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fyeahdprian · 25 days ago

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[Interview] Interview with Thilda Riou

thilda @thildariou Here’s an English translation of the interview for non-French dreamers ✨hope you'll like it!! 🫶 12:09 PM · Nov 30, 2024

+ another pic of me with Christian for memories 🤭 I actually have this short list of artists I dream to interview - he’s on it, can’t believe I made it 🥺 💗 12:11 PM · Nov 30, 2024

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"MITO", lucid dreams, new album: we interviewed DPR IAN in Paris

A few days after rocking the stage at the Zénith de Paris, DPR IAN spoke to Konbini in an exclusive interview.

Diving into the world of DPR IAN could be compared to Alice's fall into Wonderland. One moment of curiosity, and you find yourself in an extraordinary world, where music and visual arts merge into a whirlwind of fantasy. The Australian artist, also known as Christian Yu, shares his innermost thoughts with us, exploring the depths of his bipolar disorder and DID. A vulnerable artistic approach that shows how mental health can be a true source of creativity.

It wasn't until 2021, however, with the release of his debut EP Moodswings in This Order, that we got to know DPRIAN as a solo artist. Six years after co-founding DPR (Dream Perfect Regime) in Seoul, where he first took on the role of creative director, the singer revealed the first chapter of his journey. From pop to R&B, electro to rock, he started to build his own unique musical identity, shaping a complex story worthy of the big screen.

A few days after his incredible show at the Zenith de Paris, DPR IAN answered our questions. He tells us about the first song he wrote with MITO in mind, shares his lucid dreams and opens up about his next album.

You've had quite an interesting journey in the music industry: heavy metal band drummer, b-boy YouTuber, K-pop idol, video director, editor.. And in 2021, you released your first EP, Moodswings in This Order. What made you decide that it was the right time to tell your own story?

For me, I'll be honest, I don't really like being too much in the spotlight. I felt like I was much better behind [the scenes], like making DPR LIVE was more freeing for me. So when I decided to become an artist, it was a big decision. I wondered if the message I wanted to give as an artist would outweigh the challenges. Because, I have a disorder, but I knew that if I gave it a name, like MITO, it would be giving it more power. So I had to really sit back and think: 'What can this do for DPR?' If it was just for me, I wouldn't have done it to be honest. Because I know there are more challenges for me ahead… Actually, I always disassociate myself when I'm on stage. Even on a show day, I'm a very different person. If I don't disconnect myself from that person.. It's totally different. I don't like being on stage too much, just me personally. [Laughs]

So it's like you take on this character to go on stage.

Yes. When you see DPR IAN performing, you're already in his kind of realm. But as for me Christian, it's such a different outlook. If you'd ask me to dance now, I could never do that. [Laughs] But I always thought that DPR LIVE and DPR IAN are a big package because of the universe that we create. So I thought: 'Okay, this is the right move right now to further extend DPR's image in this industry'. I didn't know any other team that was creating their own multiverses and that were independent. Kind of like what Marvel does with the MCU, I wanted to do that for DPR. I wanted people to not only look forward to what songs their favorite artist are going to come out with, I wanted them to also look forward to what the story's going to be.

I think you really succeeded on doing that! There are so many layers in your art…

Thank you, that means a lot. I think nowadays, people want layers. There are too many things that are too stimulating and too fast, right? Like, you see on TikTok, the attention span is just for a few seconds. I wanted to create something that was everlasting. That's why I don't think we've ever once changed the way we do things.

You've been very open about the fact that your art is based on your bipolar disorder and DID. And that MITO - the first character you introduced - represents your manic lows. Do you remember the first time you created music with MITO in mind?

I made a few songs actually, but one was called 'The Called'. In Christian literature, they have something called 'The Called' where they have people who are specifically chosen, maybe by the angels or the gods, as like the messengers that carry out God's work. I've always thought that MITO was just an extension of me, but that it wasn't a part of me. The funny thing is, MITO is a character that is my first creation, but this alter ego has nothing to do with me. I have no relation, no similarities with him. I don't understand MITO, as much as MITO doesn't understand me. So when I first made that song, it felt like MITO was being the one that was called to come and spread the message through me. I based a lot of the songs on that. Obviously, I couldn't tell people because it sounded too crazy. But there was 'The Called', and another song that we all know from Moodswings in This Order: 'MITO'. That was the sound that felt like him coming to life.

But you didn't release 'The Called'. Why?

I don't know, it just didn't feel like it belonged in that album. The first song on the album, 'MITO', had a lot more layers. It felt like there was something unfolding. But 'The Called' was actually nothing like that. It felt more aggressive, like someone on a mission. It was more like trap [music]. The lyrics were: 'I know what you are, and it tears you apart'. Because it was a reveal of who I kind of thought MITO was. And: "Your wings were never called', so he wasn't called but I was called upon. It was a song that had a lot of emotion in it, it was the first time I was revealing MITO. So it felt like exposure, like he was being called out. But then I though that was just my perspective and my feeling of what I thought of MITO, but it wasn"t MITO himself. It was just through my eyes.

With each of your releases, we discover a bit more about the whole universe you created! There are so many details and hidden clues that it feels like everything has been really well thought-out in advance. Has the whole lore been scripted since the beginning? Or did you leave some room to add up to the story as you go?

The frame has always been there from the beginning. But how the frame develops along the way, there are little differences here and there. For me, because it's based on something personal, the story will only make sense if it's a personal journey that I'm going through. MITO is a character that represents the dark and the very challenging sides I face in life. However, the ending of that should be that I overcome the darkness and go into the light. But if I don't manifest that from the start, then my journey is already ruined. It doesn't matter how you go there, as long as you get there, so that's why we leave this part open. For our universe, we have to go through it for it to happen. It's kind of like you're watching the journey in real time, but obviously conceptualized and more fantasized.

That's what's also beautiful. But at the same time, you have to keep up with the things you already revealed to make sure there aren't things that don't add up.

Yeah, that's the trick. That's why I think it's always key to have a bigger vision goal. You know like when you play a game, you have main quests and side quests. I could make so many side quests, but as long as we have a nice way to go back into the main quest, easy.

That's a good way to see it!

Yeah, if you think of it like an RPG game. (Laughs) It's like: 'Oh my god, I have 500 optional side quests. When am I ever going to get back to the main quest?' But they just keep giving me more side quests. [Laughs)

But you eventually make your way! [Laughs]

Yeah, and then you forget what the main quest was. But it's fun, right? It keeps you occupied, it keeps you interesting. It introduces more characters. That's my philosophy in terms of how I go about the structure of the story.

The second character you introduced to the lore was Mr. Insanity, who is always surrounded by butterflies. Can you tell me a little bit about what butterflies represent to you and Mr. Insanity?

Butterflies have always been a definition of freedom and beauty. They always appear in front of Insanity at most random times, but it's actually not random. They appear when Insanity has a switch of emotions. Because for me, I need something to remind me that I have to ground myself. I had to give a conceptualized idea of that, which was a butterfly for Insanity. When he sees a butterfly, it reminds him of where he came from. He comes from very hard and ugly beginnings. But, you know how caterpillars, they molt into cocoons and they transform? Molting is a very ugly but necessary transformation for you to become yourself. So, butterflies come out to remind him he's still on that molting journey. Actually, the whole butterfly has its own lore. We have a whole music video that we never released yet. It talks about the butterfly people… They are a tribe in The Other Side.

Really? That's so interesting!

This is before Insanity became Insanity. He stumbles upon this village where they worship the butterfly god… It's quite an extensive story, and he finds this elixir that comes from the butterfly worms sap, or goo. These people, if they don't drink it, they'll change into butterflies. So they keep themselves from molting. That's where Insanity also gets one of his powers from that.

In Dear Insanity…, IAN goes to The Other Side through his dreams. Do you have some kind of recurring themes or patterns in your dreams?

Yeah, I feel like I've always had patterns. First of all, I never know the people that I meet in my dreams, but in my dreams it feels like I always know them. I lucid dream maybe five days per week. I actually have been lucid dreaming since I was a kid in elementary school. And I always have the freedom to walk around these landmarks. It's like a huge map: different sections, different lands. But there's always one area that I can never go to. One of the places I go to quite regularly - I always go there with a group, like an expedition: it's a huge, huge cliff. The cliff houses many people, like a village. And there are huge waves that are crashing on this huge gigantic cliff. It's kind of like people are living on the edge. People carve their houses into the rocks. The waves are always coming in regularly every one or two minutes. So, I always end up at this gate. This village is the gateway between a gigantic land, like a volcano. Very far. But there's a bridge that goes to that volcano. Over the volcano, there's a huge ring, like Saturn. And on that ring, there are villages.

On the ring? I love the image.

You can imagine how big, gigantic it is! But the only way you can get there is if you time the coming of the waves. Because when you open the gate, you're now vulnerable to the waves coming. If you get hit, you get taken away. But from this end to the next gate is almost like a 10- minute run, and the wave comes every two minutes… I came very close once. But every single time I almost reach there, I get taken away and I wake up. So that's the only place I could never break into.

Not only do you act in your music videos, but you also direct and edit them yourself! How do you juggle between being an actor and a director when you are on set?

I think I'm still trying to learn, it's a very tough job. There are pros and cons. You know what you want because you're your own director and actor. But the problem is: how good of an actor are you to get to the level of what your director side would want? So sometimes, I'm not as good of an actor as I am a director. This is the problem, I think.

I think you're doing such a great job as an actor, though.

Thank you. An another pro: I get to choose my own cuts. [Laughs]

In the 'So I Danced' music video, we got to see some kind of interaction between MITO and Mr. Insanity.

Yeah, I don't really think people realize how big of a moment that is!

For me, it was such a big moment! How did it feel having them both share the screen for the first time?

I'm so happy that you saw that. It was big! I wondered if it should happen so early, but they just cross paths, they don't know each other. So, it was good that I could put it out there to show that they've interacted now, and it gets more and more developed. Kind of like Batman and Joker. They know of each other now.

Back in June, you released your EP SAINT, with three new songs teasing an album called The Hybrid. Is The Hybrid a new character that will be introduced?

The Hybrid was a character that I thought of when I was going through some crazy patch. I needed a character that represented the God of The Other Side. I realized it might complicate things more, or it might solve a lot of these questions that people have over the lore. For example, where did MITO really descend from? And what God does he talk about? I wanted to bring the idea that IAN is turning into Insanity through the help of something. And maybe, that something tried to influence MITO, but MITO rejected it…

During your Paris show, you revealed the song 'I Am Nobody', and explained the next album will be about IAN. What can you tell me about this new project and how it all fits into the lore?

I was thinking, do I do The Hybrid first or IAN? But I wanted to kind of de-shuffle the timeline a little bit. In terms of the lore storyline, IAN is in the future. But I felt like it was right for me personally to come out with this album. It was time for me to wake up from my dream a little bit, from The Other Side. Because, doing this type of art has its own toll. It's really based on real life, so the more I did this, the more power I was giving to this lore. It'll always be there, but I needed to identify myself, come out, and then go back in. As long as I know IAN is still there.

Kind of like grounding yourself.

That's exactly how I would ground myself. So, I wrote a few songs, the one I played in Paris was just one of them. I'm planning to go out with a full album. You know, it's very ironic because it took three albums and a few singles for IAN to actually come out, but that's real life too.

Over the years, do you feel like making music and creating this universe and characters has helped you understand yourself a bit better?

I think it helped me understand what I shouldn't do too much. There's a very fine line with trying to understand yourself as you are, and not knowing how much you're influencing yourself as you do things. Sometimes, the big gray area with people that have, for example, bipolar, is you should never play too much into their manic side. Because you're giving them almost like a false reality of what they can hold on to. If you keep that narrative up, they might believe it too much. And the person that they are when they're in that state is very different from the person when they're not.

Of course.

So I realized, I make a lot of this when I'm in my manic state… It's so beautiful because it's so raw. But I'm always so attached and connected to this as if it's real, that I sometimes feel like I'm losing myself. I'm finding out more… But I sometimes ask: 'Why want to find out more? Is it safe?" I think trying to be comfortable and accepting of what you have is one thing, but going in a little too deep into identifying everything actually causes more harm. You're now stuck with thinking and knowing about all these things that you never had to think of. Especially if you're a deep thinker. So that's why IAN is that album that is taking me out of the loop for a little bit.

#2024 #drwt #drwt paris #drwt europe #christian yu #dpr #dpr ian #dream perfect regime #the dream reborn tour 2024 #@thildariou #interview #2024 interview #2024 article #article #press #twitter #the called

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