Gregg Gillis aka Girl Talk (myspace) was nice enough to talk to me over the telephone a little bit ago and answer some questions. Originally it aired on my radio show.

Girl Talk undoubtedly rocking out; promo shot

Read on to see what he thinks of being called a “DJ”, how the Pittsburgh scene is, what his high school graduation song was and what he thinks of this year’s Steelers team.

[notes: I’m basically presenting it as it happened, only editing it to take out some radio-specific references and to make my words clearer than my normal bumbling.]

Grizzly Bear - Knife (Girl Talk remix) (mp3)

Adrian: So for [people] who might not be as familiar with what you do, you go by Gregg Gillis during the day and Girl Talk at night. You released an album that was critically acclaimed over the last year and made a lot of top 10 lists. How would you, sort of, describe your sound?

Girl Talk: My sound is basically cut up pop music, rearranged.

A: I know you have t-shirts that say “I’m not a DJ” and I wouldn’t really call what you do a mashup so do you, sort of, get mad at [people using] those terms when they’re applied to you?

GT: I don’t get mad necessarily. I think people can interpret it any way they want. I think that—the “I’m not a DJ” shirts are sort of a response to, you know, people asking me to play shows and expecting me to do two hour sets on turntables, but that’s not what I do at all, you know. I’ve always done my music on a laptop.

A DJ is a very specific art. You could put a good DJ on on any crowd and they could work the crowd and spin songs that they like, but when you see me live, I play my style of remixes. And it’s like going to see any band live where you go to see that style of music and if you’re not a fan of that style of music, you won’t like it. So, you know, when you see me live, it’s all remixes. It’s all very—it’s all based on other people’s music. I don’t play other people’s music outright, but there’s a little bit of a distinction between what I do and a standard DJ. I’ve always considered myself more of a producer, a sample-based producer. And there are lots of guys who do sound-collage stuff who wouldn’t necessarily go by the “DJ” term. I mean, I’m not offended by anything. I’m open to interpretation. The whole DJ phrase has sort of been tossed around the last six months whereas I’ve been doing this for seven years. I’ve never had an issue before.

A: Just to give people a sense of how much you cut up stuff, do you remember how many samples are in Night Ripper, your last album?

GT: I know that there’s 176 artists sampled, but—blatantly sampled. There are a lot of samples on there that I can’t recognize, just drum beats and individual percussion hits and stuff like that. And a lot of artists are sampled more than once, so I don’t have the actual number of the number or artists sampled, but, you know, I’d guess over 250.

A: Wow. I don’t know if you’ve ever checked out the wikipedia page for Night Ripper but it tries to list every single sample that you go through.

GT: Yeah yeah, I’ve seen that. I saw that. It’s a confusing thing because the artists I thank on the insert are supposed to be all the artists I sampled, but a lot of the samples on the record are samples of samples, so people who have already sampled things and me taking and doing something else with it. So there’s a lot of difficulty in doing that. I even have little bits and pieces of my own production, original instrumentation, on the record and people always seem to mislabel those in the wikipedia thing.

A: I see. You’re not a DJ, but you’ve been asked to—well I don’t know what you’d call it for this—but you’re actually performing in nearby San Francisco soon but it’s a private event; it’s a high school senior prom.

GT: Yeah.

A: That’s pretty cool. How’d you get set up with that?

GT: I had a few prom offers this year and this one was totally legit; they were willing to fly me out and put me up and everything like that. Normally, like I said before, I like to play shows bands, where I’m, kind of, playing in the midst of bands and it’s tough for me to even play with other DJs because I cue up all the samples live, mix and match on the fly but, you know, it’s not very improvised. It more composed and rehearsed and then I try to go through it. It’s always tough for me to play with a DJ, so it’s actually going to be a challenge to step up there after the prom DJ, who I’m sure is great. So, yeah, I don’t know; they asked me to do it and seemed capable of bringing me out there. I knew—I got a few prom offers and I knew I had to do at least one of them. It should be amazing. I’m going to take my girlfriend out there and we’re going to the prom.

A: That’s awesome. So there is a, sort of, proper prom DJ going on before you?

GT: Yeah yeah.

A: So you don’t have to play their, like, senior song? There weren’t any special requests like that?

GT: No, it should be pretty straight up. I think they have a DJ all night. That was another thing: they asked me to play and they wanted me to play for three hours or something, you know, and it was, like, you don’t want to listen to me play for three hours. Even if I could, you just don’t want that. You know what I mean? There’s this misinterpretation that what I do [live] sounds different than what’s on record. It’s like, no, that’s what it always sounds like. So, you know, I have a 45 minute or an hour slot where I get to just go to town, do my thing.

A: That’s pretty cool. Did you have a senior song when you were in high school?

GT: Um, I know we had a graduation song. I graduated in the year 2000, so Vitamin C “Graduation Song” was just perfect timing with that. That’s what I remember from my high school.

A: Yeah, I graduated in 1999 and for some reason we had “Glory Days” rather than the Prince song. I have no idea why. Personally, at the time I really wanted “Free Bird,” but such things are forgivable for a high school student.

GT: Yeah, that’s the song for every class ever.

A: Exactly. Let’s see here. You were talking about your live show being more composing that improvisation. I was wondering how your process went. I know you’ve talked a bit in other interviews about how your records being—coming off your live show and your live show, sort of honing everything. So what is your process like? Is it flashes of inspiration—oh this would go well with this— or is it trial-and-error? What is it like?

GT: It’s very trial-and-error for me. I just sort of sit down—there are sort of two separate parts in my mind. The editing and the sampling. That’s part A and part B would be putting things together. I’ll spend a lot of time sampling beats and loops and hooks and cataloging them and not even thing about what they would match with. I wish I was talented enough so I could hear something and have an intuitive response that it would go well with something else. But normally I will sample, even for a week straight, all day long, sampling all kinds of hooks and stuff. And then the program I use to play live, it’s a program where it’s easy to match up different loops and samples and stuff and I just go through and try out different combinations. After some time things pop out. Every live show I play, it’s like a test of how well it’s going to be received, how I think it will sound, and over the course of time things become staples of the set. [I find] things that sound good.

A: That was another thing I was going to ask: what software do you actually use. I guess you indicated that you use different things live and…

GT: Yeah yeah. To do all the editting, I use a program called Adobe Audition. It’s just a simple wave editor. That’s how I make all my beats and things like that. There’s where I do all my sampling. And then for performing live I use a program called Audio Mulch.

A: Cool. I think that’s what Four Tet does as well, uses as well.

GT: Yeah, I think he does. You don’t see too many people DJ with it, but a lot more experimental minded people get into it. It’s kind of geared for live, the electronic music side. Yeah, there are a number of guys that have been seen rockin’ it over the years.

A: I don’t know if you remember, but in my email to you I mentioned that I’m from Pittsburgh originally so I have some Pittsburgh specific questions.

GT: Sweet.

A: Was the Pittsburgh scene—what do you think of the Pittsburgh scene, basically?

GT: Right now?

A: Yeah.

GT: I think it’s great. I’m not part of any scene, necessarily, but I’m friends with a lot of bands and there aren’t other people that sound like me in the area. You know what I mean? There’s plenty of other electronic acts and plenty of other weird bands; there’s plenty of DJs, but there’s not a crew doing this sort of thing, which, I think is good and bad. I think it’s healthy to have your own world to be in. And that’s the best thing, I think, about Pittsburgh: there’s a whole bunch of weird and great bands here, but no one sounds like anyone else. It’s easy to start a band and no even worry if you’re crampin’ anyone else’s style. Yeah, I think it’s really good right now. There are a bunch of bands making a dent a national level like Zombi, and Grand Buffet, and Modey Lemon, and Wiz Khalifa. Those are, like, rap groups and bluesy garage bands and psychedelic bands. It’s all over the map and everyone’s kind of doing their thing and everyone’s kind of friends with each other, but no one necessarily—there’s not too camaraderie as far as—people support each other but it’s like there are too many Pittsburgh-based tours or anything. The bands individually are all doing their own thing and it’s cool: my next upcoming Pittsburgh show, I’m playing with a whole bunch of random acts and they’re all different genres and are all my friends, all doing pretty cool things with their bands.

A: Here’s a question: was the Pittsburgh scene—were people in Pittsburgh supportive of you going back—I guess you say you’ve been doing this seven years—or was it, like I imagine a lot of the country, came on post-the Pitchfork [review]?

GT: Right right. Like everywhere, the hype has blown up. It’s funny, I haven’t played in Pittsburgh in the past six or seven months, so I don’t know how different it’ll be, but I definitely had one of my biggest followings going here for a large period of time. I have a show next month so it’ll be funny to see how crazy it’s gotten on the local front. Pittsburgh’s been really supportive. The local people who actually put on shows like Manny Theiner who’s one of the biggest promoters here, have always been very supportive of me and have helped me get on bigger shows and helped me get on bills and stuff like that. They’ve allowed me to open up for people and, actually, helped me to get on tour. And all the bands—I’ve played with so many different bands, there have been so many people who’ve helped me out. In that regard, there’s definitely been a lot more support here than anywhere else, on that level.

A: Cool. In that same vein, you work in Pittsburgh during the day and it seems that—it seem that you’ve—is it a conscious effort you’ve made to separate work and what you do otherwise? I remember you wouldn’t let the Pittsburgh newspaper use your real name or use a picture of you [without sunglasses and a scarf].

GT: Right. I mean, I still do it actively. It’s just become a very weird situation. It’s almost become some Seinfeld socially awkward situation where when I started the job, I didn’t tell them, just because it didn’t come up and it’s almost hard to explain what I do and it also wasn’t as big a deal then. And then over time, specifically over the last year, it’s just gotten crazy. At this point I can’t tell them because they think they know me and I’ve been there two and a half years and it would just be really awkward for me to be like “Oh, by the way, I’m this laptop musician who travels across the country. I might play a prom this weekend.” In that regard, it’s just kind of weird and I can’t tell them. I’m just kind of stuck actively lying to them, but if I started a job today I would absolutely tell someone. I’m just in this weird situation.

A: Right. Actually a friend of mine works at that same company, so at least one of your coworkers knows.

GT: Ha! Yeah, I had one co-worker come up to a show of mine. I don’t know if it was that guy or not.

A: Was it sometime in the fall?

GT: I think it was actually. Yeah, because after a show, this guy came up to me and was like “Do you work at blah blah blah?” And I was like “Oh my god. I’m busted!” It’s a big place so it was a guy that I actually hadn’t seen around before or anything like that. All of my friends here really think that my coworkers know and are just too embarrassed to call me out, so I don’t know, but at this point no one’s said anything to me.

A: Yeah, I think that’s probably Pat, the same guy. Anyhow…Also, your Pittsburgh house representative brought you down to Congress a few weeks ago?

GT: I didn’t go; he just brought me up in a trial on internet law.

Rep. Mike Doyle - Talking about Girl Talk (House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Internet, 3-7-07) (mp3, sort of crappy quality)

A: Oh, okay. Have you actually heard that?

GT: Yeah, absolutely. I got an email a few days before it happened from one of his representatives, of Mike Doyle, and the guy said that “Mike Doyle would like to congratulate you on your recent success and will be mentioning you in his upcoming thing.” I was like “Oh, that’s cool.” I didn’t realize that—I caught a video of it on youtube—I didn’t realize it was such an actual Congress/ CNN affair, so it was really surreal checking that out.

A: He sort of compares you to Paul McCartney, which, I imagine, is sort of flattering.

GT: [laughs] Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s real cool. I mean, I’m doing a weird thing, so to come out and support me, to go out a limb a little bit—yeah, that’s cool. And it’s obvious he’s from Pennsylvania.

A: Yeah, he’s definitely from Pittsburgh. He’s got a nice thick Pittsburgh accent.

GT: Yeah, I noticed.

A: He’s like [in a Pittsburgh accent:] We got a guy here, a local guy done good.

GT: [laughs]

A: You’re like “oh yeah, Pittsburgh accent.” Sorry to only talk about Pittsburgh things here, but I thought it was pretty cool that when you did your little Pitchfork guest list thing that you said the coolest thing you did all year was run down the street with a bunch of Steelers fans after they won the Super Bowl.

GT: Yeah, that’s legit. That was a glorious moment. I’ve been a Steelers fan all my life and, I don’t know, it’s just ingrained in your blood here, I think, that [you love the] Steelers from the moment you’re born. It was just that triumphant moment. It was really nice to just hang around with a whole bunch of friends. I don’t know. It was just a perfect day.

A: It wasn’t getting all the hype from your album and all that? It was the Steelers?

GT: Yeah, absolutely, the album stuff was great, but the Steelers took the cake. It was only their fifth Super Bowl ever. Who knows how many decent album reviews I’ll have in the future?

A: Right, I think that was a good day for every Pittsburgher, myself included. Do you think they’re going to have a good season? What do you think of this new guy?

GT: I don’t know. I’m excited with the changes. Last season was just sort of boring. I almost expected it a bit after the Super Bowl. They’re letting a few people go, so it’ll be interesting to see how it pans out. Joey Porter’s gone and it’s kind of just in a state of flux right now. They might even be shifting the defense, the whole set up. I don’t know. I think it should be interesting to see what goes down.

A: Right. Awesome. Do you think you have any other projects? What else are you working on right now?

GT: I just started kind of a new band with a friend of mine, named Frank Musarra and the band’s called Trey Told ‘Em. I’ve been getting a lot of remix requests that I can’t deal with all of them. With the Girl Talk remix requests a lot of times people want samples, so I decided to start a project that’s strictly for doing remixes, doing beats for people, and it doesn’t necessarily have to sound like Girl Talk but we can do samples if we want to. So right now, just tonight, I was working with him over the internet finishing up our first official remix for the band Tokyo Police Club. That should be done hopefully tonight and probably popping up on the internet sometime within a week. [note: as of today, the Trey Told ‘Em remix of Tokyo Police Club’s “Cheer It On” is streaming at Trey Told ‘Em’s myspace.] After that, a whole bunch of remixes for the Trey Told ‘Em thing and just keep doing a whole lot of new music for Girl Talk, just for live shows.

A: Besides this prom, do you have any other plans in the works for San Francisco or Bay Area shows coming up?

GT: I don’t know, but I’d like that. I’ve had a good run in San Francisco this year, just with the Be the Riottt! Festival in November. I got kicked off the stage after a few minutes. After that I came back and played the Independent and I felt like the energy was so insane because so many of the people saw me get kicked off the stage after a few minutes at the festival. I’ve had a really good time in San Francisco this year. And I have a couple good buddies living out there, so I’d like to get back, maybe sometime late summer or something like that.

A: Cool. I look forward to it. Just to wrap things up, if people want to find out more about you or hear samples of your music, they can go to girl-talk.net, right? Or myspace.com/girltalkmusic.

GT: That is correct.

A: Alright, thanks for taking the time to talk to us.

GT: Cool. Thanks for having me. See you around Pittsburgh sometime. loans 5.5 home mortage no insuranceloans business 5047000 credit loan bad80 loan 20 mortgage rates$200 loanloan rates student 2007income stated loan 75start a loan fresh serviceloans on 0 percent financing autoapproval loan 100

This entry was posted on Monday, April 16th, 2007 at 1:02 am Posted by adrian in SF bay area, interview, radio. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.