The RedBugsLove Interview
Brain-Blasted By The 'Kid Genius' Also Known As JamSTAR
There’s a room in Toronto that one kid, and every South Park plushie known to man, calls home. Literally. The kid barely leaves, and neither do they. Outside their door is a kitchen, bathroom, and a hallway, leading to a front door, but what’s the point of exiting it? There’s enough ephemera taped to the bedroom walls to entertain a small child from birth to age 17. And that’s how old RedsBugLove, also known as JamSTAR, is right now.
Their hand-drawn cartoons of mold-brained seals, ducks, dogs, dingbats, and other silly humanoids act as the room’s wallpaper in combination with Problem Solverz posters and other print-outs from fringe, cult cartoons. The interior design is reminiscent of Mr. Krabs’ house before the paint job.
In each of their cartoons, the character is cast in front of a loudly colored background, beautifully constructed, as if four fingers on the other side of the phone screen are reaching forward, warping the stretchy fabric of the plane.
This might sound overwhelming, but it’s not. There’s something calming about RedBugsLove’s work. Intentionally, it has the feel of wholesome, grandma clipart, and motivational posters hung up on elementary school walls.
RedBugsLove is what happens when a kid’s special interest is the old internet, and when a millennial mom makes Happy Tree Friends required viewing for her impressionable kid genius.
We spoke to RedBugsLove about their work, life, and inspirations. Our conversation delved into dreams, emos, and their viral “I Depend on You” artwork. If you’ve been following them for a while or have never heard of them before, this conversation will (hopefully) make you want to draw.
Who are you?
I call myself a kid with a messy room, but I guess I make stuff on the internet.
What makes your room messy?
There’s just stuff all over it. It’s like bottles ... Well, not bottles, but stacks of art I did.
What is the most important thing in there?
Probably my bunk bed. The top bunk’s not being used, and I don’t have any shelves in my house, so I just put stuff I collect on it. I use it as a shelf. It makes my bed like my house, like I live in my bed. That’s why my back hurts all the time.
What do you have hanging directly over your head in your bed?
The top bunk.
What do your parents think of your room?
My mom said, “Isn’t this such a teenage room?” She called it a “teenage room.”
Do you think your room will always be messy?
It’s probably always going to be messy.
What’s your earliest memory of going on the internet?
Probably, like, I have my mom’s laptop, and it’s just me going on YouTube. I knew how to type a few words. I’m probably watching “Nyan Cat” and probably “Don’t Hug Me, I’m Scared.” Actually, before then, my mom showed me “Salad Fingers” when I was really little.
Why’d she show you that?
She just always showed me stuff like ”Salad Fingers,” Happy Tree Friends, and stuff like that. She just showed them to me. I don’t know why [laughs]. I’m not complaining.
Does she like that kind of stuff?
Well, she just thought it was kind of creepy and wanted to see if I’d be scared or not.
What kind of character is your mom? What’s she like?
She’s a millennial. She likes tarot cards. She’s also one of my inspirations for drawing because I used to see her draw all the time. She hasn’t drawn for a long time now but she’s picking it up again. I remember when I was really little, she’d always make pictures. I guess she’s… quirky? I don’t know.
What kind of things would she draw?
Like He-Man… just random stuff. Can I send you a Twitter post?
Oh, so this is her stuff?
Yeah. My favorite is the Pikachu.
And you used to draw with her?
Yeah, I’d do stuff like cats, bears, or any other type of small animal, but there was always a random, creepy twist, because that’s the kind of stuff I was consuming a lot. I had this one character, a cat who looked really cute, but then it would suddenly kill people with its claws… I wasn’t very- That was just one concept I was really obsessed with, like, “It looks cute, but it’s going to kill you.”
But, I’ve always felt that the art is more different than I am. The art is separate from me.
You feel different from your art?
Yeah, because I don’t really do a lot, but the characters in my art do more than I could … I’m trying to get more to happen this year because for most of my time, I just never left my bed, and I’ve only started going outside in the past two or three years.
Why is that?
I’m just a really paranoid person, and I’m trying to push away the random thoughts. You hear on the news all the time, “Oh, some guy, he’s stabbed. Some woman’s getting robbed.” Some average “fear the city” kind of thing. But then I went outside, and I’m not dead yet [laughs]. I think that’s got to count for something.
It used to be that if my mom would leave me for a minute, like if I had to walk to school for five minutes, I thought trees were following [laughs] and I kept looking behind myself ... I don’t do that anymore, though.
It’s funny ‘cause I think a lot of your art is kind of violent. It’s a lot of gunshots and stabbings. Do you think that’s related to your fear?
I just find it really funny [laughs]. It’s just funny to imagine some little creature snapping, or they’re just naturally violent towards each other. It’s just random funny.
How would you describe your art?
I started this style because I was trying to copy clip art. I love looking at clip art. At my old school, I stole some posters that tell you stuff like, “Don’t forget to log out of your computer!” I like those older internet images, like graphics for children.
I think I’d describe my stuff as weird internet slop [laughs]. Other people have called it playful.
Do you have any other inspirations?
Parker Davis — he’s one of my inspirations. I really like his stuff, like, that’s how I remember the internet being. A lot of people, when they say “early internet,” they do “Nyan Cat,” but they always forget about all that other stuff.
What’s the other stuff? What does the old internet look like to you?
Mainly crappy stick figure animations and weird kind of ... It has a certain vibe. It’s a lot of violence. Of course, a lot of people were being offensive, which is not the best, but it adds to it.
Like, people used to really, really hate emos. They’d do videos where they’re killing emos. People forget about that internet. There were a lot of little kids making hate videos. People were just making crap — childish crap.
Yeah, that reminds me of when I talked to the Dope Clown Comics guys, and they were telling me about how they take inspiration from Soyjak art. They said there’s “blood” in it. People really put raw energy into it.
Yeah, it’s kind of like a kid says, “Oh, I hate emos so much. I’m going to log onto my computer, and I’m going to make a stick figure animation on Microsoft Movie Maker about how much I hate them!”
Do you hate anything?
Just people who are mean. I don’t like mean people. I don’t have any reason to hate anything, unless I’m given that reason.
I want to know more about how you come up with your ideas, so I’m gonna show you some of your work, and you just explain why you drew each or where the ideas came from.
Oh, with this one, I drew Brendan first, and then I thought it'd be funny if Brendan was shooting something…
…Read the rest of this interview on the 65,000 website.
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