DPR IAN

Australian-Korean musician DPR IAN merges R&B, hip-hop, and electronic sounds as part of the multimedia collective DPR, or Dream Perfect Regime. After emerging in the early 2010s inside the K-pop boy band C-Clown, he later turned toward solo material that first surfaced in 2020 on the relaxed track “No Blueberries,” included on his opening EP, Moodswings in This Order, released in 2021. A follow-up full-length, Moodswings in to Order, reached stores in 2022, and the second EP, Dear Insanity, arrived the following year.

Born Yu Ba-Rom in Sydney and also known professionally as Christian Yu, the singer and songwriter initially gained attention performing as Rome inside the short-lived C-Clown. Once that group dissolved in 2015, Yu shifted focus to the Seoul-based DPR, a cross-genre music and video outfit he formed alongside DPR Cream, DPR Live, and DPR Rem. While directing and editing projects for the collective, he also began releasing his own recordings. In 2020 he joined DPR Live and CL on the successful single “No Blueberries,” which appeared on his debut EP, Moodswings in This Order. For the project Yu embodied his inner conflicts through the character “Mito,” recasting mental struggles as superpowers. The set entered the U.S. Heatseekers chart at number five. In July 2022 he issued his first full-length album, Moodswings in to Order, which climbed to number 30 on the Gaon Album chart and entered the Billboard 200. The 2023 single “Peanut Butter & Tears” set the stage for his second EP, Dear Insanity.