Visual Noise: Walls Talk - Urban Mutant

In Episode 14 of Visual Noise: Walls Talk, hosts TRP613 and Urban Ninja head to Vancouver to chat with one of the city's dedicated sticker artists, Urban Mutant. Known for leaving his mark through creative sticker campaigns, Urban Mutant has built a strong reputation within Vancouver's street art community and is a familiar name to artists who appreciate the culture of trading, collecting, and getting up.

A close friend of fellow Vancouver artist Redrum, Urban Mutant has been part of the vibrant network of artists who keep the city's sticker scene alive. The two have crossed paths on countless missions, sharing stories, trades, and a passion for putting art into public spaces. Vancouver has long been known for its thriving sticker and graffiti culture, where artists use everything from hand-drawn slaps to large-scale sticker bombs to transform everyday streets into open-air galleries.

TRP613 and Urban Ninja dive into Urban Mutant's creative journey, discussing how he first discovered sticker art, what keeps him motivated to keep printing and posting, and why stickers remain one of the most accessible and democratic forms of street art. The conversation explores the importance of artist trades, building friendships across Canada and beyond, and how a single sticker can spark conversations and connect communities.

The episode also takes a closer look at Vancouver's unique street art scene, the challenges of keeping artwork alive in constantly changing urban spaces, and the friendships that make the culture so strong. Whether you're into sticker bombing, graffiti, wheatpaste, or simply love hearing the stories behind the artists, this episode offers an authentic look into the life of someone who has dedicated years to leaving his mark on the streets.

Tune in as TRP613 and Urban Ninja sit down with Urban Mutant for an honest conversation about creativity, community, and the friendships that keep sticker culture thriving.

Music credit:

“Funk Groove Music” by Alex Gus via Pixabay

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:08

What's up everyone? Welcome to our podcast Visual Noise Wall Talk. Trip and Ninja here. What's up, Ninja? Yo, what's up? How you doing? I'm good, man. I'm good. It is hot today. Holy. Yes, it's Toronto. 35 degrees here. It's wild. Yes. I swear it snowed. We were at like a cottage for like a day and it snowed. I think that was two weeks ago. So you know, Ottawa, I mean Canada in general is crazy, but Ottawa is wild. In our podcast, we interview street artists, we talk about art, and welcome to the show. Today we have a West Coast homie, uh, Urban Mutant. What's up, Urban Mutant?

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Well, uh, it's um surprisingly cool today. Oh, okay. Expected to be warmer. It was warmer yesterday, but okay. Today a bit cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Do you want to tell the listeners um, well, we know you're from BC, a little bit about yourself, what you do, uh just some background info.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Okay, background info. There's a lot of stuff. I'm an old guy, you see. Join the club. So there's lots of stuff to omit that won't make any difference. So I've been in Canadian for 32 years. I'm originally from the Seattle area before that. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

So were you doing street art there in Seattle?

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Not really. I did some years ago once I moved to Canada. I did uh some political stuff here and there. But it wasn't until I started traveling to like France or I think it was France and Italy that really got to me, and I went, Oh, okay, gotta do this seriously. Because I just had to be part of it. How long have you been doing it for? It hasn't been long. It's been up to six six years or so. So not too long.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

The name Urban Mutant comes from a radio show that I that I still do. And so the stickers were originally made to promote a radio show called Urban Mutant, which is still run out of Seattle on Saturday nights, and now is rerun on CITR up here at UBC. So I do that every week, and it's on Mixed Cloud.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

What is the the radio show?

SPEAKER_00 2:28

It is uh it's a music show, but it's but it's more like uh it's less of a genre and more of a mood show. So it's about hypnagogia. It's uh I often call it haunted and damaged music for haunted and damaged people.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

So it's like I use whatever genre to put you in sort of a weird in-between consciousness state, you know. And uh, you know, I never get tired of it. It's it's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

I always thought I wanted to do a radio show. I I I thought about it years ago and applied for it, and it was like only like crazy times, you know, like they were like, Yeah, sure, we'd love to have you at like two to four in the morning, and I was like, I can't. That's crazy. Yeah, exactly. Like I know you have to start somewhere, I guess, but I wasn't willing to do that because I love music, you know, like and just the idea of it.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Yeah, no, I mean, you know, that's tough if they give you time like that. I mean, that's what they're looking for, but it's I don't know, it's not for everyone.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

No, no, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

But what I like about this one is I'm able to do it, I don't have to do it live. I can I usually produce it a day or two before and edit it. And it's a three-hour show, it's a long one of the longer ones, and then I say I you know send it through the software in Seattle, and then uh later I and then I edit it for Vancouver that plays at uh UBC, which is University of British Columbia, for people who uh are not aware.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Are there any uh recent street artists that inspire you?

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Well, in town here we we have uh Ched who I like a lot, Uncle Ched or whatever we want to call him. He does a character. Um a lot of the stickers that I was inspired by were um I guess some of the European ones, so there was a lot of characters. And I look at some of the I haven't been down to Mexico or uh Latin America for a long time, but they also heavy into the characters, bold lines, nice designs, and so it took me a while to find my character, but I came up with this red frog, and I kept drawing it, and I knew that I finally decided I've had enough sort of borrowing images from like logos from the 30s or whatever, and said I can draw, so why not why am I not drawing my own character? And I went back to this frog again and again. So now I draw the frog, I don't use vector at all for it. I just uh I draw the frog out, I make the lines bolder, I and then uh that's how it comes out and try to improve it every time.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

It doesn't always work, but so are you using pro procreate or no?

SPEAKER_00 5:18

I I generally draw it out on paper, like in pencil, then I go over with ink. Then I just take a picture on my phone and I put it into uh PixArt program to do the rest.

SPEAKER_02 5:31

I I like how your frog often kind of has a leg hanging down, like it gives it kind of like movement and it just stretches it out a little bit, like his leg is always kind of hanging over something. I like that.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

It took a while to get there. I always saw the image in my mind, but was kind of unable to make it work just right as far as drawing it. If I I finally got it to where what I've seen in my mind's eye, so I finally got there, and so I've been using that more and more.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

It's a it's a great image. What's the most memorable experience you've had while doing street art? Wow. Uh memorable experience. Good or bad, you know, being chased by the cops. Or I know you hang out with red rum. Uh you guys go out.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

Hang out with red rum. Yeah, some of the uh most memorable experiences happen around red rum. I don't know what he's told you about himself, but he's uh struggled with epilepsy for a while, and uh so I was a couple times when he's had a seizure. Wow, the first time I wasn't quite sure what was going on, so it wasn't what I expected. He just sort of froze up and grabbed my shoulders, and I was kind of like, oh shit, what's happening? Yeah, but then I realized what was going on, so then I said, Okay, we'll just give him some room, give him a safe space to be, and uh and just be there for him, right? Sure. So I think we get along that way in that we sort of look after each other. Our relationships built on just friendship with no stress, you know, and that's good for us. We're both a bit uh anxious people, you know. So we just like I'm not here to stress you out. You just you know, tell me whatever you need to tell me, and I'll tell you whatever I need to tell you. We'll just sort of sympathico. And was it just uh this weekend we were in the garage, my garage, sort of uh setting up a silk screen? Sweet. Um, so we'll probably do some silk screening soon.

SPEAKER_02 7:32

Nice. He mentioned kind of having uh uh an episode um while he was stickering, but he didn't say he was with you, but yeah, he's had more that were quite dangerous from what I understand, the way I wasn't around, and I know that he's you know, I wanted to say this about him, and I thought about it for a while.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

For a guy that's been screwed by the system and by the world so hard and so viciously, it's amazing to me how kind he is to everybody around him.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Okay, that's nice.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

I really respect him for that.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Yeah, he seemed like a really great guy, and you know, from what he's told me, it sounds like some pretty fucked up shit has happened in his life.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Unfortunately, extremely fucked up, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. True. So he needs your love, he needs all our love.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Always, always definitely. How do you feel when someone covers your artwork on the street?

SPEAKER_00 8:30

I am not a vindictive person, so I usually just I don't want to start a war and I don't want any bad feelings, but uh there are times when I've been covered that I just sort of went to peeled it off something off again, especially if it's an advertisement, you know. Oh yeah, yeah, I just you know, come on, but you know, I get angry, it's like that this isn't what you do. Come on, and we try not to do it to anybody else, but there are cases where we do if it's like a hate speech or something, yes, we'll definitely fuck with that. Yeah, that I don't see a lot of it, but thankfully, yeah, that's actually kind of good.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

Yeah, that you don't see a lot of it. I I actually, so I've told the story before. There's this person that likes to put jail vandal stickers over my stickers. Uh and I was at blah blahs today, and there was like three over like I had two stickers on the stop sign. There was like three over one and three over the other one, and then there was this Jesus repent sticker on the stop sign too. Nothing over the Jesus repent sticker, but all these over mine. I'm just like, what the fuck? Like, I am not preaching anything.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

I'm not, you know, and you know, like assume that uh this this is a bad individual, this person that just puts up stickers without advertising anything.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

Yeah, god Jesus Christ. What's wrong with you?

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Some Jesus imagery in my in my uh yeah, maybe, you know, call collab with Jesus, man. OG.

SPEAKER_02 10:00

I should, I should, I'll reach out. Jesus strong, you know. If your art had a soundtrack, what kind of music would be blasting while you were stickering or making your art?

SPEAKER_00 10:13

That is a really interesting question, and it's a really difficult for the radio guy like me.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

Okay, how about this?

SPEAKER_00 10:23

A million different places.

SPEAKER_02 10:25

Pick one song that you can listen to for the rest of your life. Oh god, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

For the rest of my loud. You know, I always go back to certain bands that I love, and and uh Joy Division is one, the monochrome set is another one, more of my happy times. And uh I really like Yola Tango and oh, I like a band called Flipper. Okay, let's choose Flipper.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

Flipper, okay, never heard of it.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Flipper track in life, my friends, from the Gone Fishing album came out like 1983. It's San Francisco Weirdcore Punk, and that song I can listen to forever. Still gives me goosebumps. That that guitar, that sort of caterwalling guitar at the end, and the way the the bass and the drums are just keeping the pace, and the guitar is like just twirling every you know, just everywhere. It's it's a it's a wonderful track. I love it. Okay, it's my homework. Listen to Flipper.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Yeah, that's right. What advice would you give uh new artists?

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Practice all the time, which I'm really bad at. I drew a lot as a kid because I was lonely and depressed all the time. So I would be alone a lot drawing. And so I I guess I practice more than times in my life where I just didn't do any. I made the wrong decisions, went into the wrong careers, and wasted a lot of time. So I wish I was drawing every day and I don't. You know, I get busy, I work and I do several hobbies, so and the radio takes up an awful lot of time. But yeah, um if for artists, get your craft down, but don't be dissuade. Don't worry about your art not measuring up to somebody else's. You've got your own style and you and you can work it out. You can be influenced by people for sure. Like I may be sometimes influenced by Walt Kelly of the old pogo comics from way back when my grandparents were reading comics, or it might be um Mad Magazine. But just just play around, find your own voice, practice, practice. I like it.

SPEAKER_02 12:39

Practice, yeah. What's your favorite type of surface to work on? Uh, electrical boxes, glass, metal, dumpsters.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Well, I like the street signs. You know, I definitely and I like the poles, okay. Um, I like poles because I, you know, when I when I travel, I see a lot of stickers on poles and on those what do you call those barriers in the street? Like they have those uh big round uh barriers to keep cars out of places, and there's a lot in Europe, so I see a lot on those, so I like I like to put them on those. I like the alleyways in in France and uh Barcelona. Do you travel a lot? Yeah, I don't really, you know, when I listen to a podcast like City Kitty, nice, and it seems like they're always well, let's go over here, we'll travel here, we'll do this, we'll travel there and do that. And I'm like, how in the hell are you doing this? Yeah, and I always feel a little bit, you know, like well, you know, I get cynical about it, but uh I am I've been doing more traveling like once every three years now or so, and I never thought I would before. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

Good, that's good. How do you define success as a street artist?

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Personal satisfaction, I guess. Well, for me, it's a lot about sending it out and getting up in other cities around the world, and that's where I'm probably the most satisfied because that's where I've been the most influenced.

SPEAKER_02 14:15

It is nice seeing it in a in a different country or you know, having a monument behind it that you're like, oh man, that is awesome. There's nothing I hate more though than I send a pack out and someone puts up stickers and they do this super close shot, and it could be fucking anywhere, you know, and you gotta like you know, think of the angles and think of what's behind you, and you know, I want to see like where it is, you know.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

Yeah, true. And yeah, a good good uh staging is is cool. Yeah, so yeah, I mean if you can like I took a few shots of my sticker and a few friends in front of the uh the cathedral in Barcelona, the not Barcelona, family Sagrada Familia, yeah, yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

So that's a great place to take a picture of absolutely any last words to leave the listeners with, any wisdom, any you know, ideas, thoughts?

SPEAKER_00 15:09

I'm usually a bummer when it comes to wisdom. I'm not I'm not terribly optimistic.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

Okay, give us some negative wisdom.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

You really put your mind to something, you may not be able to see it to fruition. I don't believe that you can you can put your mind to swimming your way to the moon. It's not gonna happen. You know, there's just practical things in life that depends on luck. Now, if I hadn't moved to Canada when I did, I'd probably be in rough shape in the States right now without health care and you know, unable to pay for those, you know, whatever, just the whole cost. So I've been very fortunate that way. And a lot of that was just luck of when finding my wife when it was. There is no divine intervention in that. There's nobody looking out for you. It's chaos. And do the best you can and be kind because we all got to get through this.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

That's great. I I agree. Be kind. We'll take that message and be kind. Any last words, Ninja? Yeah, I like that. Be kind. That's a nice one. That is nice. Yeah. Thanks so much for joining us today on Visual Noise Walls Talk, and we'll see you next time. Peace, everyone. Okay, guys. See you online.