The Tape

Girl Talk Interview

Written by willshoob on Thursday, 15 of January , 2009 at 4:06 pm

Tristan (pistachionut) I chatted with Gregg Gillis two days ago about everything that has ever been discussed. I hope you enjoy!

The Tape: When you started making mashups and experimenting with samples, you were really the only one doing the kind of thing you do (that crazy hectic mashup style that goes fast paced back and forth between songs). But now, as your popularity has grown, how do you feel about other artists in the “mashup genre”?

Gregg Gillis: I think it’s interesting. When I started doing stuff you know, there were actually a lot of people who came before me, who kind of set the stage for what I do. When I got going with it, I wasn’t as interested in straight up mashups as I was kind of glitchy remix stuff, like the Kid 666’s and prior to that Negative Land Evolution Control Committee, all those guys. Yeah, when I got into it I definitely had a different level of influence then the straight up mashup guys. Today, the kind of stuff I hear that is potentially influenced by me or anyone else doing it, not a lot of it has blown my mind on that level. I think it’s exciting though, a lot of people having software to make music, and putting music together with non-traditional musical backgrounds and potentially no influence there, I think it’s cool, I think it allows people to express themselves directly. So yeah, I’m down with it… 100%.

The Tape: Obviously with your type of music, paying for samples is irrational and out of the question, but how do you justify using those samples in your music?

GG: Well there is a doctrine in the United States copyright law and it allows you to sample pre-existing works without permission, if the new music falls under certain criteria. That takes a look at whether your work is transformative, how it impacts potential sales, all sorts of other things like that. I feel like all music is based on influence. You know, when you pick up a guitar and you start playing, you learn how to play other peoples’ songs and then you start writing your own, you’re still using the same note progressions, similar note scales, similar rhythmic patterns and same guitar sounds. It’s all manipulations of previous ideas. You can’t really make music with purely original ideas. I feel like you can take a physical recording, and manipulate it and make something new, just like you’d take an instrument and replicate a previous existing track. I feel like music is transformative, if you can reference the source material it will still be something new. Also, with my music I don’t think there is any way it is creating complications with the source of material. I feel like it’s turning a lot of young people on to new music. It’s not like someone would buy my album instead of someone else’s album.

The Tape: Why’d you decide to make your latest album free?

GG: That idea was thrown out to me by the people who release my music, Illegal Art. They based it on the Radiohead model. I thought it was cool. It was something where I know that when an album hits online, anyone can get it for free if they want to. That’s just where were at right now. I mean, I love buying CD’s I don’t really download that much music, I mean I do download music for free and it’s a great tool to find out about things. I just wanted to throw that idea out there, so people can say if they want to get it for free, or if they want to support me and the record label, that’s great. I just wanted to be up front with where we’re at in the music industry right now.

The Tape: What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done while playing live?

GG: Oh man, I’m trying to think. I’ve done a lot of wicked stage dives in my day. During one particular show in Pittsburgh, I kind of used the table in front of me and the stage as a launching pad and actually went over- this was a local show in Pittsburgh and I went over my dad’s head, who was in the front row, and I hit my face on one of my sister’s friend. I got up, and I was actually missing my front left tooth. That was about as gnarly of a stage dive as I’ve ever had.

The Tape: What’s the craziest thing a fan has ever done while you’re playing live?

GG: I’ve seen people have sex on stage, a couple of times.

The Tape: That’s an interesting experience, no?

GG: Yeah, I think it’s fantastic. I think it’s a beautiful thing to invoke feelings and cause people to want to bone on stage.

The Tape: Explain how you use your software (Audiomulch) in a live setting verses what you do to make an album?

GG: Yeah, first I prepare a whole bunch of loops and samples in a program called Adobe Audition, which I use to make beats and isolate melodies, things like that. Then in Audiomulch- the basic idea is that I have hundreds of loops in front of me, running simultaneously at all times. There are a lot of variations on the same loops, so a lot of times, I’ll have four loops in front of me all based around the same melody. Maybe one is half, maybe one is cut up, I just like to have lots of freedom to jump around. Then in the live setting, it’s basically I’m muting those samples as they’re coming, in real time. Everything is as isolated as possible. Kick drum, hand claps, vocals, it’s basically a matter of me manipulating that and doing the collages in real time. I’ve also added DSP just to manipulate things and cut things up in real time, but the general act for me is triggering the samples.

The Tape: Where did you originally get your inspiration to start doing this kind of stuff?

GG: Um, it’s just the music I’ve been into since high school, you know? For me, when I really started to dive deep, it was just- I was just really fascinated by how weird and crazy things could potentially get. You know when I heard Nirvana in grade school, that seemed crazy to me. Then, I wanted to just keep going. When I found out about Sonic Youth, that was even crazier. Just hearing a lot of underground hip-hop and electronica music, that just made me dive deeper into it, until it got to the point where I was really into noise and experimental electronic music. Based on that, I didn’t really like the academic side to music making, I liked the more sample based things where you could really push the boundaries. You know, make crazy, weird music but at the same time have it be accessible to people who don’t normally follow that music, using pop reference points. That was just something that was fascinating to me. One of the big influences for me was hearing Kid-666 remix N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton.” That was him digitally manipulating and beating up that song. It was awesome, it was one of my favorite songs of the late 90’s. I want to do a project on a similar level with that.

The Tape: If you could build a robot that did anything, what would it do?

GG: Oh wow, let me think. I would love to build a robot that would be a right hand man, sort of robot type thing. Someone who when I’m shooting basketball would get the rebounds and pass it back to me, and when I’m playing shows he would go around and keep things plugged in. I would love to be able to hang out and be a part of him, just a robot buddy.

The Tape: What’s your favorite mashup not made by you?

GG: One of my favorites has always been by a DJ who goes by the name of Low Budget. It came out a few years back, and it was Crime Mobb’s “Knuck If You Buck” and “Pressure” by Billy Joel. I always thought that it was fantastic, and I love that Billy Joel hook, and yeah I always thought that that was a beautiful combination.

The Tape: Last question… What’s your favorite pumpup song/what song do you play before a show?

GG: I actually get pretty pumped as soon as soon as I hit the stage, I don’t ever feel the need to get pumped up before that moment. Usually when I’m sitting backstage I generally listen to really slow, simple, chilled out tunes to kind of just relax me. I listen to- I don’t know let me get on my computer to see what’s up. I don’t know, it’s usually just classic rock stuff- let me see what I’ve been jamming to recently. One sec. The past few weeks I’ve been listening to “Let’s Live For Today” by The Grass Roots. I really like to jam to it before I go out.

The Grass Roots- Let’s Live For Today

Category: Interviews

• Add this post to
• Del.icio.us -
• Meneame -
• Digg

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>