For Gregg Gillis, the Girl Talk project has always been about embracing pop music. On his fourth album, Feed The Animals, Girl Talk celebrates pop to the extreme and continues his sonic evolution towards his party-infested live shows. The new album, which took two years to make, sees Gillis collecting material that was developed as part of his ever-changing live show. Using 300 samples in over 50 minutes, Gillis has created his most heavy-hitting, party-centric album yet. Throughout eight years of dedicating himself to creating sample-based music, Gillis has focused on the art of sampling and developing new tracks that have their own character, and surpass the original elements. He has refined his skill and technique and challenged himself with each new release, and in turn Gillis has solidified a specific musical identity and successfully created a particular style of music on record and in a live setting that excites listeners and makes them hungry for more.
Girl Talk has been known to underground audiences for several years, but it wasn't until 2006 with the release of Night Ripper that Girl Talk received recognition for his innovations and crossed over catching the attention of a much larger audience. Rolling Stone, SPIN, Blender, Pitchfork, and more included Night Ripper in their "best albums of 2006" lists and Girl Talk was solicited for remixes by artists including Beck, Tokyo Police Club, Grizzly Bear, Simian Mobile Disco, Peter Bjorn & John, and Of Montreal. From Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips nominating him for the Shortlist Music Prize to Representative Mike Doyle speaking about him to Congress (in relation to copyright laws), Gillis has quickly emerged from his underground Pittsburgh roots and become a public figure.
Many would be surprised to learn that prior to the release of Night Ripper, Girl Talk would play shows to 0 to 30 people in half-empty basements. He'd play those shows like he was playing to thousands, but only few knew what a Girl Talk live show was really all about. Now it is widely known that Girl Talk performances oftentimes feature the stage being mobbed with a sweaty mass of dancers who surround Gillis as he triggers samples and creates mixes, new and old, out of loops from his hard drive. Such performances have quickly become one of the most entertaining and exhilarating live shows many have experienced as Girl Talk has the extraordinary ability to get the crowd ecstatic and keep the thrill going for the entire concert. In the past two years, Girl Talk has been be booked by major festivals (Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Virgin, All Points West, Pitchfork, DEMF, etc.) and with roughly 200 live shows over the last couple of years, Gillis has consistently played larger venues to capacity crowds (every date on his 2007 North American tour with Dan Deacon sold out).
