
I should call it quits.
ESM: You’re practically a local hero in
Pittsburgh, where December 7th was proclaimed Gregg Gillis Day by the mayor. And
you’re even a regular contributor to ESPN.com, talking about the Steel City’s legendary
sports teams. How connected are you with your hometown?
GG: It’s big, and it’s really grown
more. I’ve always loved the city, and my experience as a young person here has
allowed me to do what I do. I saw a lot of crazy music when I was young, and
all of that laid the groundwork for me. As for the city and its teams, when
things started to pick up for me in 2006 and 2007, people were like, “When are
you going to move to New York or LA?” And that never crossed my mind —
I’ve never wanted to live there. Me being from Pittsburgh was a talking point
in the press, so I spoke about the city a lot and the city responded. Giving me
the Gregg Gillis Day was surreal and amazing. What I’m doing doesn’t
necessarily represent Pittsburgh in any way; this didn’t come out of any scene,
there aren’t a bunch of people here doing what I do... But I like to make my
mark. I live here and I love it, so as much positivity as I can spread about
Pittsburgh, I’m down.
UPCOMING GIRL TALK TOUR DATES
5/20 The
Fillmore at Jackie Gleason……………………… Miami, FL
5/21 House
Of Blues………………………………………… Orlando, FL
5/22 HangOut
Fest………………………………………….. Gulf Shores, AL
5/24 The
Lyric Oxford……………………………………….. Oxford, MS
5/28 Summer
Camp…………………………………………. Chillicothe, IL
5/29 Hookahville………………………………………………
Thornville, OH
6/11 Bonnaroo
Music Festival………………………………. Manchester, TN
6/17 House
Of Blues…………………………………………. Atlantic City, NJ
6/18 Governor’s
Ball Music Festival……………………….. New York, NY
6/25 Whitewater
Music Amphitheater……………………… New Braunfels, TX
7/1 Milwaukee
Summerfest………………………………… Milwaukee, WI
7/2 80-35
Festival……………………………………………. Des Moines, IA
7/8 Sound
Academy………………………………………… Toronto, ON
7/9 Sound
Academy………………………………………… Toronto, ON
7/10 Quebec
City International Summer Festival…………. Quebec City, PQ
7/30 Wanderlust
Music Festival…………………………….. Lake Tahoe, CA
8/3 Constellation
Brands Performing Arts Center……….. Canandaigua, NY
8/5 Lollapalooza……………………………………………..
Chicago, IL
8/6 Kanrockas
Music Festival……………………………… Kansas City, KS
8/13 Outside
Lands Festival…………………………………. San Francisco, CA
8/20 Live
At Squamish……………………………………….. Squamish, BC
9/2 Jazz
Aspen………………………………………………. Snowmass, CO
For
all things Girl Talk, visit www.Facebook.com/girltalkmusic
To
download Girl Talk’s 2010 album All Day for
free, visit www.Illegal-Art.net
