The art of making mixtapes may have evolved into the art of making a great playlist, but what many fans don’t realize is that sitting down to make the set list for a live show is like the band making a mixtape of their own music for you. It’s all about wooing you and getting you exactly where the band want you.
Gym Class Heroes talked to CBS Local about set lists and lyrics as a pick-up line.
“I think we spent so long making mixtapes as kids that it probably made us very efficient set list makers,” drummer Matt McGinley said.
“I was a mixtape master. I’d try to tell stories with my mixtapes. I’d make these elaborate covers,” singer Travie McCoy said.
“The Papercut Chronicles title…,” McGinley started.
“The title came from a mixtape that I used to make,” McCoy finished for him. “That was my way of wooing girls when I was younger, was making them mixtapes. I made a mixtape for an ex-girlfirend of mine named Lisa Gibson. Hi Lisa!”
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The guys were masters of the mix tape, but lamented the passing of that era.
“I wonder in the digital age if the mixtape is a lost art?” asked McGinley.
“Nah dude, just playlists. Which is sad,” replied McCoy.
But it’s not just an entire mixtape you can use to woo a love interest. What if you wanted to use just one song? We asked McGinley and McCoy what their favorite lyrical pick-up lines are.
“Mine is, ‘Hello my name is Travie and I’m pretty much a big deal,’” replied McGinley, referencing Gym Class Heroes’ “Clothes Off!”
“I would have to concur with that one. That’s a great one,” McCoy laughingly agreed.
“T-Pain, let me buy you a drank?” McGinley also suggested.
“That’s a great one. The Fresh Prince, I believe it’s in the song ‘Parents Just Don’t Understand,’ after he’s stolen his dad’s Ferrari and he says, ‘Come on and take a ride with a hell of a guy.’ I think that’s a pretty cool line.”
Who needs a whole mixtape when just one line can get it done?
-Courtney E. Smith, CBS Local