Objects of Their Affection: Five Musicians and the Instruments They Love

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Gregg Gillis & Girl Talk

In 2007, mash-up specialist Gregg Gillis sent three laptops to their eternal rest. His performances—during which he invites the audience to join him on stage—are insane loop-fueled bacchanals where one’s personal hygiene, and certainly one’s personal computer, are at continuous risk. Gillis’ laptop, which is the only instrument at a Girl Talk show, “sits on stage with a few hundred sweaty people jumping around, potentially jumping on it, potentially sweating [on it], puking, drinking, [potentially spilling] all sorts of bodily fluids all over it.” So Gillis has upped the ante and turned to a Panasonic Toughbook-74, a heavy-duty laptop intended for military use. He describes a show in Tulsa where the table beneath the Toughbook collapsed, and he landed on top of it. “The back part of the computer completely cracked,” Gillis says, sounding wistful. “But the laptop did not hesitate at all.” Now, he declares, “I’m Gregg Gillis and the computer is Girl Talk.”(Click on image to view full size.)