David Firth, Beyond Salad Fingers
This Artist is Known for His Flash, But That's Not All He Does.
Sep 13, 2008
David Firth is a true renaissance man who made his first flash cartoon in 1999. Since then, he has written, animated, and voiced lots of memorable projects, usually with the help of his friends. He is most known for his flash cartoons, especially the Salad Fingers series, but also works with stop-animation and some other projects, all collected at Fat-pie.com.
Flash Cartoons
Most people are introduced to the world of Firth through Salad Fingers, an odd flash cartoon that seems to either entertain or disturb. (Or both). It is mainly a solo project, and Firth uses a lot of Aphex Twin's music in the cartoons.
Among his other flash projects are the Spoilsbury Toast Boy and Piktobj. There are also a few on the side which have attracted some attention, but the most successful is still Salad Fingers. All of them are staples at Newgrounds.com.
Crooked Rot
Most recently, Firth has put together a stop-animation short titled Crooked Rot. It was made by Firth alone, using an array of dummy body parts, miscellaneous props and some creative sets. There isn't much of a story to it, like his other work, but there is something dreamlike about it that just draws you in and when it's over you just wonder 'What happened?”
Melodic Experiments
What most people don't know, is that Firth and his friends are very involved in many more types of art. There are quite a few musical projects coming from Firth and his friends. The most developed are the Grape Digging Sharon Fruits, or Grape Diggers, and Firth's solo project Locust Toybox.
The Grape Digger's music is very eclectic and often very silly. They have two albums out (Flower Festival, and It's Way Past Your Bedtime), and an EP. The songs range from psychedelic ("Tabaratha") to reggae ("Lemonade Man") to 'punk' ("Peppermint John"). The Grape Diggers also have an interesting methodology. All of their work is offered for free through their blog or through Last.fm. On the blog, it is made clear that the music is all recorded first-hand in the band members' bedrooms, on no budget, and they assure that it never felt like work.
Firth's other musical project, Locust Toybox, is a solo effort that has been going for a few years now. The music is something between IDM, trip-hop and ambient. Either way, you could say it is avant-garde. The songs usually feature a loop or sample, backed by some patterned synths and a complicated drum sequence. Not all of the songs are exactly alike, but the majority are, and the formula works well. There is an overall feeling of playfulness in the songs.
.com Heaven
It's great how the internet can let us check in every once in a while and see what Firth and his weird friends have been up to lately. They're a real creative bunch, and it will be interesting to see what they come up with next.
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