David Firth, animation and musical mind behind Locust Toybox, Salad Fingers, Cream, Stegosaurus Trap and more was kind enough to chat with me about his music, techniques and current inspirations.

Pleased To Be Eaten immediately sounds much more informed by IDM and atmospheric, instrumental Hip Hop than the ambient soundscapes of When We Implode and Drownscapes, almost playful. Was that a deliberate change of pace, and was there a reason Locust Toybox was so ambient focused for that time?

I started with IDM – got kind of sick of it for a few years and then recently returned to it with fresh ears. My goal is always to make what I want to hear. I also really like collages of samples. I’d typically make some loops from sampled vinyl – which I have accumulated a lot of over the past few years – and then jam on top of it.

The recent Ableton updates have also included some really nice tools for messing with samples such as the granulator which has featured heavily in my recent stuff.

How much of Pleased To Be Eaten was live instrumentation VS samples? I know it’s been a disparate mix on past Locust Toybox albums.

Nothing is 100% instruments and nothing is 100% samples. Often the samples are manipulated so much they become instruments and synths of their own.

When We Implode featured Dog Of Man and Pulch on the tracklist, both soundtracks to animations of yours. Do you write tracks like that with animation in mind, prioritising different aspects of the music, or do you just pick an existing track that fits in retrospect once an animation is finished?

Those were both standalone tracks that fit the animation. Dog Of Man was actually an upbeat, fast-beats kinda track which I reduced down to the solo synth for the animation. Then I lost the original so I went back and made it a full ambient track many years later. It was just a loop. I don’t often compose directly for animation – and when I do it probably won’t be made into a standalone track. 

You’ve worked in animation and music for well over twenty years now, as well as your game work and writing, what about making music is different for you compared to creating in other mediums?

There is so much music out there that I assume someone has already made the music I am making before. I never feel original. When I am making animation, statistically I know that I am treading new ground simply because it’s not a very common medium  outside of videogames and children’s television. I am not a skilled enough musician to take my thoughts and convert them into melodies and stuff but I can do that easily with animation. 

Rewatching the uploads of the old Locust Toybox streams, where you use a lot of improvised, on-the-spoot loops, I wondered how much of your music is improvised VS rigidly composed? And do you go into writing music with a specific idea or intent in mind, or just let it come naturally? A lot of Stegosaurus Trap has a jam band feel to it in places.

Everything is improvised, really. I just usually do it in small chunks with several takes rather than all at once. My early stuff was done by writing notes on a grid but it feels too computery and I like to break out of that where possible. I had made about 6 albums before I ever even tried a midi keyboard.

Looking back, how do you feel about the Grape Digging Sharon Fruit albums you guys did? They’re very unique in your discog, a psychedelic fuzz-pop-folk thing.

Grape Diggers was 3 people trying to make songs with absolutely no experience or direction. Just an enjoyment of melodies and harmonies. Originally it was a parody band of whimsical hippy songs possibly inspired by a scene in Spinal Tap (where it briefly showed their Flower Power phase). It only works when we are all hanging out together regularly. We’d all contribute bits of ideas and chords and lyrics and then we’d occasionally have a recording session. We didn’t think too deeply about it. Inbetween times I was making instrumentals on my own that the others would sing on and they’d also go into the mix. 

A lot of material from Stegosaurus Trap comes from a big gap in recording. You’ve mentioned Song For Seven Lizards ranging from 2013 to 2020, and A Bug In Your Brain consisting of a lot of lockdown recordings. Is there a difference in how you approach ST as opposed to Locust Toybox? In my listening ST feels more intimate in a way.

Stegosaurus Trap is basically Grape Digging Sharon Fruits on my own. I recorded so many instrumentals that weren’t being used for anything I decided to try singing on them. Leaving recordings for years is a habit I have developed to work out if I actually like them or not. It’s very easy to like your own songs simply because you made them, so if you leave them a few years then listen again it’s like someone else made them and you can judge them objectively. This only works if you are under no obligation to release your music.

Part of the reason I don’t promote Stegosaurus Trap is that it’s really freeing to have almost no expectations to deal with. I could record a grindcore album and probably no one would email me to tell me they were disappointed by it. It’s absolutely different from Locust Toybox which I still consider electronic music, though it doesn’t mean a lot these days. The main difference is that with Stegosaurus Trap almost the only thing that is composed on the grid is the drum samples. Everything else (pretty much) is played and recorded with mics. 

What’ve you been listening to a lot lately?

I’ve been listening to a lot more punk and metal recently. I’m not sure why but I’ve been craving fast and heavy again. Bands like Death, Electric Wizard, Mr Bungle, The Gun Club, Fugazi as well as listening to ambient harmonic stuff like Julianna Barwick and Grouper.

I’m The Manager is one of your projects that’s most interesting to me. How it was a one-and-done EP, the artwork from the Black And White Cartoon’s, it all felt very enigmatic. What was the story behind it, and was it always intended as a one-off?

It’s probably the same as Stegosaurus Trap but with more punk influences. I wanted to see if I could make something fast/heavy and catchy. I was listening to a lot of Mad Capsule Markets and 65DaysOfStatic at the time and fancied trying it out. Every so often I make a bit of a new track. Maybe a full album one day.

I listen through a lot of WallerFM while I work and am always surprised by how high-quality the idents and pastiches were. Were the old pre-lockdown Waller’s time consuming to produce, especially compared to the later ones/Graham’s Hot Porridge?

It’s a lot easier to produce it to a high standard when we’re in a room together. The set up for the lockdown episodes was a bit of a mess. I’d have samples on a midi controller from a laptop going into one input along with my voice, and Christian’s voice on zoom going into another input. We’d also play a few pre-recorded clips/songs which I couldn’t hear unless I listened to the stream, which was a few seconds behind. It messed with the timing a bit but we had a lot of fun. The editing is very time consuming because for the originals we’d get 1 hour down to a couple of 10 minute segments but with the live one 1 hour = 1 hour. 

What are your biggest non-musical influences right now?

The lack of creativity in popular media is really inspiring to me. It feels like you can be interesting and exciting just by not being sterile and pandering to the masses. Shame the masses don’t seem to agree with me on this one. 

What are your plans for Locust Toybox and Stegosaurus Trap in 2025 and beyond?

Well I have a new Stegosaurus Trap album about 90% done. It’s really hard to tell if it’s cheesy as fuck or my best ever work. There is a fine line these days. I’ll probably quietly release it and not tell anyone.