Fair use is a part of United States copyright law. You don't know if it falls under fair use until you go to court. Someone has to sue you and then you have to challenge it.
It's easy to hate on things that are close to your world that aren't exactly what you're doing.
I think a lot of times people from the traditional DJing world think I'm trying to come up with an ultimate dance mix. That's not really what I'm doing. I'm trying to make something a little bit progressive and challenging.
It's weird for me when someone asks me to do a remix as Girl Talk and not use samples.
I feel like all the artists that I really love, they've had a strong contingent of people who really hate their work as well.
I sometimes get in the car [and] jump all around hunting for a sample, and then I can get really annoying if anyone's in the car with me. But if I'm actually listening to music, I have a pretty solid attention span.
I've been cataloguing samples for years, I have this massive library. Songs come out everyday so it's never ending.
I use minimal software to make my music - a wav editor and a calculator for my beats to make sure everything falls on mathematical precision. If you were just mapping this out visually, it works by math. I guess it's slightly engineering influenced.
People can judge me on whatever level they think but I've always tried to make my own songs.
The whole basis of the music is that people have these emotional attachments to these songs - whether they love it or hate it. Being able to manipulate that is a really easy way to connect with people.
I've grown up playing pop music for the experimental crowd and I always feel like I'm pushing something weird on people. I had this underdog feeling. It's crazy that all of a sudden I'm the overhyped band you read about on the blogs.
I like to give stuff away for free and play shows for cheap and not rely on music as a job.
I like to use recognizable songs, but other than that, this song would be perfect.
I sampled a bit of stuff from my dad's collection. He has probably a bigger record collection than I do. I try to buy as much as possible, because I've never been able to keep an MP3 collection organized. I like to keep my computers as clean as possible.
My dad's been one of those dads who loves showing newspaper articles to the neighbors.
I was into alternative stuff, but I was also open to a little bit of hard rock and metal, like Guns N' Roses, Metallica.
The internet helps with information exchange in general so it's obviously easier to check out tracks and whatnot from different genres. I think people are a lot more open to music in general because it's being communicated easier.
Throughout hip-hop people have been putting different elements with different types of music.
Sometimes the show needs that kick in the ass so being able to sing a Nirvana song kind of takes it there. I've grown up putting on extravagant shows with Girl Talk so when I'm playing I like to go nuts. After 30 minutes of pointing and clicking it's nice to scream into a microphone for three minutes.
I think it's an interesting thing to have to produce an album that you'll want to listen to for 50 minutes.
The point of making records for me isn't to hear 300 songs in 50 minutes; it's to hear the 50-minute piece of music.
I think we're approaching an era where there's a consistent dialogue going on between artists and consumers. And I think that's going to be part of the solution to actually selling music.
CDs are clearly dying out, and it's going to be moving to an all-digital format. Along with it, you raise this interactivity with the music. I feel that it's not stealing sales from anyone; it's turning people on to the music.
I have my small little cult following, I play random shows from house parties to opening up for rock bands.
I think if I lived in New York I would be really stressed out going out to a club and seeing a good DJ who's doing something on a similar level. I'm pretty critical of myself when it comes to the music. Maybe they're not doing as many samples or the samples aren't put together as specifically but it would stress me out to feel like I needed to be one upping someone. In Pittsburgh, I'm in my own world - I know I'm the guy doing this here.
