Gregg Michael Gillis (born October 26, 1981), known by the

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

Girl Talk, is an American disc jockey who specializes in mash-ups and digital sampling. Gillis has released five LPs on the record label Illegal Art and EPs on both 333 and 12 Apostles. He was trained as an engineer.

Early life and education

Gillis began experimenting with electronic music and sampling while a student at Chartiers Valley High School in the

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

suburb of Bridgeville. After a few collaborative efforts, he started the solo "Girl Talk" project while studying

biomedical engineering Biomedical engineering (BME) or medical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare purposes (e.g., diagnostic or therapeutic). BME is also traditionally logical sciences ...

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location i ...

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The s ...

. In school, Gillis focused on

tissue engineering Tissue engineering is a biomedical engineering discipline that uses a combination of cells, engineering, materials methods, and suitable biochemical and physicochemical factors to restore, maintain, improve, or replace different types of biolo ...

Influences

Gillis states his musical inspirations to have been

Squarepusher Tom Jenkinson (born 17 January 1975), known professionally as Squarepusher, is an English electronic musician, record producer, bassist, multi-instrumentalist and DJ. His music spans several genres including drum and bass, IDM, acid house, ac ...

Aphex Twin Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), best known as Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born British musician, composer and DJ. He is known for his idiosyncratic work in electronic styles such as techno, ambient, and jungle. Journalists from publicati ...

Just Blaze Justin Gregory Smith (born January 8, 1978), known professionally as Just Blaze, is an American hip hop record producer and DJ. Born in Paterson, New Jersey, Blaze attended Rutgers University for three years before dropping out to pursue his mu ...

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

and

Kid606 Miguel Trost De Pedro (born July 27, 1979), better known by his stage name Kid606, is an electronic musician who was raised in San Diego and later moved to San Francisco. He is most closely associated with the glitch, IDM, hardcore techno and b ...

among others. He has also stated interest in punk rock, as well as noise musician

Merzbow is a Japanese noise project started in 1979 by , best known for a style of harsh, confrontational noise. Since 1980, Akita has released over 400 recordings and has collaborated with various artists. The name Merzbow comes from the German dada ...

. He stated that he was first introduced to the genre of

Plunderphonics Plunderphonics is a music genre in which tracks are constructed by sampling recognizable musical works. The term was coined by composer John Oswald in 1985 in his essay "Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative", and even ...

by John Oswald. Gillis has also stated that he was always into hip-hop and

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...

. As he aged, he started to like older musicians such as

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

Career

Gillis worked as an engineer, but he quit in May 2007 to focus solely on music. He produces mash-up remixes, in which he uses often a dozen or more unauthorized samples from different songs to create a mash-up. ''

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of '' The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors ...

'' has called his releases "a lawsuit waiting to happen", a criticism that Gillis has attributed to news media that want "to create controversy where it doesn't really exist", citing

fair use Fair use is a doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests ...

as a legal backbone for his sampling practices. Gillis has given his own different explanations for the origin of his stage name, once saying that it alluded to a

Jim Morrison James Douglas Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was an American singer, poet and songwriter who was the lead vocalist of the rock band the Doors. Due to his wild personality, poetic lyrics, distinctive voice, unpredictable and err ...

poem and once saying that it alluded to an early Merzbow side project. In 2009, he attributed the name to Tad, the early 1990s SubPop band, based in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. Gillis has said the name sounded like a

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

music teen girl group. In a 2009 interview with ''FMLY'', Gillis stated:

The name Girl Talk is a reference to many things, products, magazines, books. It's a
pop culture Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' ...
phrase. The whole point of choosing the name early on was basically to just stir things up a little within the small scene I was operating from. I came from a more experimental background and there were some very overly serious, borderline academic type electronic musicians. I wanted to pick a name that they would be embarrassed to play with. You know Girl Talk sounded exactly the opposite of a man playing a laptop, so that's what I chose.

Gillis is featured heavily in the 2008

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

documentary '' RiP!: A Remix Manifesto''. Girl Talk released his fifth LP '' All Day'' on November 15, 2010 – free through the Illegal Art website. A U.S. tour in support of ''All Day'' began in Gillis's hometown of Pittsburgh with two sold-out shows at the then-recently completed

Stage AE Stage AE is a multi-purpose entertainment complex located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It contains an indoor concert hall and an outdoor amphitheatre. It is the second indoor/outdoor concert venue in America. Modeled after its pr ...

concert hall. Since Gillis releases his music under

Creative Commons licenses A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyrics ...

, fans may legally use it in derivative works. Many create mash-up video collages using the samples' original music videos. Filmmaker Jacob Krupnick chose Gillis's full-length album ''All Day'' as the soundtrack for '' Girl Walk//All Day'', an extended music video set in New York City. In 2014, Girl Talk brought out Freeway as a special guest during a show at the Brooklyn Bowl. They announced that they were releasing a collaborative EP together called '' Broken Ankles''. The project was released on April 8, 2014. Gillis played at the

Coachella Festival The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (commonly called the Coachella Festival or simply Coachella) is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert. ...

in 2014. For the first time in one of his live shows, artists performed their vocals over his mash-ups. During the first weekend, he was joined by

Too Short Todd Anthony Shaw (born April 28, 1966), better known by the stage name Too Short (stylized as Too $hort), is an American rapper and record producer. He became famous in the West Coast hip hop scene in the late 1980s, with lyrics often based on ...

E-40 Earl Tywone Stevens Sr. (born November 15, 1967), better known by his stage name E-40, is an American rapper. He is a founding member of the rap group The Click, and the founder of Sick Wid It Records. He has released 26 studio albums to date, ...

Juicy J Jordan Michael Houston III (born April 5, 1975), known professionally as Juicy J, is an American rapper and record producer. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, he is a founding member of the Southern hip hop group Three 6 Mafia, established ...

, and

Busta Rhymes Trevor George Smith Jr. (born May 20, 1972), known professionally as Busta Rhymes, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the moniker Busta Rhymes, after NFL and CFL wide receiver ...

. On the second weekend, he was joined by

Freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...

Waka Flocka Flame Juaquin James Malphurs (born May 31, 1986), known professionally as Waka Flocka Flame, is an American rapper. Signing to 1017 Brick Squad and Warner Bros. Records in 2009, he became a mainstream artist with the release of his singles " O Let' ...

Tyga Michael Ray Nguyen-StevensonMicheal Ray Stevenson ...

, and

. In the years following the release of Broken Ankles, Girl Talk continued to tour and play festivals. He also began to do more production and collaborative work with other artists such as Wiz Khalifa, Young Nudy, T-Pain, Smoke DZA, Bas, and G Perico.

Album pricing

After the success of his album ''

Feed the Animals ''Feed the Animals'' is the fourth studio album by American musician Gregg Gillis, released under his stage name Girl Talk by Illegal Art on June 19, 2008. Illegal Art originally released the album as a digital download through their website usin ...

'', for which listeners were asked to pay a price of their choosing, Gillis made all of his other albums similarly available via the Illegal Art website.

Awards

''Night Ripper'' was number 34 on

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to t ...

's Top 50 Albums of 2006, number 22 on ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its cov ...

's'' Best Albums of 2006, and number 27 on '' Spin's'' 40 Best Albums of 2006. In 2007, Gillis was the recipient of a ''

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fran ...

'' magazine Rave Award. ''Feed the Animals'' was number four on ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...

's'' Top 10 Albums of 2008. ''Rolling Stone'' gave the album four stars and ranked the album #24 on their Top 50 albums of 2008. ''

Blender A blender (sometimes called a mixer or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsify food and other substances. A stationary blender consists of a blender container with a rotating ...

'' rated it the second-best recording/album of 2008, and

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

listeners rated it the 16th best album of the year. Gillis' hometown

, named December 7, 2010 "Gregg Gillis Day".

Film appearances

In 2007, Girl Talk appeared in ''

Good Copy Bad Copy ''Good Copy Bad Copy'' (subtitled Good Copy Bad Copy: A documentary about the current state of copyright and culture) is a 2007 documentary film about copyright and culture in the context of Internet, peer-to-peer file sharing and other technolo ...

'', a documentary about the current state of

copyright law A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

and

remix culture Remix culture, sometimes read-write culture, is a term describing a society that allows and encourages derivative works by combining or editing existing materials to produce a new creative work or product. A remix culture would be, by default, pe ...

. In 2008, he appeared as a test case for

in Brett Gaylor's '' RiP!: A Remix Manifesto'', a call to overhaul copyright laws. His parents, in one scene, complain to him about his frequent stripping during his performances.

Discography

Albums

* '' Secret Diary'' CD (2002, Illegal Art) * '' Unstoppable'' CD (2004, Illegal Art) * '' Night Ripper'' CD (2006, Illegal Art) * ''

'' CD (2008, Illegal Art) * '' All Day'' (2010, Illegal Art)

Collaborative albums

* '' Full Court Press'' (with

Wiz Khalifa Cameron Jibril Thomaz (born September 8, 1987), better known by his stage name Wiz Khalifa, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and actor. He released his debut album, '' Show and Prove'', in 2006 and signed to Warner Bros. Records in 20 ...

, Big K.R.I.T. and

Smoke DZA Sean Pompey (born February 8, 1984), better known by his stage name Smoke DZA, is an American rapper and songwriter. Biography 1984–2007: Early life and career beginnings Smoke DZA was born February 8, 1984 at Harlem Hospital in New York ...

) (2022, Asylum/Taylor Gang)

EPs

* ''Stop Cleveland Hate'' 12" (2004, 12 apostles) * '' Bone Hard Zaggin''' 7" (2006, 333 recordings) * '' Broken Ankles'' (with

) (2014, Girl Talk Music)

Compilation appearances

* ''bricolage #1'' CD (Illegal Art) – "Killing a Material Girl" – 3:37 * ''Illegal Art 2007 Sampler'' MP3 (Illegal Art) – "Let's Run This" * ''Circuits of Steel'' CD (SSS) (2003) – "On Nesbit" * ''Ministry of Shit'' CD (Spasticated) – "Let's Run This" * ''Love and Circuits'' CD (Cardboard Records) – "All of the Other Songs Remixed" (under Trey Told 'Em) * ''Circuits of Steel II'' CD (SSS) (2007) – "Andy Van Slyke Marijuana Sensitivity"

Singles

* "Tolerated" (with Freeway) [feat.

] (2014) * "Trouble In Paradise" (with Erick Arc Elliott, Erick the Architect) (2018) * "No Problem" (with Young Nudy) (2019) *

- "Santos House Party" (feat.

Curren$y Shante Scott Franklin (born April 4, 1981), better known by his stage name Currensy (often stylized as Curren$y), is an American rapper. In 2011, he founded the label Jet Life Recordings. Music career 2002–2008: No Limit and Young Mone ...

, Big K.R.I.T., Girl Talk) (2020) * "Fallin'" (with Bas) (2020)

Remixes

Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his experimental and lo-fi style, and became known for creating musical colla ...

– "Cellphone's Dead" (2006) (unreleased) *

Peter Bjorn and John Peter Bjorn and John are a Swedish indie pop/ rock band formed in Stockholm in 1999, named after the first names of the band's members: Peter Morén (vocals, guitar and harmonica), Björn Yttling (bass guitar, keyboards and vocals) and John Eri ...

– " Let's Call It Off" (2006) *

Grizzly Bear The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America. In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horr ...

– "

Knife A knife ( : knives; from Old Norse 'knife, dirk') is a tool or weapon with a cutting edge or blade, usually attached to a handle or hilt. One of the earliest tools used by humanity, knives appeared at least 2.5 million years ago, as evidence ...

" (2007) * Bonde do Role – "Gasolina" (2009) * Bad Brilliance – "Non-Tradition (Girl Talk Remix)/It's So Fun (

Andrew WK Andrew Fetterly Wilkes-Krier (born May 9, 1979), known professionally as Andrew W.K., is an American conceptual performance artist, rock singer, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and actor. Raised in Michigan, Wilkes-Krier began his mus ...

Remix)" (2009) *

Tokyo Police Club Tokyo Police Club is an indie rock band from Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 2005, it consists of vocalist and bassist Dave Monks, keyboardist Graham Wright, guitarist Josh Hook, and drummer Greg Alsop. The band found early success with ...

– "Cheer It On" (2007, under Trey Told 'Em) *

Simian Mobile Disco Simian Mobile Disco are an English electronic music duo and production team, formed in 2003 by James Ford and Jas Shaw of the band Simian. Musically, they are known for their analogue production. Ford is also known for his production work. ...

– "I Believe" (2007, under Trey Told 'Em) * Professor Murder – "Dutch Hex" (2007, under Trey Told 'Em) * Of Montreal – "Gronlandic Edit" (2007, under Trey Told 'Em) (unreleased) *

Thrill Jockey Records Thrill Jockey is an American independent record label established by former Atlantic Records A&R representative Bettina Richards and based in Chicago. History Richards started the label in 1992 with $35,000 of family and personal capital, while ...

– "Super Epic Thrill Jockey Mega Massive Anniversary Mix" (2007, under Trey Told 'Em) *

Ke$ha Kesha Rose Sebert (; born March 1, 1987), formerly stylized as Ke$ha, is an American singer and songwriter. In 2005, at age 18, Kesha was signed to Kemosabe Records. Her first major success came in early 2009 after she was featured on America ...

– " Tik Tok" (2010, under Trey Told 'Em)

Production credits

* Grand Buffet – "Cool as Hell" (2003) *

Jim Jones James Warren Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American preacher, political activist and mass murderer. He led the Peoples Temple, a new religious movement, between 1955 and 1978. In what he called "revolutionary suicide", ...

– "Believe in Magic" (feat. Lloyd) (2011) *

– "Addiction" (2016) *Freeway – "First Thing's First" (2016) *Freeway – "Always Love You" (2016) *

– "Steam Room" (feat. Chevy Woods) (2017) *

Don Q Don Q is a Puerto Rican rum, distilled, manufactured, bottled, and distributed by Destilería Serrallés from its corporate facility in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Don Q, "Puerto Rico's best-known rum", is the top-selling rum in Puerto Rico, where ov ...

- "Lil Bitch" (2017) *

– "The Hook Up" (feat.

Dom Kennedy Dominic Ross Hunn (born August 22, 1984), better known by his stage name Dom Kennedy, is an American rapper from Leimert Park, Los Angeles, California. Since 2008, Kennedy has released 5 independent mixtapes, most notably his 2010 critically accl ...

Cozz Cody Rashad Osagie, (born October 1, 1994), better known by his stage name Cozz, is an American rapper from Los Angeles, California. He is signed to J. Cole's label Dreamville Records and Interscope Records. His debut studio album '' Cozz & Effe ...

) (2018) * T-Pain - "Getcha Roll On" (feat.

Tory Lanez Daystar Shemuel Shua Peterson (born July 27, 1992), known professionally as Tory Lanez, is a Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, and convicted felon. He received initial recognition from the mixtape ''Conflicts of My Soul: The 416 Story'', rel ...

) (2019) * 24hrs - "Bubble" (feat. Ty Dolla $ign) (2019) *

- "Cinderella Story" (2019) *

- "Boats and Hoes" (2019) *

, Bas – "Outta Pocket" (2020) *G Perico - "Toolie" (2020)

Live performances

Gillis began producing music with AudioMulch software, which he still uses, played live from a computer. During a live performance, he uses samples and loops to play a set — allowing room for variation throughout the set. His live sets are typically accompanied by video content on stage. He has been known to bring fans on stage to dance during performances.

References

External links

*
2012 Article & Interview

Girl Talk
at Illegal Art {{Authority control 1981 births American bioengineers American electronic musicians Case Western Reserve University alumni Living people Musicians from Pittsburgh Remixers American DJs Engineers from Pennsylvania Electronic dance music DJs American mashup artists