Meet Gaspar Francisco | Photographer & Music Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Gaspar Francisco and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gaspar, what makes you happy? Why?
Being creative and being able to create. I work so much that I rarely have time to practice or start new projects, wether it’s in photography or music production. When I’m not working or creating, spending time with my family and friends brings me lots of joy.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My art is music production/ Beat making/ Photography/ Videography.

My style of music production ranges from old school hiphop to Lofi hiphop beats to modern hiphop trap style beats.
Most of my beats are heavily sampled from old records of various musicians/ artists ranging from the 70s to late 2000s.

What sets me apart from most is that I use samplers and other hardware gear to manipulate my sounds and samples to make them sound gritty or “different.

I’m always looking for new ways to manipulate a sound to make it more unique or interesting.

When I’m not doing music production or beat making I spend my time in the photography/ Videography realm, I’ve enjoyed taking cityscape photos and street photography photos.
Living in Portland is fun and there is always something new to shoot in the street scene. You just have to be in the right places at the right time, but also looking for opportunities to set up a shot and waiting for the right moment.

Pursuing a creative outlet brings many challenges such as knowing what is good and what is bad, but also being able to recognize why things are good and why things are bad. I still struggle to know what is good in both music production and in photography/videography, but I’ve come to realize that what ever makes me feel good and happy about my work is considered a good in my eyes. I use to worry about the analytics of social media and worry about views and plays, but being able to see past that makes it less stressful and more meaningful to create again, like sure we’’d all love to see that our art is being seen by millions of people or heard by millions of people and sometime it does bring us down when we put a lot into something and put it out for the world to see and get no recognition, but then again you have to think and realize that views and likes can be bought and if there’s no real engagement going on are you really being seen or is your art being seen as art or is it just content?

For professionalism I feel like I’m close to being a professional in my creative journeys but it’s figuring out the next steps to achieving that mindset and mentality, the way I see professionalism is being able to take the skills and creativeness and provide a service or product that both you, a client or other partners are satisfied and happy with. I do not have clients at this moment in time but I do have collaborative partners that I work with regularly and I can say that I do provide quality work and a quality product in photography/videography and In music production. My goals are that one day I can leave my regular job and pursue a career in my creative outlets and make a decent living off of it and be able to enjoy more time with my family and friends.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Some of my favorite spots in Portland are actually not in the city parts like downtown, most of my favorite places to eat and hangout are in the neighborhood areas such as Mississippi Ave and Alberta, Division, Hawthorne, Broadway etc.

Mississippi Ave has a variety of spots to eat at but for a breakfast or brunch I would take a friend out to eat at GRAVY, the biscuits and gravy is a special there which is why they are named GRAVY but also serve a variety of omelettes and sweet breakfast foods like French toast, they also have a delicious sauce that you can purchase and also great tasting coffee.

Again there are so many great food spots in the PORTLAND area it’s hard to choose but Pho is probably one of my favorite foods to eat and this next place is in the downtown Portland area. LucLac is probably one of my top favorite pho spots in Portland and it has a pretty cool vibe to it. They serve during the lunch hours and then close to prep for dinner and then they prepare for the late night eaters. I’ve been to this spot at all different hours and they play a lot of bangers and classic jams. Another place to check out is Pho Van! They serve a lot of great food and the interior is very nice.

If I were to take a friend on an adventure I would first start out by taking them to the Columbia river gorge to site see and visit one of the many attractions that Oregon has to offer, and probably one of the most popular spots Multnomah Falls, but luckily PORTLAND is just an hour away from many lakes that connects to Mt. Hood and one of my favorites to fish, kayak or swim at is trillium lake! Trillium lake is a great spot to hike, trail walk or just set up and hangout and have a bbq, anywhere on the lake is always a great time

There’s so much to do in and around PORTLAND it’s difficult to list them all and would be difficult to tour around in a week.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d like to shoutout my brother Alexander Southworth, we aren’t actually brothers, but Alex has always been there for me in rough times and has gotten me through creative ruts and has given me many opportunities to sharpen up my skills as a music producer, photographer and videographer. Starting out I was never confident in the work I created or even had the confidence to show my work to anyone else. Through Alex I was able meet more creative individuals and collaborate with them, through those collaborations I gained more confidence which allowed me to take more risks and experiment outside of my normal routines. I’ve always looked at Alex as a Big brother and as a mentor so shoutout to my brother Alex!! Go check out his work @Foxtradamus or @JungleTelevision.

Instagram: Photography/Video:@gvspvr_ Personal and Music Production: @gvspvrrr

Facebook: GVSPVR