Nicholas Jordan Kerr-Carpenter (* December 9, 1996), known professionally as guardin (stylized gu△rdin or simply guardin) is an American rapper, singer-songwriter, and producer from Hornell, New York.

guardin first started making beats and instrumentals when he was 14, taking loops from Looperman and stitching them together in Audacity, he says, and uploaded his first track as early as 2012. From that point, he got his start as a producer on SoundCloud.

Growing up listening to various different artists and genres, guardin cites influences he considers “early emo,” such as Taking Back Sunday, AFI, as well as Hawthorne Heights and Oliver Francis. He also states that he is constantly influenced and inspired by whatever music he listens to.

Two years after starting to actively release instrumentals and beats, in 2016, guardin released “hydroponic,” which marks the first song including his own vocals and with that, the start of his transition from being a producer to becoming a singer-songwriter.

He started touring as a special guest on Oliver Francis‘ “The Overdrive Tour” in late 2018 and later signed to Photo Finish Records in early 2019, but went back to being independent in late 2021. He is also a member and co-founder of the independent label and artist collective, Acid Castle.

From his very start, guardin has created almost all of his songs and projects on a minimalistic setup, using a Blue Yeti microphone and an HP Pavillion laptop with a broken screen that he hooked up to a monitor, stating that he has only ever done five studio sessions, however not disclosing for which songs/projects.