Gregg Gillis

Girl Talk
Gregg Gillis (Girl Talk) in New Orleans in 2011
Background information
Birth name	Gregg Michael Gillis
Born	(1981-10-26) October 26, 1981 (age 36)
Origin	Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Genres	Glitch, experimental (early), plunderphonics, mashup, hip hop
Instruments	Laptop, sampler, turntables
Years active	2001—present
Labels	Illegal Art, 333 Recordings, SSS Records, Spasticated Records, 12 Apostles
Associated acts	Trey Told 'Em
Website	www.myspace.com/girltalk

Gregg Michael Gillis (born October 26, 1981), known by the stage name Girl Talk, is an American disc jockey that specializes in mashups and digital sampling. Gillis has released five LPs on the record label Illegal Art and EPs on both 333 and 12 Apostles. He was trained as an engineer.

Gillis began experimenting with electronic music and sampling while a student at Chartiers Valley High School in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania suburb of Bridgeville. After a few collaborative efforts, he started the solo "Girl Talk" project while studying biomedical engineering at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. In school, Gillis focused on tissue engineering.

Gillis states his musical inspirations to have been Squarepusher and Aphex Twin. He has also stated interest in punk rock, as well as noise music artist Merzbow.

Gillis has also stated that he was always into hip-hop and pop music. As he aged, he started to like older artists such as The Beatles. He stated that he was first introduced to the genre by John Oswald.

Gillis worked as an engineer, but he quit in May 2007 to focus solely on music.

He produces mashup-style remixes, in which he uses often a dozen or more unauthorized samples from different songs to create a mashup. The New York Times Magazine has called his releases "a lawsuit waiting to happen," a criticism that Gillis has attributed to mainstream media that wants "to create controversy where it doesn't really exist," citing fair use as a legal backbone for his sampling practices.