Portland DJ Ryan Giskaas, who goes by Rose Guard, has been making music for more than 10 years and DJing for around five years.
He spoke with Dance Music Northwest about his process, who inspires him, and what keeps pulling him back into the Pacific Northwest scene.
DMNW: Tell us about yourself. What kind of music do you make? Where do you DJ?
Rose Guard: I’m from Portland. Born and raised here. I mainly produce house music, but it’s kind of all over the, all over the chart. It’s just whatever I’m listening to at the time, honestly.
DJ Gigs have been pretty sporadic. Just because I have friends that have residencies. So they’ll tap me in for that. But honestly, I haven’t ever really focused on just getting DJ gigs. I do it when I have some new songs that I want to try out. Or you’re on a club system because, like, any producer, you eventually learn that everything sounds so different based on what you’re listening to. People always refer to the car test or purposely listening on bad headphones and things like that.
There’s a venue here with open decks, and sometimes I’ll go to that. You just sign your name up, and it’s like roulette. But my more consistent stuff, Adidas puts on this event for their Asian American employee group. So I’ve been DJing that, and that’s actually way more lit than people would expect. They have a line out the door for people to play Mahjong. It’s actually really cool.
Photo courtesy of Rose Guard
DMNW: How did you get into making music?
Rose Guard: It started in college. I remember Cartoon Network used to have a bunch of games. They had a game for their show, André 3000 or Mr. 3000.
It was like that music show. I think that was technically my first DAW. DAW stands for digital audio workstation for the non-nerds out there. And I just played around with that, and I was like, “Oh, music’s cool.”
But my first introduction to music was being forced into piano lessons when I was 7 years old. Because I was super hyper and talked all the time, I think a teacher said music would calm me down, but I don’t know if it did.
But the first actual DAW that I downloaded was this kind of crappy one called LMMS. Don’t know what it stands for, but it was free. I was too scared to pirate anything, and I was just in my dorm in college at the University of Oregon, and I made a couple beats on that. Honestly, I still have one, and it’s not that bad for how old it is.
And that was about 10 years ago. So I’ve been doing this a long time with no official releases and just totally unproven as a producer, really. I have probably over 1,000 started projects. Which isn’t a flex. I’ve just failed a lot.
DMNW: Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
Rose Guard: Ten years from now, maybe I’ll have a family by then, and, hopefully, releases. Maybe still be producing, but who knows? I’m looking more short-term at this point.
I think at some point, when I was around 25, I thought, if I don’t have anything released by 30, I’ll just quit. And now I’m 30, and it’s like I feel so close. I feel like I’ve only ramped up too. Getting older and more mature, having an office job and things like that, you kind of have to take your time more seriously,
It’s a tough balance because I don’t want to be too strict about music because I want to keep it a hobby. But to me, it’s also OK to take your hobbies seriously and just treat them as important. I don’t want to force myself to do this.
DMNW: What drew you to the EDM house scene in general?
Rose Guard: I just started listening to it, and then it was always at parties. Maybe at some college parties, and then you just see DJ sets.
DMNW: Who inspires you?
Whoever I’m listening to at the time. But a big inspiration for me is Disclosure. I have one tattoo of Disclosure. So, for sure, a super fan. What got me to them, though, is that they actually started streaming their process on Twitch. And it’s honestly so rare for Grammy-nominated artists to do that. There’s definitely an abundance of information, but a lot of it is repetitive or regurgitated. And for Disclosure, just to spill the sauce. Like they’re showing how they made the song Latch
Chris Lake streams too. He’ll have Odd Mob in there and stuff. So it’s not as if nobody’s doing it. Disclosure were just one of the first that I saw. And I’m literally watching the streams and looking at the plug-ins they’re using, taking screenshots, and then copying it into my own projects. Just because remaking sounds and songs is the easiest way for me to learn.
DMNW: How did you come up with the name Rose Guard?
Rose Guard: It’s my initials, and then in Portland, the Moda Center, which is where the Blazers play, used to be called the Rose Garden. So I just wanted to be related to that, I guess. I didn’t think about it too deeply.
DMNW: What are your favorite festivals to go to?
Rose Guard: I don’t think I’ve ever been to the same one twice, but I went to Capitol Hill Block Party in Seattle. That was really cool. Just the variety of that festival was nuts.
I saw Memba, which is insane because it’s a guy that I went to high school with, and then after that show, I went to a basement to get a drink, and then there’s like a punk band called King Youngblood playing down there. I went into the mosh pit. It was just so crazy.
DMNW: Any crazy festival stories?
Rose Guard: I’m in the Disclosure Discord, and in the middle of the week, they announced that they were going to give some on-stage tickets. So I entered for that with my email, just kind of like not really thinking it would go anywhere because there are quite a bit of people in the Discord. And on Friday at 6 p.m. I got an email saying that I won the tickets for on-stage at CRSSD.
The email looks really sketchy because there’s no QR code on it. I already had engagement photos planned with my fiancé on Sunday. So I showed her the email and asked, “What should we do?” For me, it’s a no-brainer. I have to go. This was my third time seeing disclosure, but to be on stage is unreal and probably once in a lifetime.
So then we flew in on Sunday. And just went to the show for a couple of hours. And then just flew out the next day. So around 40 hours in San Diego. It was really sick, though.
Rose Guard’s next show
Rose Guard’s next show is Tuesday, Nov. 3 at Wonderlove in Portland.
His set time is yet to be announced, but expect some groovy house music and good vibes.
Important things happen in Pacific Northwest nightlife, and DMNW will send you alerts!
