Girl Talk returns to Iowa City
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Gregg Gillis isn’t a music snob. He doesn’t care what others think regarding his love of Kelly Clarkson, or Radiohead, or Young Jeezy. He believes all music has its place — and he loves it all. So how does he show music love? By mashing it up.
“With my music, I’m trying to break down all those barriers and throw them all together to almost challenge people in a way,” the 28-year-old said. “To say, all of these things can fit together in the same world and guess what — it’s not embarrassing, it’s not weird, it’s not guilty pleasures, it’s just music.”
Gillis will perform, under the stage name Girl Talk, at 8 p.m. today in the IMU Main Lounge with Talib Kweli. Admission is $26.50 for UI students and $31.50 for others.
Hailing from Pittsburgh, then moving into performing music full-time a few years ago, Gillis worked for a while as a biomedical engineer — but he always had a passion for music.
In high school, he discovered Pittsburgh’s underground music scene, and he was fascinated to hear noise or experimental bands with members who had no formal training in music. Then, while in college in 2000, Gillis started the Girl Talk project that’s brought him four albums (each receiving positive critical response) and tours all over the world.
“I thought, wow, there is this whole world where people are just manipulating pop music and pop culture and making something new and weird out of it,” he said.
To create these samples and ideas, he uses trial and error. He calls his music a “big, living collage” of samples, songs, beats, and tracks.
During his live show, with a template of material in front of him, he triggers each sample by hand with loop-based software, and over time, substitutes and modifies the material gradually into something new. He then uses these ideas to form his albums.
“[Creating music] never really begins or ends for me. It began like 10 years ago, and it won’t end until I stop,” he said. “… by the time I sit down to do an album, it’s like I have 75 percent of the puzzle pieces and a really good idea of where it’s going to begin and end, and it’s just a matter of assembling it — the small holes here and there.”
Some call Girl Talk — considering he samples more than 300 songs on his most recent album, Feed the Animals — a lawsuit waiting to happen, but Gillis cites the fair-use policy as a reason he hasn’t been sued. According to the U.S. Copyright Office, if his work is considered transformative and a new interpretation of a song he’s sampling, he’s right.
And UI Associate Professor of Communication Studies Kembrew McLeod, who coproduced the documentary Copyright Criminals, an examination of the state of copyright in the United States, believes Gillis has approached his music in a smart way. He said by consistently referencing fair use as why he hasn’t had legal trouble, Gillis is strengthening his case.
“Gillis doesn’t have deep pockets; he’s not a Kanye,” McLeod said. “But in all the layers of the music industry — managers, attorneys, record companies, song publishers, and more — I’m surprised that someone in this long chain hasn’t [sued], and that raises the question of why.”
Indeed, it’s hard to not wonder why. But Gillis doesn’t care — he’ll just continue to make his music.
“Some people really just love [my music] as original pieces, and some people are on the fence — is this original, is this not, who owns this?” he said. “I don’t think there is an absolute answer. If you hate what I’m doing and think that I’m stealing from people, that’s fine, that’s your opinion, but at least I’m trying to push something out there that’s conceptually challenging to people.”
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