Gregg Gillis, known professionally as musician and producer Girl Talk, gained notoriety in the late 2000s for his perfectly curated mashups of existing songs. But his talents extend into creating his own beats.<\/p>\n
The artist is set to release a new collaborative EP with rappers Chris Crack and Michael Christmas on Friday.<\/p>\n
The EP was largely recorded in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started music more than 20 years ago now,\u201d Gillis said in an interview. \u201cI was never trained in anything musically. I was just a fan and I kind of got into the underground music scene.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the 1990s, Gillis performed shows while attending Chartiers Valley High School.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just attracted to kind of experimental music. \u2026 I was in a band in Pittsburgh in the \u201990s that was like noise and experimental music.\u201d<\/p>\n
He described that period as \u201cdabbling with electronics.\u201d He got his first computer to go to college not long after, and that allowed him to explore the concept of sampling \u2014 a practice that has built his career.<\/p>\n
Girl Talk\u2019s first album, \u201cSecret Diary,\u201d was released in 2002. It includes heavily remixed samples of songs including \u201cIzzo\u201d by Jay-Z, \u201cI Want You Back\u201d by the Jackson 5, and many more. As the aughts progressed, he released four more albums, refining his mashups as he went. Who doesn\u2019t want to hear Tag Team\u2019s \u201cWhoomp! There It Is!\u201d rapped over the music from \u201cIn a Big Country\u201d by Big Country?<\/p>\n
Gillis describes his process for pairing songs together as \u201cmeticulous.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just kind of a trial-and-error process,\u201d he said. \u201cYou see what clicks and then certain things stay with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Girl Talk as an act is also well known for his live shows, where he\u2019ll pull out fresh sample combinations that may be unique to that moment. In 2010, he was the first act to perform at the new Stage AE venue on the North Shore.<\/p>\n
His production work has expanded in recent years, and the collaborative EP \u201cDon\u2019t Come To My House Sharing Your Location\u201d is a great example of what he enjoys about this kind of work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the vibe is kind of distinct and different from the mashup album stuff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s worked with big names such as T-Pain, but his experience with fellow local Wiz Khalifa and Big K.R.I.T. on 2022\u2019s \u201cFull Court Press\u201d was particularly memorable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re all kind of fulfilling in different ways,\u201d Gillis said. \u201cThat was great. I had worked with Wiz prior to that but that was something that was kind of my idea. \u2026 That really came together in a way that was how I envisioned it.\u201d<\/p>\n
This EP\u2019s recording also had a fun energy around it, which is clear from songs including \u201cVending Machine Charcuterie Board.\u201d<\/p>\n
At his exuberant live shows, Gillis will likely incorporate this new work. \u201cI think the vibe is pretty distinct and different from the mashup album stuff, but when I play shows, I will incorporate new stuff that I did production-wise into the set. So I will remix the Michael Christmas and Chris Crack material in.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s really enjoying getting to be creative with his collaborative work and looks forward to doing more in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a light year for me in terms of shows, so I probably want to get out and get on the road a little more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t Come to My House Sharing Your Location\u201d will be available on Friday on streaming platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gregg Gillis, known professionally as musician and producer Girl Talk, gained notoriety in the late 2000s for his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-263477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}