May 4, 2015
“The name was suggested to me by a very close friend and I feel like it connects with who I am. I enjoy helping and looking out for people where I can; the word “guardian” nicely describes that part of me. The number in my name is there because I want my music to be easily found, if I were to have just GUARDIAN I would be competing with a lot of popular businesses out there, it makes my name unique and that’s what I was going for.”
“I think I have always had a close connection to music, it might seem silly but I remember back when I was around 6 years old I was singing along to hip-hop tracks such as Gangsta’s Paradise by Coolio. Not much later I would find out about Eminem and I have been big fan of him ever since.
Additionally, for one year at school when I think I was about 11, I took keyboard classes. It was a lot of fun to me and I think from that point on the idea of being a musician grew on me.
The actual production part started around the age of 15, when I was listening to Hardstyle and seeing videos of the DJ performances, the energy of the events looked amazing and I wanted to be a part of that, so I got started.
Later down the road I switched into Dubstep after hearing Gold Dust by Flux Pavilion, this track really inspired and motivated me to try dubstep, it was like a great combination of electronic music and the hip-hop beats I used to enjoy. Skrillex released his EP a little after and really got me motivated to work hard and make high quality songs. I’d say overall that this is what really fueled me to get where I am today and hopefully further!”
Flux Pavilion, Frontliner (known as Abject back in the day) and Skrillex
“I would like to be a professional musician in the sense that I can provide for myself whilst doing something I love. Preferably to be performing my own music live for people, but I like music so much that I’d be content with doing anything closely related to it as a career.”
“Skrillex definitely comes first to mind, because his technical abilities are amazing, I think I could learn a lot from him.
Another one would be Pharrell, his songwriting and the fact that his songs continuously connect with an audience is something I could definitely take some pointers on.
Finally, Dr. Dre, as I grew up with a lot of the music that he produced or was a big part of, I’m really interested in seeing his workflow and how they used to do things back then.”
“This is really a question where no matter how you answer it, you’re bound to get some negative response, but I’ll play along. If I had to choose I’d say Nightcore, the genre is hard for me to follow, almost like trying to talk someone at a party while a bunch of other people are talking over you making it hard to follow what is being said.
That being said, I appreciate anything to do with music, even if I might not understand it I still respect that artists are contributing to music as a whole.”
“Diskord, for sure. I think their technique is ahead of a lot of known producers in the Trap scene right now. I feel they definitely deserve more exposure!”
“Dillon Francis, because he’s the guy that can get a party started.
Dave Chappelle, because he’s wise and got a great sense of humor.
Eminem, because I’m a huge fan and meeting him personally would be a big deal to me.”
“I can’t really choose a single location because I think every place offers something unique, and I love experiencing new things. My goal in life is to try and learn something new every day, and thus I would really like to go to as many places as I can.”
“Currently I’m focusing on Trap that works well in a club environment, I think it’s really important that you can dance to my music to capture that energy Hardstyle/EDM introduced me to. One of my upcoming releases is the track Kitkat, which I now have a preview of on my channel. This track is written with the club idea in mind. I have a lot of other things pending as well but I cannot guarantee a release date on them because most are collaborations with producers and vocalists. Everyone has their own time-frames and priorities so I don’t know exactly when I can finish them.”
“Growing up with hip hop, transitioning into EDM got me into Dubstep, when I heard Diskord, I figured Trap was the genre I was always looking for, and that’s how I got here!”
“Giving people a good time is my first and foremost goal, I love what I do and I really want to bring that positive energy over to others. Besides that, I strive for excellence, I always want to be the best version of myself in what I do and I want to encourage others to do the same by raising the bar continuously.”
To learn more about GUARD1AN head over to our RDJ page