Interview with Speaky
Who is Speaky? Where does the alias come from?
My real name is Sam, and I’m a 21 year old senior at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. I don’t really know where the name Speaky came from; I just needed something weird that wasn’t a word so that it was less likely for somebody else to use it.
How long have you been mashing and how did you start?
I started making beats a couple years ago during my sophomore year of college. I heard The Grey Album by Dangermouse and I just started replicating a bunch of his songs and getting a feel for making music. Then someone showed me Girl Talk’s Night Ripper and I adopted a mashup style that was very similar to his. Up until then I didn’t really take it too seriously, but after my second mix was “leaked” as Girl Talk’s Feed the Animals I started getting a lot of recognition and I really got into it.
How did your album get leaked as a Girl Talk album? What’s the story behind that?
My friend and I were messing with some kid in a gaming forum who was bragging about all these underground bands he knew and all this exclusive music he had. He was a big Girl Talk fan so we told the kid that we met him and he gave us a copy of his new album. Of course he wanted proof so we uploaded my album to a torrent site instead, labeled it “Feed the Animals,” and sent him the link. The kid got all excited and we had our laughs and thought that was the end of it. Anyway, the next day we found out that our torrent got thousands of downloads and my Myspace inbox was full of messages from Girl Talk fans telling me how much my music sucked and that I was a cheap asshole for falsely labeling my album.
What software and hardware do you use?
I use a program called Mixcraft for making mixes and when I play live I use Ableton. I can’t afford any hardware right now but I’d like to buy a mixer someday.
How long on average does it take you to make a track?
When I’m working on an album I’ll usually spend between a half hour and an hour a day and can usually wrap up a track in a few days. When I’m finished with an album, though, I’ll spend a lot of time just listening to it over and over and tweaking things here and there.
What inspires your song and style choice?
It’s kind of difficult to say because I don’t really have one particular style. I’ll make a mix like I did on Greatest Spits that has a style similar to a lot of other mashup artists but sometimes I like to do more unique songs like I did on Blenda. I guess the easiest way to answer that question is that I always make songs that I like to listen to and that sound good to me.
Favorite song you’ve made?
Probably the song “Cannonball” when I used a Ron Burgundy sample. It’s fun and quirky and it was easy to make.
Do you listen to other mashup artists, or do you just like to make mashups?
There are so many on your website I don’t have time to hear them all, but I do listen to a few. I mentioned before that I like to Girl Talk but my favorite is probably Ludachrist. They made this sick mix called Bangfest that I listen to all the time. Stars and Stripes is another awesome mashup album I like by Adrian Champion.
What is playing live like? Have any cool stories?
I haven’t played live that much just yet, but I do have a lot of fun doing it. I’ve only really played for my friends and basement parties at my old fraternity house, so unfortunately I don’t have any cool stories. When I used to play my music in the basement I would use something like a Soulja Boy sample in a mix and then drunk girls would come up to me and complain that they didn’t get to hear the whole song. I have my first big show at the end of the month though so hopefully the response to my music will be a bit better considering the crowd will actually be expecting to hear mashups.
What is your opinion on the legality of mashups?
I don’t really have an opinion just because I don’t know a whole lot about copyright laws. I think it’s illegal but I’m not sure.
What are you doing in your free time?
I don’t have a whole lot of time outside of school and work but I try to make time for the little pleasures in life like playing Call of Duty and watching porn. I’m a pretty boring person.
What can we look forward to in the future from Speaky?
A lot more live shows. I’m just now getting comfortable with my live set and am ready to show it off to a lot more people. I’m also going to be adding more of my artwork to my website similar to the stuff I do for my album covers. I want to get some merchandise going as well, mostly t-shirts probably.
Favorite pizza topping, candy, and color?
Sausage, Nerds Rope, green.
|
No Comments