#ian interview

The Korean-Australian multi-hyphenate on his debut studio album ‘Moodswings In To Order’ and its character and his “feeling tank” Mito

By Gladys Yeo | 29th July 2022

DPR IAN’s relationship with his art goes far beyond just making music. The singer-songwriter, videographer and creative director takes an intimate, hands-on approach to his craft with every release, painstakingly building an immersive visual and emotional experience his songs find a home in.

A self-proclaimed perfectionist, DPR IAN (real name Christian Yu) fixates on every detail of his work – which is why it’s not too surprising when he admits to NME he’s still adding the finishing touches to his debut studio album one week away from its release.

Titled ‘Moodswings In To Order’, or as the Sydney-born artist affectionately dubs it, ‘MIITO’, his first studio album is part of a much larger picture, one actualised in its accompanying two-part short film. This project is also deeply personal: It tells the tale of Mito, a character first introduced in his 2021 debut EP that personifies his experience living with bipolar disorder – a struggle DPR IAN has been vocal about for years.

“I have these manic highs and downs, but I like to just equate all of those manic episodes that I go into, dedicate it to this persona,” he shares. He’s an otherwise regular guy, “but when I’m in these episodes, I change completely. I turn a switch and become this whole new person with crazy ideas. I become very chaotic.”

“You know, if I’m going to come out as an artist, I don’t want to just come out as me. It’s kind of boring,” he adds with a dry laugh. “Not only that, but lot of my songs, I make during my manic episodes. So, it’s not me, it’s Mito that makes these songs, and I just gave him a name.”

If last year’s ‘Moodswings In This Order’ was an introduction to Mito, the singer says, the new 12-track record is about the character’s backstory. The tale of ‘MIITO’ opens with the intro track ‘Seraph’, in which Mito gives a distorted monologue: “And as you lay your grace on me / The skies begin to bleach red / And the stars begin to fall.”

“The story is a lot broader. You see the origins of how Mito actually used to be an archangel, and then he turns into, I guess, the demon that he is,” DPR IAN explains. “But it was out of pure love, and betrayal from that love.”

“I always lose myself in the moment”

In his captivating new film, the musician fights, sings, and dances through Mito’s journey, detailing every moment after his biblical fall from grace, pushing an already intense sonic experience to its limits. “Be afraid. Be very afraid,” DPR IAN says, a playful grin spreading across his face as he warns NME of what’s in store. “From the making of the music, producing it, and then obviously, directing it and being on camera, painting the whole character out – it’s definitely very exciting. I always lose myself in the moment.

“[The album] is such a body of work for me. It’s not just like, one song is the outstanding one, the title track. And therefore, we came up with the idea that it should be treated as such: We needed to have this [made] into a short film, you know, almost like a musical.” DPR IAN stepped into the role of storyteller, he says, and became a multi-hyphenate along the way. “I dance, I act, and I perform because I want to tell my story better. That’s why. Not because I want to be an actor, not because I want to be a good dancer. I want to be good at it, so it further enhances the story I tell.”

DPR IAN’s all-encompassing approach to storytelling is a culmination of myriad experiences accumulated throughout his life. Since his high school days, he has been in a hardcore metal band, been a b-boy dancer, K-pop idol and now, a soloist. At 31, he has done it all. “Well, almost all,” he jokes. “I still have to do a bit of ballet, but you know. It has been quite a journey.”

After his former group C-CLOWN disbanded in 2015, he teamed up with DPR LIVE to start their independent Dream Perfect Regime collective. Unable to appear in front of the camera until his contract with his previous agency had expired, he used the time to nurture his love for videography. “They wouldn’t let me go on media or anything for the remaining years of my contract. I had a seven-year contract, of which, during my promotions, I only filled up about four.”

“It’s funny because at that time, I resented that so much. I wanted to do music, I wanted to be my own artist. But it was humbling, because I made that time worthwhile, learning videography,” DPR IAN reflects. “Had I not done that I probably wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing now.”

“I dance, I act, and I perform because I want to tell my story better”

What are DPR IAN’s plans for Mito once his debut album is out? “At one point, I know I have to dead this character,” he says reluctantly. The singer recounts a recent conversation with a friend where they came to the conclusion that he was in a relationship of sorts with Mito.

“I don’t want to break up with that character,” DPR IAN confesses, describing Mito as his “feeling tank” before adding: “Because I honestly chase chaos. I love chaos – to myself – I don’t like to ensure it on anybody else. But I’ve always been one to feed from chaos, which is what makes my art so dark, but beautiful.”

DPR IAN’s next release will, he reveals, complete the Mito trilogy. “Mito has been this character that I’ve always held on to and sealed a lot of my personal experiences into. I want to make amends with this character, I think, and that will be the finale,” he ponders. “But the thing about me is that if I’m not genuinely ready, I have a hard time letting things go. I’m such a hoarder. That’s like, my toxic trait.”

Looking to the nearer future, the singer voices his excitement for the DPR collective’s massive Regime World Tour later this year, which has sold out most of its 33 shows at the time of NME’s conversation with him. “We didn’t know what to expect, but I guess, especially after COVID and everything – I think people need this, you know? People need to feel alive again,” he says. “I think that’s why we’re so sensitive on giving them the best show. After all those years of being stuck at home and a lot of mishaps, we want to reward them again with this experience.”

DPR IAN will be jumping straight into tour preparations after he drops the album – a hectic schedule, he acknowledges, but it’s worth it, especially when considering most of his fans have yet to see him perform as a soloist. He’s also looking forward to his fans finally receiving ‘MIITO’ and its two-part short film.

From building a vast visual universe to creating an alter-ego to reckon with his mental health, DPR Ian is owning his craft

By Taylor Glasby | July 28, 2022

How DPR Ian Went From Korean Idol to Genre-Defying Pop Star

When DPR Ian said farewell to his career in the K-pop-idol group C-Clown in late 2015, his future was vague. “Right about the time C-Clown split up, I was already invested in videography,” says Ian, who (under the name Rome) had been the leader and rapper of the moderately successful band since the summer of 2012. “It was something I wanted to use as a creative outlet to get by, but the idea of wanting to create a movement was always there. I just didn’t know what that would look like.” But he knew one thing for sure: “I wanted to craft my own thing.”

He made this a reality, creating a label called Dream Perfect Regime for himself and young, underground rappers Live, Cream, and REM, all of whom affix the label’s acronym — DPR — to their names. Ian had spent enough time in the industry to navigate such an undertaking, although K-pop’s grip on him wasn’t quite done. “When we split up, I was still under contract and the label wouldn’t let me go,” he says. “I got a lot of backlash. I was the only one who spoke out on Twitter trying to give an explanation to the fans, but a lot of people thought I was the cause of the breakup. I was furious about that, but more excited just to be doing something different.” 

Eventually, he was released from his former label and turned his focus to directing DPR’s visual concepts — from sweeping landscapes to dark, claustrophobic rooms punctuated by eye-addling lighting. He made his return as an artist in 2020 with “So Beautiful,” whose whistled refrain, string-laden verses, and falsetto chorus were firmly at odds with the dark, psychological tension of its video. It heralded DPR Ian’s shift to the music he loved while growing up in Australia as Christian Yu — from show tunes to the grandiosity of metal — and the birth of his alter ego, MITO. 

MITO was a response and manifestation of DPR Ian’s bipolar disorder, which he was diagnosed with in high school. “What MITO represents is that my good moments are always destroyed by my doubts,” he says. “So it’s a journey of trying to find that perfect story or moment, like an idea or concept or understanding of myself, and not let it be so infiltrated by my downs/MITO.”

If DPR Ian’s 2021 debut EP, Moodswings In This Order, was an exploration of his fears, highs, and lows, with MITO as his complicated, lurching omnipresent other, then his debut album, Moodswings In To Order (out tomorrow), is a deeper plunge into MITO’s whirling, clamorous existence. As an origin story and prequel that builds a universe, MITO is an angel, dragging himself out from the darkness into which he’s fallen, and soundtracked by a dozen tracks that run from trap synths (“1 Shot”) to chest-rattling electronica (“Ribbon”) to symphonic emo (“Ballroom Extravaganza”). It’s sonically and visually cinematic, and Rolling Stone sat down with DPR Ian to get to know him better and unpack one of the year’s most ambitious records. 

You use the word “movement” to describe DPR’s origins. Was that part of your thinking at the time? I don’t know if it was because of my pent-up anger of being in K-pop, and at that time there was a lot of shady stuff, but I never understood why there was nothing organic about the system where you could grow. There was also hardly any entrepreneurship in Korea; it’s looked down upon because it’s so different. People are scared to speak their mind. I figured I wanted to do something where people would look at it and be drawn to it regardless. To create a new system and a new lane for creatives and artists. 

You had a fan base keen for you to be a soloist and independent South Korean hip-hop labels, like AOMG or Feel Ghood Music, that you could have approached. Was there another reason you didn’t pursue this avenue at this time? I’m just too stubborn, I think I have too much of an ego. [Laughs.] Honestly, I didn’t want to rely on anyone other than myself. Is that vanity? I was so starved [of creative ownership].

Is another way of looking at it that you were able to build your career in a steadier space, thus able to protect yourself while figuring out who you want to be as an artist? That’s interesting, and I think you’re absolutely right. I’m such a perfectionist, and at that time I wanted to be an artist but I wanted to be something different within the system. I had to hone myself. I didn’t want to be a famous director, but it was the tools I needed to build a bigger picture.

Your musical inspirations sound like they’re colliding like atoms on this album. Why are you compelled to explore and meld so many sounds into one project? I now understand that since I was a kid everything that was fed into me, everything that blew me away, has stuck with me ever since. Once something gets my attention, I just go down that rabbit hole. It’s never just a phase. My friends joke and call me a “hoarder.” I don’t let go of things that make a big impact in terms of how I feel.

Were you writing music for yourself during those early years of DPR? I dabbled here and there but always had a keen interest in making music. I just hadn’t taken on that role seriously until about 2018 to 2019.

You have many names — Rome, Ba-Rom [his Korean name], Christian Yu, and DPR IAN. Which do you identify with most? Each represents a different time in my life. Change is a big thing for me, and all my life I’ve always been moving places. In Grade 8, my mum sent me to Vanuatu for a missionary [trip], and from then, whenever there’s been a transition, I’ve given myself a persona, a new name. Maybe it’s a coping mechanism. At this time, it’s Ian who I identify with most, but who knows how this will change?

Can you summarize the storyline of this album? In this universe, there’s a core character called Mr. Insanity (who has a dedicated album track) and he’s just wackadoodle, you know? He’s literally going insane, but it’s funny because I think insanity brings order. He made all the forms and the stories — which include the ones on my last EP — in the image of himself, in the hope of finding some sanity. His first creation was MITO, who was meant to represent his pure innocence, which is why he was in the form of an angel. MITO was jealous of all the other creations, and felt he was the only one who deserved love. Mr. Insanity saw that darkness and banished him, so MITO felt betrayed and resented everything that Mr. Insanity was — and vowed to infest his every creation. He wants to be the main character.

Is this record’s concept of creation and fallen angels a direct reflection or response to your upbringing? I was put into Catholic school, I was put into a Christian missionary, and when I came out of that I spent a few moments with a couple of Scientologists. My aunt’s a devoted Buddhist so I went to temple as well. I was [theologically] scattered. But a common theme was the existence of a superbeing. Where a lot of this album’s context comes from is, for me, having bipolar[ity] — when I’m always in that manic state, it propels me to seek that higher being. It used to be because I didn’t know how to deal with that, it was too heavy; but it’s not that it gave me a sense of peace, it was just a thing that played on my mind. 

The opening track, “Seraph,” contains the lyrics “The skies begin to bleach red/And the stars begin to fall/I feel myself changing/As my world starts dividing.” How does this relate to your mental health? When I talk about the world dividing, it’s me going into that [bipolar] state, that’s what it feels like. It’s also the descent of the seraph, an archangel; it’s his last conversation with his god as he sets his wings on fire. In those moments when my world starts splitting, it’s a question from me as to why it always has to be like this. But MITO is asking the god that created this universe — Mr. Insanity — “Why?” He’s recalling the last moments before he became the dark soul that he is. It was through love that he felt betrayed. The reason why this [album’s color] is red is that I’m trying to do a three-part series. The EP, the first part, was black; this, the middle, is red, which is associated with love and fury; and eventually it’ll be a white album, a backwards working of the angel descending.

MITO went from being yours alone to being part of the public imagination. Do you feel more or less connected to him as an entity within? Because he wasn’t so out there, it felt more personal. Once the EP came out, I saw the reaction from fans and, yeah, it’s a raw personal thing still. But he does feel like he belongs more to the world now.

Does that give you more creative freedom because he’s not so intrinsically tied to every experience and emotion? I’m so based on being authentic to how I feel. Like, if I write a song for 30 minutes and come out of it, I can’t ever go back, so this is a good way for me to let go of certain aspects creatively. Giving him to the world gave me more leeway in terms of how crazy I can make this, and that’s why it started spiraling! I don’t know how I’m going to top this, I’m scared! [Laughs.]

You’ve created ongoing thematic cues in all your videos — a lot of physicality, empty landscapes, dark-light contrasts, glitchy effects — where do these originate? It always comes from pent-up emotion. I keep saying that I’m a hoarder, but, for example, I still remember watching Cats when it came to Australia, when I was like six or seven, and the theatrical aspect of it, the movement, the personas, that all stuck with me and built from there. I’ve been on a journey to find a way to reflect all that I’ve seen, but everything I do has to have context and storytelling — it’s not the part where something blows up, it’s the buildup that hits me more. My storytelling is dark and theatrical but, I think, beautiful at the same time. I can’t put a butterfly in it without putting fire on the wings, you know? Something has to be perfectly constructed, then destroyed. The making of someone, then the breaking of them.

There’s a love story running through this album, but is this MITO’s or yours or both intertwined? I based the concept on self-identity and trying to understand where self-love comes from but also on my relationships and what love does to others, especially when I’m in my manic state. Through my relationships and breakups, I’ve learned a lot about myself, and, yeah, it really does inspire a lot of the darkness.

Like on “Miss Understood,” it’s a character’s diary entry where she fell in love with Ian but she kinda fell in love with MITO, too. It comes from personal experience; I want to date when I’m Ian, but there was one moment where she liked the darkness in me, which was weird because it’s like, “You don’t really know what this brings.” But she stuck around, and it was hard to be me in front of her. There was a sense of inferiority, for sure, because I know how different I am between my states, but also I was very cautious not to give my all in that [down] state because I’m not wanting to hurt someone mentally. So I’d just seclude myself. A lot of the songs in this album hit on this note.

You’ve mentioned that you’d hyperfocus on one thing, which meant other parts of your life became very secondary. Has that changed, have you begun to strike a balance? For a lot of people when they wake up, their first thought wouldn’t be “How do I distract myself from how I feel?” but that’s my whole life. I understand it’s a coping mechanism, but as time goes on, the bigger the concept needs to be for me to be distracted. It’s part of the reason why I don’t know what I want [in life]. I’ve realized I’m so obsessed with creating that I lose sense of everything else. It’s draining, and I need to find balance. If I don’t, even forcefully, it’ll be very self-destructive. I don’t think I can do it right now as it’d come from a sense of changing my purpose, and that factors in fear — my creation is my whole identity, and once I stop I’m going to get this identity crisis, and that’s what I’m scared of.

The Sydney-born musical rebel breaks down the duality of his music (and himself) in the wake of his latest album’s release. 

By Tanu I. Raj | August 23, 2022 - 9:17AM

Alexandre Cabanel’s Fallen Angel shows the titular angel cowering away from someone. He lies on the ground, naked—as if just having been struck down—one hand straining to support himself against jagged rock. Part of his arm covers his face, as if to hide the shame of being ostracized, but just beyond, his face betrays him. In his red-rimmed eyes remains nothing of the ethereal kindness and love that humans usually associate with angels. His eyebrows are drawn and focused; his intense gaze unleashes a dark anger, but a single tear drop clues us into his pain and humiliation. He’s hurting and furious, but also resolute: this is the last time he’ll ever shed tears over his fate.

DPR IAN—born Christian Yu in Sydney—feels a compelling affinity to this angel fallen from grace.

“That [painting] is one of the actual images that was one of my inspirations for this whole series,” he says of his latest album, Moodswings In To Order, a few days after its release. Despite the album finally being out, there is more work to be done. A DPR IAN creation doesn’t stop at the release date—the world he’s built demands intricate stories and immersive visuals, all of which he painstakingly creates, frame by frame, editing in his studio. He’s spent the entire weekend pouring over shots and sequences, and sometimes, when the tally of the hours put in runs high, sanity runs low. He often tells himself to not go insane—there, you now know just how applicable the track is to his own life.

Clad in a comfortable grey hoodie, his dog—his most trusted editing companion—on his lap, Ian is drawing parallels between his “manic downs and ups” and Cabanel’s Fallen Angel.

“What’s really funny is that before I even solidified this whole story, I told my friend—by the way, my friend was very religious—about my whole rollout of what I go through. She was the one who pointed out that it is very similar to the biblical story,” he recalls.

While he’d never started out thinking of his bipolar diagnosis in this context, it brought welcome clarity in understanding his own mind. Ian didn’t grow up subscribing to any particular religious order, but he found that something about the idea of plunging into the murky depths of chaos and despair from the high heavens paralleled his own swings. “Being manic… it really takes [you] to the extreme highs and the extreme lows,” he says. “When I was at my extreme highs, I felt like I was on top of the world. In some sense I felt like playing God. But when [I was] in [my] extreme lows, it felt as if I was honing in on something very dark.”

In that darkness dwells the persona MITO: created from the lows of Ian’s bipolar disorder, the other half of a “toxic relationship” he’s still trying to figure out. His rampage was first introduced on Ian’s 2021 EP Moodswings In This Order, where Ian’s musical inspirations merged with MITO’s destructive touch, resulting in an album bookended with poignant introspections. But where Moodswings In This Order presented a tamer, perhaps resigned MITO, the one on Moodswings In To Order is an uncontrolled being of chaos. Here, he is Cabanel’s fallen angel, reeling from having his life wrenched away from him and wreaking havoc on everything to deal with the pain, confusion, and humiliation of being denied what he perceives rightfully his.

Ian sets this up through pointed exchanges between MITO and his maker, Mr. Insanity. As the latter’s first and purest creation—perhaps even as the closest replica of him—MITO craves Mr. Insanity’s love to a possessive degree, to the point where sharing his affection is an insult. MITO’s greed, however, gets him cast out of Mr. Insanity’s world and into despair. Deprived of the love he felt entitled to, blood boiling and skin prickling from the betrayal, he vows to infect all other creations, all the while Mr. Insanity—much like Ian, sometimes—watches on helplessly.

That’s where it gets beautifully complex—one realizes that much like MITO, Mr. Insanity is also an extension of Ian trying desperately to contain and understand another part of himself.

“I've always had MITO. I've created this monster from my downs, this super-being. But I've never really created a super-being for my highs,” Ian says. At first, he thought that this ‘super-being’ would just be himself, but the raw power of MITO demanded an equally potent contradiction—Mr. Insanity.

“I've manifested so much power into this one creation [MITO] that ultimately, it was playing a huge role on my actual state,” he explains. “This time around, I wanted to create this identity for my highs because it only felt fitting. In my eyes, that's the reflection of reality – it is not someone calm, not someone reserved. It’s more insanity.”

Had Ian stuck to his usual path things would have looked very different for MITO. Before he became a founding member of Dream Perfect Regime or DPR, an independent collective that emerged as an outlier in the K-pop landscape by taking complete control of their artistry, Ian himself was part of that industry. Although, he says, the plan hadn’t always been to go down the idol route. He’d left Australia for South Korea for a completely different reason.

“It wasn't like I went to South Korea wanting to become a K-pop idol,” he says. “I went to Korea just because I really wanted to get out of my shell. When I was in Australia, I felt like I was caged in, and I wanted to feel and see something new.” Ironically, he soon realized that he’d perhaps traded one cage for another—in 2012, Ian debuted as a member of the K-pop group C-Clown. Although the group disbanded after three years, the experience left deep scars, in no small part due to the resistance he faced from his company while trying to part ways with them. While his bipolar diagnosis—which he’d received in high school—had been manageable for the most part, the gruelling demands of idol life and limited avenues for help made it worse.

“Once I started the whole idol and training life, it definitely hit a curb where it got extremely bad.” he says, before admitting that social stigma against mental health issues kept him from seeking out help. “I didn't know what type of stigma my career had about mental disorders. I didn't really know what to expect. I kept it quiet. I really did.”

“There were a lot of times where I would go into these episodes and run away, actually. That would be my only way of dealing with it.” he says. Even if he did want to talk about it with his fellow members, he learned very quickly that few would understand. He doesn’t blame them for it, however: “Being as young as they were, it really wasn't a conversation that could have been had.”

Despite this, he says, he doesn’t have any regrets about his time in the K-pop system. While DPR gave him the freedom to exercise his creative muscles and create something of his own, he credits his time with C-Clown for cementing his foundations and ethics—although he will think twice about going back.

“As sad as it is, it's like: ‘if I can take that, I can take anything.’” he says. “I went into DPR with the mindset: ‘Nothing can bring me down, because I went through hell. How bad can it get?’”

“Korea matures people a lot faster, just because of the social experiences that people go through in a very short amount of time. I think that's what really happened to me when I was in C-Clown. I aged significantly, but my years of experience was cut down into just this role where now I can take this and I can now really run with what I really wanted to do.”

Since its foundation, DPR has grown into a malleable, exciting artistic collective under DPR IAN, DPR REM, and DPR LIVE. From music to polishing the final product, to figuring out the nitty-gritty of the business, everything is done in-house, only without the caveats of your usual K-pop agency. While roles often shift and overlap—Ian himself goes from director to actor to singer to editor—what DPR eventually boils down to is being able to make the kind of music they want to. A few years ago, they might have been relegated to the fringes of a label-driven K-pop industry, but a series of high-profile collaborations have put DPR at the nexus of a novel approach.

While Ian does acknowledge the strides they’ve made, he’s also aware of the unique set of challenges it comes with: “K-pop has a very definite image of what it's meant to be. So, I'm an Asian artist, and I'm trying to break into the scene with something that doesn't sound anything like [K-pop], but it's that association people will see. With independent artists that want to create their own lanes, it's more of a challenge of ‘Okay, how do I let people know that there are much cooler things that we can do other than K-pop?’”

That’s not the only question he’s trying to figure out answers to—we still have raging, rampaging MITO. There’s at least one more album in MITO’s story, but what happens after? In his own words, he’s in a “toxic relationship” with MITO—scared of the impact the character has on his fundamental markup, but “insecure” about letting go of him. It’s the classic ‘tortured artist’ dilemma—once something beautiful comes out of a personal, emotional wreckage, you start wondering if that’s the only avenue for creativity.

“I think I was very insecure about losing that side of me,” he admits. “I always say I keep chasing chaos and welcoming these dark aspects. I think the reason MITO was created was because it was the first time I tapped into my manic downs. That was the first time I saw power in what I can do when I'm in my downs, as chaotic as that is.”

Soon, however, the implication of whether he could create something just as, if not more beautiful, outside of that silo started weighing on him: “I think I became very dependent on [my downs]. I see the danger in that too, because you're chasing it at that point.”

It’s taken a long time for him to break out of the pattern, to establish a dialogue with himself where his creations no longer hinge on MITO being ever-present and wrenching one emotion after the other out of him. Poetically, almost, here is Mr. Insanity trying to come to terms with the damage his first creation could inflict on everything else. He knows—of his own volition and thanks to the sound judgment of friends around him—that he has to let go eventually.

“I'm definitely like a hoarder, but I'm not going to try hoarding this character, which is why I think I'm trying to get a trilogy,” he says. “I'm trying to break up with this character, but at the same time, because it's become such an extension of what I think is me, it's gonna be very hard to move on.”

But, who knows? He might have something new to focus on down the line: “I can't predict how I’m going to feel in the next two years. I'm sure something's always going to be happening to me, but I think I'll just have to find new ways to associate things.”

DPR Ian On Music, Inspiration And His First Performance In Hong Kong

The only way this Australian musician is headed is up by Kay Tse | 9 May 2023

DPR Ian has captured the hearts of fans across the globe with his avant-garde music and enigmatic style. Co-founder of his label DREAM PERFECT REGIME (DPR), he took part in producing the soundtrack for the Marvel Film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and recently flaunted his musical talents at Coachella. Together with DPR Live, he took the stage at the outdoor music festival “Viva Paradise: After the Apocalypse”, which marked his first performance in Hong Kong. In an exclusive with Vogue Man Hong Kong, DPR Ian talks about what inspires him and his experiences in our city.

How does it feel to perform in Hong Kong for the first time?

It feels amazing! I always wanted to perform in Hong Kong. I grew up in Australia, and my best friend is from Hong Kong. He took me to a lot of Hong Kong restaurants to eat, so I knew a lot about Hong Kong and always wanted to come. 

As for my first time performing here — I didn’t know there were that many supporters in Hong Kong, so it was really surprising when I went on stage and saw the crowd screaming. It was lovely and very welcoming. I loved it. 

What do you want to try during your time in Hong Kong?

For me, Hong Kong is a very special place because it is one of the first places that I visited from Australia. I’ve always wanted to explore more, but I’m always on a tight schedule. So next time I come, I just want to explore by myself.

Having performed at Coachella earlier this year, you are stepping into the global limelight. How did it feel to receive this recognition from the audience? 

It was our first time ever performing on a world stage, and we just wanted to show everyone who we were. I heard that Coachella would be a tough crowd as not all your fans are going to be there, but we wanted to go into it with the attitude of “let’s show them everything”. 

It’s kind of like Hong Kong. We didn’t know what to expect, but when we went on stage, people loved it. 

What inspires you? 

I am inspired by everything. I love watching everything that happens to me on a daily basis. When I wake up, I like to go out and do something different. If I come to Hong Kong, for example, I would wake up, walk outside by myself and just look around while listening to music. When I go back to my studio, I picture somebody, like a character, and imagine a scene and put a story to it. 

Did anything about Hong Kong inspire you? 

I love the old films they make in Hong Kong. There is a very specific look that Hong Kong has, especially during the night —there is a neon-based, retro colour that only comes from Hong Kong. Buildings are almost post-apocalyptic, but it is so beautiful. There is a magic that is unique to Hong Kong. Hong Kong is two words: it is like a fever dream and it is also romantic.

How would you describe your style? What are your favourite items?

It is very edgy. I love tattoos — I see myself as a canvas, and I love to paint on it. I also like instruments – guitar and bass – anything that is a medium for art is central to my identity. And motorbikes! 

Translated by Kaitlyn Lai

DPR Ian and the DPR Crew Are Building a Music Industry Blueprint

The musician, part of the DPR crew, opens up about his journey from K-pop star to indie visionary.

By Natasha Mulenga April 23, 2021

Whether it’s through singing or directing, DPR Ian has a way of arresting your attention.

The Korean-Australian musician, whose real name is Christian Yu, is the latest emerging star from the DPR crew (Dream Perfect Regime), a collection of artists and visionaries who are in charge of their own business, music, and visual art. DPR Ian, Live, Cream, and REM have made a name for themselves outside of the traditional structure of an entertainment company. By doing it all themselves, they’ve laid out a blueprint for what an independent label can look like in the Korean music industry.

In March, DPR Ian released his first solo album Moodswings In This Order, a sonic embodiment of the phrase that art is not meant to look nice, it’s meant to make you feel something. That’s what DPR Ian has always strived for, from his childhood desire to capture the magic of watching the musical Cats, to being in a heavy metal band in middle school, to his desire to make it in Korea that led him to become part of the idol group C-Clown for three years. Now, he’s an artist and music business architect who can make listeners feel like they’ve entered into another dimension.

On Moodswings, DPR Ian takes fans on a unique journey through a character named “Mito,” who embodies his reflections on his bipolar disorder. Through Mito, listeners are exposed to “the beauty in the darkness” as DPR Ian paints a portrait of introspection, heartbreak, and a world where blueberries and ice cream shouldn’t mix.

Teen Vogue spoke with DPR Ian and DPR Rem over Zoom from their studio in Seoul to talk about building DPR, working with CL, and breaking boundaries in the music industry.

Teen Vogue: What was it like for you growing up in Australia?

DPR Ian: I had a very bright childhood. My parents were separated when I was younger, and I was raised by my mom. [At one point] I moved to the countryside where I was literally the only Asian. But you know, it was pleasant. I went to a performing arts school, and I was in a heavy metal band.

TV: What was it called?

DPR Ian: Um.

DPR REM: Do you want to give that away?

DPR Ian: I want to keep that a secret.

TV: Is it because there are clips on YouTube that I might be able to find?

DPR Ian: Ahhh possibly. It's just middle school stuff. I played the drums, I was this hardcore metal kid. Back in middle school, we used to go to the local youth centers, jam out in friends' garages and stuff like that. Used to go to the beach a lot, surf a lot. So I was pretty much a free spirit. I had a huge interest in art. All the time. I had to express, I always had to express. As I was hitting puberty, I had mood swings. And I just thought it was this whole puberty thing for everyone. But mine was a little bit more, I guess, manic.

That's how I found out I had bipolar [disorder]. During high school, the last year examinations where you go into uni and college and all that — that’s when I [felt it the most]. I did manage to get into university, for science. I don't know how that happened. But I just felt like I was trapped. I felt like I needed to really push my boundaries. My mom was like, if you go to uni, she'll let me go to Korea. I only went for a year, saved up all my money.

TV: What inspired you creatively when you were growing up?

DPR Ian: My mom took me to musicals. I got inspired by just feeling a lot of things, you know? The first musical I ever watched when I was in Australia was Cats, the original. That blew me away. A lot of circuses were going around towns in Australia at that time, and I'd go to those too. The clowns were trying to make you laugh, and seeing that as a kid you're not really mature enough to dissect what everything means. And after I watched that first musical, the first thought I had was, "Wow I really want to share what I feel to somebody.” I went to school the next day and was trying to, like, communicate what I saw, and how I felt… it's almost impossible to translate it directly to somebody, especially to somebody that doesn't have context of what you [experienced]. So I started unconsciously trying to find something to replicate that feeling, I let some of the friends listen to a lot of songs I was listening to back then, which was old pop like the Bee Gees and ABBA. When you're in primary school, they make fun of you, you know?

TV: It's not the coolest thing in the world.

DPR Ian: That was my first "aha moment." I just have to find ways to kind of introduce [what I like] in a light where they would understand the context and where they would feel what I felt.

TV: What drew you to Korea to make music, rather than staying in Australia?

DPR Ian: I fell in love with music. Because of that, I fell in love with dancing. And at that period in Korea, [dance] was essentially blooming, because of B-boying. You Got Served and all that.

TV: Yeah, which I have on DVD.

DPR Ian: All right, exactly. Hey, awesome. So [in addition to that], I specifically went to Korea not only because I was of Korean descent, but… Australia is an amazing country, but it definitely is very laid back. I'm sure you've heard a lot of times, Australians are very chill. In Korea everything's high speed. They say “ppalli ppalli (빨리 빨리)” which means “hurry hurry.” And you know, especially with the whole blooming of K-pop, it's something that you can't really deny, it's definitely become the attention of the world in some aspects.

TV: You started in an idol group, as part of C-Clown, which debuted in 2012 and disbanded in 2015. How did you and DPR REM meet? How did we get from there to where you are now?

DPR Ian: I think it was right around that time when my group was disbanding that I met him through a mutual friend. He was like, “Why is this guy so nice?” You know, cuz he's from New York and I'm from Australia. In the beginning, he was like, “This guy can't be this happy all the time.” But at the end of the day, he felt it was legit.

DPR REM: We were both going through like critical moments in our personal lives. I literally didn't know anybody in Korea, it was my first year, and I'm coming right out of college. So I didn't even know how to speak the language that well. And so whenever I heard someone talking English, I would automatically just gravitate towards them. He was coming out of a point where he was kind of sick of the music industry he'd been exposed to for the past couple years. He wanted to completely change a lot of the stuff that he felt like he could do better by himself. That's how we bonded.

TV: What disillusioned you about the industry?

DPR Ian: I'm sure you've heard of it. But Korea has these “slave contracts.” The earlier the generation of K-pop idols, obviously the more prominent the contracts were at that period of time. I debuted in 2012. My company was one of the major companies that held that old generation attitude towards their artists. You hear all the time about artists suing their companies. But I was unfortunate to be a part of that type of experience. What I went through was pretty traumatic. Everything was happening so fast that I couldn't stop to process what was happening. It was almost like, I can't believe this is how we're getting treated, and it was pretty tough because I was held under a contract.

TV: Right.

DPR Ian: So because of that I had a pretty hard time just even leaving the company. Now, a lot more people are educated about what the idol life is, they're glorified. It's all like flowers and rainbows.

DPR REM: But this is like six years ago, a different time.

DPR Ian: Worse at that time.

DPR REM: That’s what fused us to be us in the biggest sense. I've heard a lot of the stories personally, and I've also had a lot of friends that were part of groups or have been in that experience. I think what we're doing right now is so essential. Because we're kind of making the blueprint as we go. But at the same time, my goal is to show kids in the next generation and whatnot, even in our generation right now, that you don't have to go that route. If you had to get one point out of DPR it's, "Oh, who are these kids? Oh, they're friends. Oh, they do a business together. Oh, they're making dope music in the business. Maybe I could do that with my friends." In Korea, before we kind of really proactively got bigger and whatever, that wasn't a sound concept.

DPR Ian: Especially if you’re not that known… [there’s] BTS and BLACKPINK, but what people don't understand is there’s like 500 other groups behind that. Every week now a new group comes out. And these groups, they don't get noticed. But they get treated in a way where if something happens, they can't sue the company, because they'll be sure to lose. And they'll be at loss because of the lawyer fees and everything. It just becomes a case that is swept under the rug. It's a systematic problem. I think it's getting better, because all these movements that speak out now. I mean, during that period in time, there was nothing like that. I just had such a huge problem with the system.

DPR REM: [Imagine] if no one had a reference point of if you wanted to do something, you had to go through a system that everyone else goes through — be on broadcasting stations, go on shows, go through an elite number of auditions for a company. What DPR was trying to do for the culture here was essentially show you don't need to go through that type of system to come out on top after all of this, and I think that's what we also pride ourselves on. We were shooting videos for like $200, $500 … We just kept pushing, pushing and pushing and pushing and saving and saving. We made so many mistakes, we had to compromise so many times. [But] it's to yourself. It’s the whole DIY mentality.

TV: So how do you work as a collective? Whether it’s choosing singles or working on a DPR member’s solo work. How do you choose which songs get a music video, like “No Blueberries” and “Scaredy Cat”?

DPR REM: We do that pretty much as a team. Not just Ian's, but any other member that's putting out music within us, we always are together in the studio. So when a demo's pretty much done, and, you know, like, it could be Ian. it could be LIVE, it could be anybody, like, they play it for everybody. We kind of gauge "Oh, this could be a cool single, or this should be more of like a backing track on an album project.” We stick to that, like, family culture, and we just kind of have everything go with the flow of it. We're listening to everybody's opinions.”

TV: You’ve also directed music videos for Taeyang and iKon’s Bobby. If there were any three music videos in the history of music that you wish you could have directed, which three would they be?

DPR Ian: Oh, wow. Number one would be Electric Light Orchestra, “Diary Of Horace Wimp.” Second would be from Daft Punk, “Digital Love.” The third song is also Daft Punk, “Something About Us.”

TV: “No Blueberries” is the collaboration with CL on Moodswings. She's also in the “So Beautiful” video, you're in her “Five Star” video. How did these two worlds come together?

DPR Ian: When I was prepping for the album, she and her team hit us up. At first I thought she wanted me to feature on a song. And, you know, at the time, I [hadn’t] put out any songs. So it was very, like, okay, that’s interesting. I had a couple of videos on my Instagram of me making songs, and I guess that's what she gathered. Originally, I was actually meant to be a feature, singing on “Five Stars,” but due to some circumstances, we felt a lot better [just doing the video]. And then this whole idea started blooming when I was like, "Hey, I'm in the midst of my album too, it would be cool [if you joined].” It just expanded.

TV: What was the hardest song to write or record?

DPR Ian: I think it would have to be “Welcome to the Show.” Specifically, because that song, I had to be in my downs to be able to make that song. So once I came out of my down, I couldn't continue it. I had to wait until I dipped again. Because it's such a personal song that I could only make specifically when I was feeling some type of way.

TV: The album begins with the track “MITO,” and Mito is also a character you’ve created. Who is Mito? What does he mean to you?

DPR Ian: For the longest time, I've felt, I had a need to fix [my bipolar disorder], which is kind of funny, because it is me at the end of day. When I go "down,” it feels like I completely lose all emotions first. It's not even depression, it’s just I completely lose a sense of everything. I wake up one day and everything feels very unfamiliar. My friends don’t feel like my friends. I just go completely blank. I've always dreaded that feeling. It's kind of like rolling your eyes, you know, you start really high and then you plummet and then you're back on top again, and it just keeps going. I did a lot of things when I was in that state where… I wish I could have maybe taken back the things I said to my mom. That's why I labeled it as somebody else for the longest time.