Rosegate Interview
altered.fm | May 7, 2026photos by @candysshots
photo by @gus.mehrkam
rosegate is a noise-rock band based in the east bay, ca. they’re a three-piece band made of evan (guitar/vocals), yan (drums/vocals/producer/writer), + mischa (bass).
[ could u tell me some lore about how the band formed and how u came up with the band name? ]
evan: as a kid, i always wanted to be in a band. i wanted to be like kurt cobain sooo bad when i was younger. so it was my goal as a kid to start a band. originally, rosegate was a 2-piece, i knew yan through instagram because we were mutuals and we actually argued about clothes and didn’t like each other. one day i stalked his highlights and saw he played drums and asked to start a band with him lol. i think i was 17 at the time and a junior in highschool. we got the name rosegate from driving around looking at street signs using the wu tang clan name generator and then we saw the rosegate ave. sign (our former name) and we looked at each other and said “we can always change it later” this band has changed my life in a good way and i’m forever grateful to be in this band with my 2 best friends in the world. i wouldn’t want it any other way .
yan: one time i slid up on evans story and clowned on him for wearing jaded london, and then he ended up sending me some of his music on discord. i rapped at the time so i sent some back and he found out i played drums so he asked if i wanted to start a band. i was a jazz drummer tho, ive never even heard the word shoegaze before. bro asked if we could use my crib and he couldn’t drive so i was like “bro wtf i don’t even know this kid” i was like 17 and just started college so i was just like “fuck it” and picked him up. we went like a few months without a bassist but i knew mischa from a lot of my friends on her volleyball team, i would always watch mischa at her games and i knew she was tuff at guitar. Me and evan insisted mischa would be our bassist so i lwk just kept asking her to come rehearse wit us. it didn’t take long for all of us to get hella close, esp with my best friend tony being a part of the band doing our media it didn’t rlly feel like a band i just felt like we was always having fun.
mischa: i joined rosegate march of 2024, i had no intention of joining any band but randomly yan texted me if i could play bass but i was very iffy about it because it was the middle of my senior year aka i was just super busy. i’m glad he kept asking me though because eventually i gave in and now we’re awesome buds.
[ what’s ur fav piece of media rn? ]
evan: currently one of my favorite movies is lost in translation, my favorite meme is “water, ice, salt, AYYYE”. my favorite song as of right now is “kiss a girl in black” by fleeting joys. i’ve also been playing a lot of the new skate game and fortnite and rainbow six siege.
yan: hoppers movies was fye, lately i been watching a lot of yussef dayes on youtube. he’s a drummer he travels and plays jazz fusion like all around the world, hella cinematic too big inspo for me. also che music videos are sick.
mischa: i havent been watching a lot of movies lately, but i finished watching the most recent life is strange game and that first game is so special to me. i played it when i was younger and its just so nostalgic to me.
[ what’s a piece of gear unique to ur setup and who are ur music inspos? ]
evan: if you want to get around the ballpark of my tone all you need is to be on the neck pickup of a single coil guitar, have a rat distortion, green russian big muff and any clean fender amp and crank the bass. as of right now my music inspos is henry’s dress, junebug, and sonic youth
yan: biggest inspo for me in terms of music production is quinn/p4rkr, i grew up listening to joey bada$$ and chance the rapper. AG club is from my city too and ive always loved odd future, i’ve always wanted to be in a rap collective. also growing up in the bay i grew up on sobxrbe, lil sheik, benny, shootergang kony. mike sherm is from my neighborhood too that’s crazy lol but i’ve always loved bay area/norcal rap.
mischa: honestly i just ask evan what gear to get because he knows way more about that stuff than i do, i trust him. currently i’ve been listening to a lot of venturing/ jane remover, yearn, and MOP. i’ve always loved j-rock i’d say whenever i do pick up a guitar i get most of my inspo/strumming patterns from that
[ do u have any crazy/funny memories from any shows u played or with the whole process of making ephemeral bloom? ]
evan: lowkey recording ephemeral bloom wasn’t the greatest experience and i was probably no help either because i am so picky about my tone lol. it was also just a really hard time in my life for me, and i put so much pressure on myself and the band to get the album out. (sorry yan and keanu) one funny thing that happened at a show was during the noise section at the end of our set during the gilman show in december this guy who’s now my friend hopped on stage and started screaming in my mic. that shit was hilarious.
yan: the mixing and producing process for me was the most memorable, i dropped outta school for a semester so i could work at a starbread bakery and buy all my home studio equipment. being able to use it to record the album was hella fulfilling. the mixing process was rlly fun too, me and my best friend keanu was mixing it all. we grew up making music together and it was all just same shit different day, i would be at his house mixing till like 2 am and i would sleepover at his crib. then we’d wake up in the morning and do it all over again. it was like 2-3 weeks of straight mixing, listening, and creative direction for ephemeral bloom. lwk exhausting but we learned a lot during that time and it was our first big project we ever did together. It was nice to be able to do this with my childhood homie. for a funny memory i remember when we played at a bike shop in berkeley, we headlined the show and then during our noise section evan walked into the crowd just stood there and aura farmed. the crowd deadass started getting on their knees in a circle and praising him like he was a god or sum. i was like looking at mischa like “wtf” and just kept playing, shit lwk annoyed tf outta me ik evan loved the glaze.
mischa: when we opened for flyingfish at cafe du nord, i was watching the crowd as sam was playing and suddenly i see evan try to stage dive and he immediately fell and disappeared into the crowd. he ended up doing that 2 times and nobody caught his ass.
[ do u have any bts of any projects u would like to share? and can u tell me a lil about that? ]
evan: as for rosegate, we are writing new material, so be ready for that. besides that i have another side project that i started with my friends named “no more, please”. it’s more electronic leaning. it’s cool as fuck. really big learning curve though.
yan: one night rosegate + keanu was in my room and we had the thought to start RGA collective. we all make our own music and have our own side projects, and RGA collective would be the hub that connected it all. it pushed me and keanu to revive misfits&villains, our old hyperpop collective we made with our friends tony and cj when we were in high school. we dropped our old music and started making hyperpop again it’s lit #MisfitsRevival. evan has his electronic group “no more, please” and i used to do soundcloud rap under the name “xo.perc” i’m hoping to revive that too i have some stuff i plan on dropping soon.
mischa: some of our new stuff might be a little softer than what we usually put out so im curious on how people might like it
[ final words + anything you would like to promote? ]
evan: love your friends and family. if you wanna start doing anything artistic, just do it. it all starts with you. also, shout out llama
yan: shoutout mama rosegate <3 our biggest supporter 🇵🇭 also pinoy pride type shi hold it down for the island
mischa: NEVER LET THEM DIM YOUR LIGHT!!! shoutout marge