Girl Talk — born Gregg Michael Gillis in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on October 26, 1981 — is one of the world’s most well-known electronic music makers. He’s been at the forefront of the mashup and sampling movement, and he’s been active in the scene since 2001, releasing five full-length albums on Illegal Art Records and multiple EPs on 12 Apostles and 333.
Gillis started working and experimenting with sampling, mashups, and electronic music in general while he was still in high school in the Pittsburgh suburbs. He worked with peers on a few collaborative efforts, then went solo, becoming Girl Talk while he was attending Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. While he was constantly making music, Gillis didn’t quit his day job as an engineer until 2007.
Gillis is most known for his mashup remixes, using sometimes dozens of samples (authorized and otherwise) from previously existing songs to create a fresh new track. The New York Times Magazine called Girl Talk, “a lawsuit waiting to happen.” Others praise his creativity and urge him forward. For his own part, Gillis says that naysayers are trying, “to create controversy where it doesn’t exist,”.
Between fair use trademark laws and the fact that everything Girl Talk creates with these samples and mashups is completely new and different, Gillis isn’t concerned with legal action.
Gillis has attributed the name Girl Talk to a Merzbow side project, one of Jim Morrison’s poems, and a SubPop band from Seattle. The truth of the matter seems to be that Gillis’ stage name is as much a mashup as any of his sample-driven tracks.
Gillis admitted as much in an ‘09 interview with FMLY, saying, “[It’s] a reference to many things, products, magazines, books. It’s a pop culture phrase…I wanted to pick a name that [overly serious, pseudo-academic artists] would be embarrassed to play with. You know Girl Talk sounded exactly the opposite of a man playing a laptop, so that’s what I chose.”
