Girl Talk + Colgate = Out of Hand

Photography by Caroline Lee
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After a ridiculous concert at Colgate University in early-September, where the stage literally collapsed because of the amount of rowdiness going on, Imprint Music Editor Julian Williams sat down with Gregg Gillis AKA Girl Talk for a short interview about the future music sampling and the artist's musical perspectives.

First off, I usually like to ask someone how they're doing, but how are you doing after that?  That was ridiculous.

Cool man.  That was a very wonderful show for me.  I've been through some relatively intense shit in my day.  That was actually a pretty care free show for my end.

Really?

People weren't around me the whole show.  So, you know, it wasn't that overwhelming.  The stage collapsed and that was intense but outside of that, I actually had room to dance a little bit.  I actually had more freedom than I typically have for a show.  It was actually...it was awesome.  I like the dramatic arc for it with the stage collapsing, but as far as me being completely worn for a show, it was just a less intense show because people could not be on stage.

Yeah, I remember I saw you in Ithaca and everybody was getting up.

I like that, but sometimes I get really hot.  To the point where I can't breathe.  It's fine, but sometimes I'm ready to, like, throw up after a show or something.  Or I'm ready to eat pizza after a show.

Do you think that you'll continue to keep playing colleges after this experience?

Oh yeah, I've had a stage collapse before.  I've had shows shut down prematurely.  I don't want that, but if it happens, it means a lot to me....in a cool way.  To me, I kind of come from a different perspective than a lot of people that come to the shows; kind of just coming out to party.  I come from background of, like, when I was in high school I was in a noise band and it was about how far can we push the audience right now?  What can we do to clear the room?  Let's do that.  And if you're in a band dedicated to that...that's kind of what we did.  So, it's like, I don't want to do that now, but I'm still very interested in like what have these people not seen at a show or out of a performance before, especially out of someone playing out of a laptop.  Not playing the drums or anything like that.  So, it's not as, like, visually entertaining, so what can I do to like push it over the edge and make people reconsider what they initially thought about that kind of performance?  So,  a show like this, I feel really good about it as opposed to a show where the stage doesn't collapse.

From "Secret Diary"(2002) to "Unstoppable"(2004) to "Night Ripper"(2006) to "Feed the Animals"(2008), are you currently happy with where you're coming with your musical development?

Yeah, I love it.  It's just very hilarious to me.  You know, I feel very good about the work I'm doing, but it's like "Secret Diary" and "Unstoppable", I'm very proud of those records.  At that point, during 2003 and 2004, if you were doing remixes on a laptop, it was a bit more experimental.  It wasn't as dance-oriented, but, simultaneously, playing a computer and not being a DJ, just, like, doing remixes on the fly and processing sound was something had a very niche market.  It was very small.  To the point where it was like I would travel the whole country, I'd drive ten hours to ideally play for twenty people.  And that was a cool night.  If 50 people showed up and ten of them - if two people bought a t-shirt, it was like, "Damn, those people like my laptop band enough to buy a t-shirt" and that was kind of mind blowing.  There was no real precedent of where it could go in my mind. So everything that's happening now...I'm very proud of the records I've done.  I've dedicated a lot of time to them, and the fact that shows are just, like, selling out...people are just getting into them in the style of a rock concert, you know?  There's definitely people before me who've done this.  That have helped plant the seeds for where it is now.  As far as someone playing laptop exclusive remixes, there's no one really to look up to.  I want to be like that.  So, where the shows are at now and the way the albums are just being received, I love it, but it's just literally nuts.  It's, like, if you would start a rock group or a rap group or something, no matter how weird you're being, like, "I'm going to be like that!", you know?  I'm going to be like Belly Down Productions or I'm going to be like Dr. Dre or The White Stripes or Fleetwood Mac...whatever you're doing, there's a precedent.  So, maybe I'm going to be like that.  Doing what I was doing, I'm beyond what I was looking up to, you know what I mean?  You know, not creatively.  Not like better music or anything like that, but people I look up to for popularity or the level of the shows have just gotten bigger than most of the people I looked up when I started this.  So, it's kind of like blowing your mind.  It's on some shit where you were just not expecting it.