Night Ripper
Dont call him a DJ, because Gregg Gillis wants you to get down to something new. As the founder and only member of Girl Talk, the 25-year-old biomedical engineer from Pittsburgh reshapes melodies and vocal tracks from every genre imaginable into songs of his own. From his frenetic live performances to his masterfully remixed recordings, Gillis is changing the face of music and the future of sampling.
Sampling is my music of choice, and I just happened to find a label that supports and believes that this type of music should be released, says Gillis of the appropriately named Illegal Art Records, which put out his third and latest album, Night Ripper, in May 2006.
Gillis recognizes that sampling has become a somewhat risky venture. At one time, musicians could freely borrow melodies from other artists to supplement their own compositions. But a landmark 1991 ruling against Biz Markee for his unauthorized sampling of Gilbert OSullivans Alone Again (Naturally) in his own track I Need a Haircut changed all that, and ever since, artists like Girl Talk have had to sample first and worry later as they try to preserve the vitality of their craft.
Its cool when things can remain underground and youre not bothered [by lawsuits], but I think with Night Ripper I got a lot more attention than we were expecting, he says, noting he has yet to encounter any legal problems of his own.
Featuring his most liberal use to date of other artists music, Night Ripper samples an array of performers from Abba to Young Jeezy, touching on all genres in between. In re-contextualizing these samples, Gillis creates a genre unto his own, one that is at once familiar and completely new. While most samples are recognizable to the casual listener, their juxtapositions create wildly innovative song structures, like that of the fan favorite Smash Your Head, a recent entry on Pitchforks Top 100 tracks of 2006 that synthesizes X-Ray Spex, Fall Out Boy, Nirvana and, most recognizably, The Notorious B.I.G. rapping over the classic piano line from Elton Johns Tiny Dancer.
Since Night Rippers release, Gillis has been performing every weekend, and later this month he will appear in a major Las Vegas concert alongside Gnarls Barkley and Kanye West, an artist he samples on the track Summer Smoke. And while it may seem like Gillis is merely replaying and looping tracks from other artists when he performs, Girl Talks shows get much more raucous than the run of the mill DJ night. He likes to be an active participant in his shows, often encouraging members of the crowd to join him on stage despite recent accounts of cuts, scrapes, tooth chippings and alcohol spills.
I like to interact with people when I play, and I like to have them up on stage dancing and shaking, he says. But I dont think people realize that when Im playing music, its just going to keep looping over and over if they dont stop pouring beer on my head
These high energy and high profile shows, in addition to the critical acclaim of Night Ripper, have created quite a name for Girl Talk, contrary to what his Soundscan chart might imply. Despite selling less than 10,000 copies of the album, Gillis is completely satisfied with his work, insisting hes in it for his love of the music he creates: I would be making this music whether I put out CDs or not.
Feb. 9, Studio B, 259 Banker St. (betw. Meserole & Calyer Sts.), Bklyn, 718-389-1880; 9, $15 (SOLD O