 |
| |
|
I'm very happy with everything that's happened. I'm living a dream life right now. I have no idea where this is going. I'm just continually trying to make interesting music, and I'll do that until the day that I die. I feel that I've accomplished almost every musical goal I've had at this point. -Gregg Gillis aka Girl Talk |
|
|
| |
|
Photo of Girl Talk by Nilina Mason-Campbell
In Pittsburgh We Feed The Animals
In listening to the new album, to me it feels like your most charismatic and concise body of studio work yet. How does Feed The Animals seem to capture that live Girl Talk sound and make it unique to the studio experience?
It's tough. The album and the live show are two independent entities at this point. With the live show, I can be loose with it and have people be able to dance. With the album, I want it to be very detailed and have it be able to be listened to over and over and have it not get stale. I try to capture some of the energy of the live show on the record but they are definitely different.
On it, there's something like 300-plus samples in 50 minutes: How do you achieve that?
It's just trying out tons of different combinations of material, just lots of working on all the small little bits. It's a matter of coming up with transitions. A lot of trial and error and sampling, sampling, sampling; most of them do not work out but the lucky few do.
Have you been using the material from the new album in your recent live shows? How does that process go? Do you typically create the mixes in the live setting and then when you have them down bring it into the studio or vice versa?
It's always going on. I'm always trying to work new material into the live shows. It's interesting to me to have people notice the material live. I love to do reinterpretations of the album live. The album can go a variety of ways and I like to capture that with the show. I like to do remixes of everything.
Hollywood Bound Or Just A Day In The Life?
Lately, you've become a celebrity in your own right. Where do you take Girl Talk from here? Ever plan on going back to the 9-5 world?
I'm almost banking on it. I'm very happy with everything that's happened. I'm living a dream life right now. I have no idea where this is going. I'm just continually trying to make interesting music, and I'll do that until the day that I die. I feel that I've accomplished almost every musical goal I've had at this point.
Recently I caught your show at the Fox in Boulder and it was pure pandemonium. You had a fairly virgin security team running around frantic while a mob of teenagers and 20-somethings rushed the stage. I can't remember the last time the Fox was so rowdy. Do crowds the world over hype into that kind of frenzy every night?
It depends. I think people in the U.S., at least for the most part; they're on the same wavelength. I've played close to every major city in the U.S., enough where people know the deal. In Europe people aren't as sure about it. I like it to be free form and some of the Europe shows it takes the audience a while to warm up. It's hard to predict. Europe now is like playing in the U.S. two years ago.
Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips gave your music a huge nod recently, nominating Girl Talk for the Shortlist Music Prize. How did that feel?
 Girl Talk |
That blew my mind. I've been listening to them since I was in middle school. It's amazing to me. I ran into him this summer at Summer Camp and he was a completely nice guy.
Undoubtedly one of your most well known mixes is Biggie's "Juicy" together with Elton John's "Tiny Dancer." Does this kind of thing happen by a chance occurrence of trial and error or is it more preemptively contrived?
That's a rare one. Most of the mixes are not intuitive. Most are trial and error. That was back in 2005 and I just threw those two together and it actually worked out. That's a rare case. It sounded so official that I was unsure that I wanted to use it. I like the aesthetic that people know that I am manipulating pop songs and redoing them in my own way. I'm happy the way it turned out. I guess that's my hit single.
Just Try And Sue Me
Lastly, discuss briefly the legality of what you do. How does the Fair Use law play into it and how many times have you been approached by pissed off agents and publicists angry that you sampled their clients shit?
We haven't had any problems thus far. The Fair Use law basically states that you can sample without permission as long as it doesn't mess with the artist's sales. All of the a capellas and instrumentals are commercially released by the major record labels. They release them for reinterpretations (soundtracks, commercials, etc.) and I think the labels understand that. People communicate now with the actual music that they purchase. I've talked to a lot of major labels that have been very supportive of what I'm doing.
Feed The Animals, is out now! You can download the digital version (320 Kpbs) for whatever price you want at: www.illegalart.net. If you pay over $5, you get an added bonus of one big mp3 file with all of the tracks connected.
Girl Talk tour dates available here.
Girl Talk @ Bonnaroo 2007
JamBase | Ladies Room
Go See Live Music!
| 
