Girl Talk With Gregg of Girl Talk in his dressing room 10 minutes before the show Bronques: Check check, two. Gregg: Check. Check. Bronques: So, what did you do today? Gregg: I woke up at about eight thirty and I got in my car and said goodbye to my girlfriend. And then I drove to work and sat in a cubicle, pretty much checking my myspace until about three thirty or so... And then I drove to the airport and I flew here. I was served a couple drinks and hung out by myself reading the new Spin magazine. Bronques: (to assistant videotaping) How do we look Hannah? Hannah: You look good. Bronques: (To Gregg) I hear that you like the Jack Daniels bottle? Gregg: Yeah, I mean... I'm think I'm a beer and whiskey guy. I actually never drink on a weekday. Every week I work during the week. So I never go out during the week really, only on the weekends... just to shows and everything. That's the only time I really drink. Tomorrow is a rare day off of work so I figure I might as well celebrate a little bit and take a sip of Jack Daniels. Bronques: Excellent. Do you like it straight from the bottle? Gregg: Um, yeah... I actually like Jack and Coke and Jack and Ginger. But they don't have anything so you know... I'm fine going straight if that's all they got. Bronques: That's hot... um, you have a girlfriend? Gregg: Yeah, she's cool. (Laughs) We've been dating for about a year and a half. Bronques: Does she trust you? Gregg: Uhhh... I think so. I'm pretty uh... I don't know. I think it's a little tough for her, not because any reason other than the fact that I go away every weekend. I think she comes with me half the time or so. But um... every show I do is more a less a party atmosphere, it's never that dead really. So i think she has a tough time with that. She doesn't like girls talking to me at all after shows or anything like that. I know she's not into that but I think she trusts me... I hope. Bronques: Yeah? Do you guys have an open relationship? Gregg: No. No, we don't. And... you know, I think I'm pretty trustworthy. Most of the girls I meet after shows and stuff... I'm barely interested in. I like my girlfriend alot so... Bronques: What does she have that none of the other girls have? Gregg: (Laughs) I just know her. I don't know, whenever I meet a girl after a show or something I might be uncomfortable with them just because... I don't know, to be honest... I think any girl who would maybe approach me after a show, being interested in me because of my musical activities, is almost embarrassing for me. I would be way more interested in a girl, like my girlfriend... I don't think she likes my music that much. She tells me she does but I think she is lying to me. So, I'm more interested in girls who are down for me rather than Girl Talk. Bronques: Well you know, it is possible that some of those girls are not just interested because of the music, but could be interested cause I know that you take your shirt off sometimes when you perform, is that not true? Gregg: Right, right right. Yeah, I say, you know... anytime it gets a little hot for me I have no problem taking my shirt off. Bronques: Yeah, it's so rock n' roll. Gregg: (Laughs) Yeah, I mean, I play a laptop. I come from a background playing with rock bands and rappers and what not. So, I am way more rock oriented than traditional DJ oriented. Bronques: You play a musical instrument? Gregg: No, just a laptop, that's it. Bronques: But have you? Gregg: I've played guitar in band called "V.I.P. Blowjobs" for about a year and I was really into that. We had a ten year old drummer. And I played saxophone in the third grade, but other than that, I don't really play anything. Bronques: Oh okay, so you do have some musical background. That's great. Gregg: Yeah, at least a little bit. I wish I could play more... I would probably not be playing a computer if I could play guitar and sing. Bronques: Did you ever take dance lessons? Gregg: No, I have a good friend who actually teaches dance lessons in Pittsburgh, like Hip Hop dance lessons. I have been trying to take her classes forever. Cause, I feel like I am an alright dancer on my own but I would love to have some professional background. Bronques: Yeah, it's kinda like Sinead O'Connor in that video where she dances, I forget the name of the song... you know, you have your own thing going. I wouldn't ruin it. Gregg: Right, right. You think so? Bronques: Yeah I love your stage presence. Gregg: Thank you. Yeah, I think I'm into that in musicians, dude... the people who are unmolded and doing their own thing. So, thank you, I guess I won't go to lessons then. Bronques: So when people meet you that just know you through what you do, what do they call you? "Mr. Talk?" Or do they call you "Girl?" Or do they call you your name? Gregg: I think they just call me "Girl Talk." I mean, it's a weird name at this point, I started this band when i was eighteen and at the time I wasn't really planning on it being a six year sort of... I didn't expect it to have this sort of longevity. People call me "Girl Talk" and I don't even think of it anymore that people are calling me the words "Girl Talk," it's just another name for me. Bronques: What do you call what you do? Do you call it mash up? I mean, that's what people call it. Gregg: I guess so, I mean, I think it's heavily mash up influenced. But I've always just, you know I come from a background of computer music people. What I try to do is make my own music using blatant elements of other people's music. Bronques: I understand. Gregg: I don't know if it is an official influence of mash up music but simultaneously I'm influenced by alot of DJing in general, alot of electronic music in general... So, the name isn't necessarily that important to me. Bronques: Right. I'm just so curious, what are you running on that computer? I don't know if it is like a secret or whatever. If it is, I don't mean to pry. Are you using Ableton Live, or... Gregg: I use a program called Audiomulch Live and the way I set it up is very similar to Ableton. I've been using it for years and actually once I saw Ableton it was kinda like... I'm manipulating this program Audiomulch to behave in the way Ableton is already set up. So once I saw it, it was like... I might transition over to it eventually. But yeah, basically the way you use Ableton, (because alot of people are familiar with that) the way you set up a bunch of loops, make a bunch of beats and get everything mashed up... then kinda perform mixing and matching and cutting it up on the fly. That's roughly what I do with the program. Bronques: So, everything that we see live is like really live? Gregg: Yeah yeah, that's the thing I think people take for granted a lot of the time... the fact that... I like people to interact with me and people to push me around, pour drinks on my head and I like to dance with people... but actually, you know, I'm not up there clicking the mouse with the same stuff looping over and over again. So every time you hear an actual change I am actually doing that. Bronques: Oh, I see. I see. Do you ever spill alcohol on your computer? Do you go through a computer a month or something? Gregg: Yeah, yeah... I actually I had this one old Dell that I had been using for about four years. And somehow, I don't know what was up with it but it just would not break. It fell off tables and people would sweat on it, but it finally broke at CMJ. It actually kinda smashed... and so I'm using a new computer now and I'm really doubting that it's gunna break. I played a show on Saturday at a college in Ohio and I was sweating all over it and people were sweating all over it and cigarettes and drinks were flying everywhere... and by the end it just started going kinda crazy and making weird noises. It seems cool now, but yeah, I don't know if any of these new computers can pull it off. But yeah, I'm willing to go through a computer for the sake of interacting with people. Bronques: So, I wonder what happens if you are performing and the computer just stops working, if it freezes up or something. What does Girl Talk do? Gregg: I don't know. I think it would be really embarrassing. Luckily at CMJ it broke right at the end of the performance. And I happened to recently buy two new computers since that one broke. So I have two here, so tonight if that one breaks there's a computer that I will run down here and go up there and try to rebound the performance. Bronques: Is it like, on sleep mode? Gregg: (Laughs) I don't know maybe I should set both of them up. It's a new world to me having two computers. Yeah, so I actually don't know. I have been taking a pretty huge risk playing the shows with just one laptop and let people do whatever they want. I don't know, if it gets embarrassing, it gets embarrassing. I'm into it. Bronques: But I mean, I've seen some... I haven't seen you live yet, but I have seen footage of you live and I don't really think that you would be that embarrassed. You have more of a punk attitude than that. Gregg: Yeah yeah, absolutely. I think alot of people don't even realize when they come out to see me that alot of times the cords get kicked out and I'm into all that, it just shows that the show is getting too much for this laptop... and that's great to me and alot of times I get bitchy emails from people being like, "Oh why didn't you plug in your cord or tape it down?" I'd rather have it be out of control and go that route. I don't want it to be like a standard DJ set, I want it to be a rock n' roll show, if possible. Bronques: Yeah, well, so far, so good. What are you going to be doing next year? Like, what's up with you? Gregg: Umm, I don't know. I've been playing so many shows this year that I'd really like to chill out for a little bit in Pittsburgh and hang out with some of my buddies a little bit more. But yeah, I'm just playing a handful of festivals next year and I've been doing remixes for people. And the remix work is slowing down and the shows are slowing down so I think that means that I will hopefully be able to work on a new album... or something on that level. This year has been wonderful but the last four or five months have been really fatiguing so I would love to just sit down for a little bit and hang out in Pittsburgh for a bit longer. Bronques: Are there any Girl Talk wannabes? Gregg: You know, I don't know. I think I'm influenced by some people, you know... Bronques: Like who? Gregg: I think I'm influenced by people like... older school guys I guess, like John Oswald. Even guys like Diplo and stuff like that, maybe not as direct influence but I love his work and stuff like that. I'm definitely not necessarily someone absolutely pioneering all of this. I definitely come from a long line of sample-based artists. But Pittsburgh is cool because it doesn't seem like anyone is ever biting anyone else. And in Pittsburgh I will be doing this forever and there's no scene based around it. I do think there's a couple of artists in Pittsburgh that actually dress when they play live the way I used to dress a few years ago... but I don't know if that's coincidence or influence or what... Bronques: How did you used to dress? Gregg: I used to like... now I'm a little more subdued, but it used to be pretty flamboyant pink based outfits... I don't know, alot of bright bright clothing. Now there's a couple of one-man bands out of Pittsburgh that do a similar thing... I don't want to drop any names or anything. Yeah, I don't know if they even know me. I hope not, I hope they're just doing their own thing. But yeah, right now I don't know anyone who's trying to do what I'm doing. I would love that. I think it would be really cool if people were ripping me off a little bit. Bronques: How would you describe your sense of style now, like in terms of what you wear? Gregg: When ever I play live? Um, this year I went through a suit for a good period of time just to class it up a little bit. Actually, I saw a Kanye West performance on MTV where he's wearing a suit and high tops and I liked the attitude of it... just wearing the high tops with the suit. That goes back to the 70's and 80's, more of that style. So, I was doing that for awhile but now I just go with basic sweat suits and what not... just because I like to get active. And whenever I buy the suits, alot of the time people steal articles of clothing and rip stuff in the night and it's just hard to find a suit that fits you well every night. So, I've been going more bare bones with sweat outfits and stuff that's more disposable and that I don't care about. Bronques: Right. I will tell you, there is something about your music that I've heard so far, I haven't heard everything, but what I've heard so far for some reason it doesn't sound like the other people you are compared to and I can't put my finger on it. Do you know what that may be? Gregg: Yeah. I mean, I... I... Bronques: What makes you the next generation of like...the sample... Gregg: (Laughs) I don't know, the sound I do now... I've been doing it for so long it kinda naturally evolved so it wasn't like I had this idea to sound like this and no one else and it's gunna be the next level. You know, that never happened. It naturally happened. I think what it is, or why people like it is that I'm kinda walking on a thin line between something that's experimental and weird, the overall structure and amount of sample strands is absolutely bizarre and kind of... you know, creeps you out a little bit how everything fits together that well. Um, but simultaneously it's not... Alot of people have done that before but have gotten way more experimental with it and so it's not as successful. So i think I'm right between where it's pretty weird and difficult but simultaneously danceable, absolutely accessible, and fifteen year olds can get into it. Bronques: Absolutely. Gregg: That's the formula in my head, you know. Bronques: I noticed that about you, because you bring the fun. You know, it's like... maybe it's like Aphex Twin AND James Brown. Gregg: Right I mean... Aphex Twin, that whole world is kinda the flame in my background a bit. The nerdy ass electronic music. So, whenever I was making this album the only idea I had was just, even though it seems pretty extreme with the samples thrown in, I wanted it to be more accessible. This is my chilled out album more or less. This is less extreme than where I could have gone with it. So, this was like my accessible version of what I've done in the past. Bronques: I see. Just as a final note, since we are surrounded by twenty-five beautiful girls in this room right now is there anything you want to say...like a shout out to your girlfriend? Gregg: (Laughs) Hi Kendall, I love you. I'll see you tomorrow and we will go iceskating in Pittsburgh and we'll have a good time. Bronques: Oh, that's so sweet. Thank you Gregg. Gregg: Do you wanna drink or anything? |