Some of your tracks are like porn for music nerds. I was so pumped when I heard Nu Shooz pop up, or Aphex Twin.
I think that's the way it is with my friends and I. Whenever I put together an album I play it for a few friends to get feedback, but for most people I know I don't let them hear it until it's done, and then it's almost like a trivia test for my music nerd buddies. The decision to have a chopped up aesthetic is really influenced by how I like electronic music — I just like things that are heavily processed and beat up. I never really thought of the music in terms of a trivia game, but as soon as it came out everyone was mentioning that to me, and it made perfect sense, and now I understand that appeal of it.
WHENEVER I COULDN'T QUITE PLACE A SAMPLE, I'D CHECK THE "CHEAT LIST" ON WIKIPEDIA OR WHATEVER.
It was hilarious, actually. We were up all night trying to prepare the release of [Feed the Animals], and I put it online at six in the morning. I was uploading songs to MySpace, and by the time the second song had been uploaded, the Wikipedia page had already started and people were listening to samples. Literally within the first hour the album hit, people were firing up on the Wikipedia page trying to identify everything.
Any crazy ideas for 2009?
Oh man, you put me on the spot. Let me think, because especially on this tour, a lot of ideas have been generated. I feel like I need to deliver, because I'm so psyched on different ideas on the regular. Can we sit here in silence for like 30 seconds while I think of anything that came up on this tour?
[Moment of silence]
One thing I've been toying around with on this tour that I really like (this happened by accident at one show): I thought it would be interesting to play a set where the volume is like one eighth of maximum volume for about half the show, and I'm guessing people would be good-spirited about it and try to get into it, and then halfway through you just hit the switch and it comes blaring on. It's something I really want to do sometime, especially at a festival, where it just sounds horrible for the first half, and everyone's like "aww, man, that's unfortunate," and then it becomes perfect all of a sudden.
So you're just going for the big payoff?
Yeah, every show is about individual moments, so if you could cater toward one amazing moment. . . . I'm into that in general. I'm always waiting for a movie that's really serious, and then just comes through with one horrible, horrible fart joke right at the end.
GIRL TALK + THE DEATH SET + CX KIDTRONIK | Showcase Live at Patriot Place, Foxboro | November 14 at 9 pm | $17-$37 | 617.931.2000 or www.ticketmaster.com
