Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, DPR IAN (Christian Yu) developed a fondness for music and performance at an early age. A childhood fascination with electronic duo Daft Punk's seminal album Discovery and the musical Cats gave him a keen awareness of the importance of visual presentation. As a teen, he taught himself the drums and started a heavy metal band, playing and writing songs by ear. He was later drawn to b-boying and breakdancing as a form of physical self-expression, skipping class to busk in downtown Sydney and documenting his freestyles on Youtube.
His channel gave him an audience, and it even connected him with his future DPR collaborator and friend Hong Da-Bin (also known as DPR LIVE). After graduating from his performing arts school in 2008, he bought an one-way ticket to Seoul to pursue his dreams as a dancer. He debuted as the leader and rapper of K-Pop group C-Clown in 2012, performing as Rome.
His experience as an Idol was short lived and tumultuous - the unit disbanded in 2015 -but it did give him a better understanding of the industry. So when he synched back with his friend Hong and Scott Kim (DPR REM) to discuss making something together, he knew that he wanted the next stage of his career to be rooted in creative freedom, authenticity, and community. That vision ultimately became DPR. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.