Sampling (noun)
A usually digitized audio segment taken from an original recording and inserted, often repetitively, in a new recording.

Hip-hop producers, club DJs, and electronic musicians have been doing it for years. The art of manufacturing a solid new song using beats from some hit popular back in the 70s has been the key to a house on MTV Cribs for so many artists with downloadable ringtones. But there are plenty of people out there who lack the ear or the talent to really make something that can be considered 'music'. Just because you have speakers and an iTunes playlist doesn't make you a DJ, champ.

Enter Girl Talk. Known by day as Gregg Gillis, this biomedical engineer turned sample maestro hit the scene with his first release in 2002 while still enrolled at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. Keeping his night gig under wraps from his coworkers, Gregg lived two lives: one as a pencil pushing number cruncher in the experimental development department of a biomedical company and the other as a dance-party conductor. In the past year, he has turned to music full time and toured the country taking venues by storm. Boosh talked to Gregg a couple days after he dropped his latest release, Feed the Animals (2008), about dance parties, mix tapes, and his college years.

The interesting sound of Girl Talk is created by Gillis' ability to sample from multiple sources to create one cohesive beast. "I haven't counted them up yet, but I can definitely say it's over 300," said Gillis, nonchalantly, when asked how many different samples were used in his newest album. "Wikipedia has compiled 270 different ones on a list. For Night Ripper someone started to [compile] and when this album dropped the list went up like an hour after it was online. From what I've seen it looks about right, but there are 50 or more that are less obvious, that I used the drum beats or something."

Feed The Animals, was released online in much the same fashion that alternative heavy-hitters Radiohead released their last album In Rainbows, allowing fans to pay whatever they wanted for the music whether it be $10 or zero. "With any album, it's immediately on the file sharing networks, you have to acknowledge that reality," Gillis told us. "Charging a set sum is ignoring the obvious. But when you're straight up with people, they respect that. Gets them excited to participate."

And participate they do. The Girl Talk live experience can best be described as a dance party of epic proportions. Fans crowd around as Gillis mixes tracks on a plastic-wrapped laptop and strips off clothing as the sweat builds up in accordance with the beat. This August he will play the Lollapalooza Music Festival along Chicago's lakefront opening for Kanye West, an experience he told us he has been looking forward to for a while. The live show is what gets people talking and has developed his huge following, especially on the college level. Gillis attributes this to the type of music he plays. "It's pop-music. Everyone loves it because they know it, and if you don't like a certain song it doesn't play for long."

While the art of sampling used to be frowned upon, recently it has become more of a mainstream concept. "Now, a lot of the acapella stuff from songs is actually released by the labels, they're interested in what people can do. How they can make it something new." With record labels being more open to the idea of reinventing old ideas, artists like Girl Talk have been able to make these post-modern musical collages a mainstream success.

But for a man whose career is to reinvent every song he hears, we wondered if Gillis could even enjoy listening to music anymore; if the very act of turning on a radio was just more work. "[Laugh] It's been a huge relief to finish this album. I can go back to listening to what I want to listen to. But I'm always on the hunt, I love going out and hearing what people are playing. If you play me a pop song, I can find some sort of element to pull out."

Being on the constant hunt for new tunes, we were pretty sure he was an expert in Mix Tape-ology. "I used to love making mix tapes," Gillis says. "Even before I had CDs I was really into rap music as a kid and didn't have money, so I'd take my stereo and put it up to the TV. Record the performances at the end of In Living Color. Since then, I love making tapes for friends, family, the ladies…"

What sets Girl Talk apart from other DJs experimenting with the same craft is Gillis' unique background. Attending the prestigious Case Western, he is not your average club kid. "It's pretty weird, pretty nerdy. I studied engineering, I won't pretend I wasn't." When asked if he fit in with his classmates, "I was lucky enough to run into a small group of people who were normal. Made friends with kids from Cleveland School of Arts. I went into [Case] with the project, wanted to do cutups and remixes. On the weekend I played house parties and those people I hung out with had a lot of influence on me and my sound." And in our opinion a house party is, and always will be, the perfect venue for Girl Talk.

With summer in full gear and a keg on every corner, the tunes should be pumping on the regular. So if you're looking for the right music to incite an immediate dance party at your residence, we suggest picking up Feed the Animals. If you spend $10 or more when you download the album from the site, you will receive a hard copy on CD w/ art when it comes back from the printer in August. For those of you who want to experience the live phenomenon that is Girl Talk show, look for Gillis this fall as he embarks on a nationwide tour.



Download Girl Talk's Feed The Animals here
 

Photo Credit: Girl Talk, Christos Schizas