Girl Talk is rad

You may have heard of him already but I just read about this artist in "Details" magazine's October issue.  They had a feature article on him that covered everything from his story to the controversial question of whether what he does is illegal or not.  His name is Gregg Michael Gillis, AKA Girl Talk.

Girl Talk is simply a man on stage with a laptop, at least that's what he wants you to think.  It's what is on the laptop that so many college age and young professionals have been talking about around campuses and water coolers.  Gillis is a master at mixing (called "mashup") unrelated vocal and instrumental tracks often times pitting rap lyrics against the background of classic rock or pop songs.  He then creates his own playlists of these mashes and plays them on stage for concertgoers.  The best part is you can also get on stage and take your turn dancing with Girl Talk.  That's right, he's not concerned about fans on stage, which makes most of his concerts look like a rave type dance/college house party.  To keep his laptop dry, he told Details, he wraps it in plastic wrap before each show.

Born in 1981, Gillis grew up in Pittsburgh, PA. and attended Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. where he studied biomedical engineering.  After college he started working at a biomedical firm while still producing his mashup creations.  It got to the point that he was using vacation days and leaving on weekends to play shows in London, Paris, New York, etc. and then coming back to tissue samples at work, without telling any of his co-workers.  Finally, Gillis quit his job in 2007 to become a full time musician. 

Girl Talk's latest album "Feed the Animals" was released in 2008 on the Illegal Art label.  You can check it out on his myspace page (linked above) or you can download it for whatever price you want to pay for it at www.illegalart.com .  

All of the info here comes from the Details article, the wikipedia page and his myspace page.