"I spent my nights in melting snow/ Turning my sorrows into pure gold," DPR IAN sings in the opening lines of his orchestral new single, "Don’t Go Insane," from his recently-released second EP Dear Insanity... Life is brutal in its uncertainty, in its unsolvable mysteries, in its highs and lows — what else besides the creation of art can prevent us from being  swallowed by despair, IAN seems to ask.

More than a melancholic title, IAN knows the struggles of sorrow firsthand. Born Christian Yu in Sydney, Australia, the 33-year-old singer was diagnosed with bipolar disorder as a teenager, and has since built a career that contextualizes and transmutes his struggles.

Representing his manic lows, he developed the character of MITO — a one-eyed fallen angel with a hoarse voice, always surrounded by thunders. For his manic highs, there’s Mr. Insanity — the colorful, cheeky opposing force, never knowing where he’s going. Through them, IAN gives shape to his own Marvel cinematic universe, telling superhero/villain stories of birth and death, glitter and dust.

But before embracing his own creative powers, IAN sharpened his skills in other trades. As a teen, he spent a few years b-boying on YouTube until he moved to South Korea, where he became the leader of K-pop group C-Clown from 2012 to 2015. Afterwards, he co-founded the multimedia collective Dream Perfect Regime (DPR) along with friends LIVE, Cream, and REM.

The collective DPR grew to be one of the biggest independent music labels in Korea, running everything from business to visuals. At first, IAN worked solely as a video director and editor, collaborating with names like iKon’s Bobby and Winner’s Mino, until he recalled the spark to pursue his own artistry. His first effort as DPR IAN came in 2020 with the haunting "So Beautiful," later released on his first EP, 2021’s Moodswings in This Order (also known as MITO 1). He released his first LP in 2022, Moodswings in to Order — or MITO 2.

Dear Insanity…, IAN’s first non-MITO-focused release, is described as a video game side quest, or a TV show spinoff. Through his evocative songwriting and self-directed music videos — see it in the nostalgia-tinted "Peanut Butter & Tears," or in the dizzying chase of "So I Danced" — IAN’s universe expands into limitless possibilities.

In an interview with GRAMMY.com, DPR IAN dove deeper into his lore, discussed being imprisoned by his own creations, and marveled at his team turning dreams into reality.

This story has been edited for clarity.

It’s been 15 months since the release of your first studio album, Moodswings in to Order. When did the idea of making Dear Insanity… come up?

I have the original story, MITO, that's based on the manic lows I get, but I've never had a character that I based on my manic highs. A lot of times when I feel manically high, I disassociate myself with who I am, because of how radical and crazy I get with ideas. It just feels so different as to when I'm just me, like now, just very lukewarm. When I'm in my manic highs, I am more active, I come up with more ideas, and a lot of the ideas that I came up with for MITO were in that state.

In [Moodswings in to Order], I have a song called "Mr. Insanity," so it kind of started from there. Even in that albums’ visual, MITO Movie (Part I), I preface it with saying there was a creator of this universe that happened to be called Mr. Insanity, so the next thing I thought was that I needed to deep dive into this character.

I think a good example is Batman and the Joker. You get a further understanding of Batman through the Joker, you realize what Batman's capable of feeling, and you see it in different perspectives — but it's only through the buildup of their relationship. You leave it up to the audience to take that pick of which one may be the villain and which one is the superhero. So that's kind of what I wanted to do in this EP.

I thought it had to be about someone that represents my utmost manic highs, but all in all I've always thought Mr. Insanity to be more of a scary character. You're not sure what he's capable of.

He's unpredictable.

Yes, that is the word. And because of that unpredictability, you don't know where the story is going to end up. It's such a crucial part to the [MITO] lore, because it introduces the concept of where this lore is, in context.

I say "Welcome to the Other Side" in my songs, like "No Blueberries," so that place has actually been called The Other Side for a very long time. So now, in Dear Insanity…, we not only introduce the character Mr. Insanity, but also where they're from.

What is The Other Side, exactly?

The Other Side is essentially a universe that exists only in the consciousness of someone dreaming, and it is also a play on our DPR name, Dream Perfect Regime. We call our fandom Dreamers, so it only made so much sense that this universe exists in dreams.

If you have seen Ant-Man, he goes down to the Quantum Realm, and there's a whole universe that exists right beneath us. [The Other Side] is kind of like that, but it's not just a dream. IAN comes back with souvenirs and certain things, and he finds a loophole. Once he discovers that, he starts embarking on these journeys, longer and longer. But the problem is, the longer you stay there, the more you go insane, and that is the whole idea of this EP.

When [IAN] decided to embark on this journey, it's kind of like if you decided to commit yourself to go to Mount Everest. He's finally ready to embark, knowing that he will go insane. He understands the limitations of it, but once he fully commits, we get the first song, "Famous Last Words," which is when he starts writing a letter to his future self. He already knows he's gonna go insane, but he still chooses to go down that path.

You mentioned Batman and Ant-Man, and your latest music videos also seem to have a lot of influence from superhero movies. Is that one of your main inspirations lately?

My goodness, yes. Growing up, I watched so many comics, and I loved the idea of characters. I remember watching the musical "Cats," and it was just people in cat costumes, but playing the role of a cat so undeniably well that, as a kid watching, it shocked me.

Just the visual stimulus of being exposed to so many things that spark my creativity, I think it was such a blessing. I watched a lot of Steven Spielberg films too. And then you have Tim Burton, who has such a crazy twist. It's so compelling, but so artsy at the same time that you can't look away from it.

So, I realized you can portray different types of emotions in a different light and still get [your point] across. That's how I started with MITO. When people view something such as a mental disorder, for example — I know back in Korea [bipolar disorder is] still considered somewhat taboo — I was like, "I could always turn it into art."

Do you sometimes feel imprisoned by your own characters? Or that it’s easy to hide yourself behind them?

That’s a great question. I truly believe that personifying a character has a 100 percent influence in the way you think, in the way you are. I guess you could say there's pros and cons.

There is somewhat of a gray area. MITO, for example. Obviously, the fact that I gave it a name brings it to life, it's like you curate your own characters. But you also sometimes don't understand [their] power, and I was very careful of that, because I knew once I stepped into this fantasy world, it would become more real to me. So I needed to find a distinguishable area where I could differentiate myself, because, like you said, I would always be imprisoned, without me even knowing.

I know now, when I go manically low, sometimes I really think I'm MITO. Trying to come out of that — I learned it the hard way — is like, "Ok, so this is what [he’s] capable of."

It’s such a challenging idea, because when I make a song, for example, sometimes I feel like MITO would [make it] a lot better. And sometimes I want to channel him, so…I'd have to wait until my next switch to complete it. Sometimes I come back and I’m like, "What is this song?" [Laughs.]

You've been on a four-month world tour and played on some of the biggest festivals this year, like Coachella, Head in the Clouds, and Lollapalooza. How did you find the time to create this EP?

During the tour, I wanted to make the EP. I had the mindset of This is gonna be my first world tour, I'm gonna experience so many things and I'm gonna write about it. But after 46 cities, I just couldn't; I was down in the dirt and just so completely out of it. I don't even remember the last part of [the tour].

Now I understand why it's so hard on any artist to do a world tour. The constant energy change, the traveling is so tiring, and at the end you still want to show your appreciation to fans, because every city they're seeing you for the first time, and you have to bring in that same amount of energy you did last time. But we did 46 cities, and I thought that was… insane. Which is why I came out with this album afterwards. [Laughs].

You didn't write any songs during the tour?

I did write songs, but I didn't finish them. I was in this process in the beginning, and then the tour happened and it got deeper, and deeper, and deeper. My mood kept changing constantly. It's funny, the songs that I wrote in the beginning felt a lot more bright, and then it progressively got darker.

Does that creative process influence your music videos as well? How do you come up with those ideas?

It's always been in my head. For example, the whole explanation of The Other Side, I think the first and foremost thought was, What does The Other Side look like? The main theme color was green, just because for some reason it drew me in so much. And I had to understand what existed in this world, like what the citizens looked like, and it's just these pink people.

Mr. Insanity's partner-in-crime is called The Green, and it's literally just a person in a green screen suit. It acts as a double meaning for me, as a video/visual artist, because I love using green screens as they can make the impossible possible. So, I love the idea that The Green was just a person in a green suit, and ultimately he has the most power. We discover that in the future.

How long does it take you to edit one of those videos?

My goodness. I'm editing right now as we speak. I’m working on another music video which is coming out relatively close after [the album release]. I think "So I Danced," "Don't Go Insane," and "Peanut Butter & Tears," we did all that in the span of three months, spaced out, but I only had two weeks at max per video.

But I have such an amazing team, without them I couldn’t have done any of this. It's not possible to do a whole music video in two weeks [alone]. It can only go so far with yourself, and for me, I don't see the point in doing it by myself. To build something with somebody is more meaningful.

I think that was always the approach of DPR in general. We want to build things together. This universe, this lore that we're building, it's only possible because we're building it together. We all talk about it, and a lot of the ideas would come from our stylist, or our video department, or my manager, because they are all driven very passionately about this story as well. Sometimes I just step back and look at what's unfolding.

Do you think there is an end for the whole story?

Ultimately, I always wanted to end it in a trilogy. The main storyline is MITO, so you have MITO 1, MITO 2, and MITO 3 is where I am going to end it. But I believe that's not gonna be for a while, because, like you said, my art is a reflection of what I'm going through at the time. So, for MITO to end, I have to be ready to commit to giving up that character.

I kinda don't want MITO to end.

[Laughs.] Yeah, I think a lot of people will say that. But the good news is, you have the main storyline, but then, I am going to continue with The Other Side, and MITO is a huge part of it. I don’t know when [it will happen], but overall, that's the idea.

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Korean artist DPR IAN might have abandoned his drumming days, but that doesn't change the fact that it planted the roots for his artistry — which is why he still names his Ahead 5A drumsticks his favorite piece of musical gear.

"I remember my friend showing me a video on YouTube by Slipknot — Joey Jordison," the singer/songwriter, whose birth name is Christian Yu, recounts in the latest episode of It Goes to 11. "That was the first time I got absolutely shook."

Because of his hours of watching the band's videos, he could quickly recognize the tools they used on stage in any instrument shop. After convincing his mom to buy the same drumsticks as Jordison's, Yu drummed everywhere, including his car dashboard, which still has dents today.

Eventually, it was time to perform on the drums live. Having never been in front of an audience, the nerves were so high that he remembers he "blacked out" on stage as soon as the song started playing. "It was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life because I froze."

However, DPR IAN says it taught him a valuable lesson: not to become a drummer. But it also showed him that one negative experience shouldn't ruin his entire perspective on music.

"The greatest success is actually from a failure," he declares. "You have to learn how to be bad [at] things."

Press play on the video above to learn more about DPR IAN's history with the drums, and check back to GRAMMY.com for more new episodes of It Goes to 11.

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When Code Orange's Jami Morgan came to work with Steve Albini, he knew that he and the band had to be prepared. They knew what they wanted to do, in which order, and "it went as good as any process we've ever had — probably the best," he glowed.

And a big part of that was that Albini —  a legendary musician and creator of now-iconic indie, punk and alternative records —  didn't consider himself any sort of impresario. 

"The man wears a garbage man suit to work every day," Morgan previously told GRAMMY.com while promoting Code Orange's The Above. "It reminds him he's doing a trade… I f—ing loved him. I thought he was the greatest guy."

The masterful The Above was released in 2023, decades into Albini's astonishing legacy both onstage and in the studio. The twisted mastermind behind Big Black and Shellac, and man behind the board for innumerable off-center classics, Steve Albini passed away on the evening of May 7 following a heart attack suffered at his Chicago recording studio, the hallowed Electrical Audio. He was 61. The first Shellac album since 2014, To All Trains, is due May 17.

Albini stuck to his stubborn principles (especially in regard to the music industry), inimitable aesthetics and workaday self-perception until the end. Tributes highlighting his ethos, attitude and vision have been flowing in from all corners of the indie community. The revered label Secretly Canadian called Albini "a wizard who would hate being called a wizard, but who surely made magic."

David Grubbs of Gastr Del Sol called him "a brilliant, infinitely generous person, absolutely one-of-a-kind, and so inspiring to see him change over time and own up to things he outgrew" — meaning old, provocative statements and lyrics.

And mononymous bassist Stin of the bludgeoning noise rock band Chat Pile declared, "No singular artist's body of work has had an impact on me more than that of Steve Albini."

To wade through Albini's entire legacy, and discography, would take a lifetime — and happy hunting, as so much great indie, noise rock, punk, and so much more passed across his desk. Here are five of those albums.

Pixies - Surfer Rosa (1988)

Your mileage may vary on who lit the match for the alternative boom, but Pixies — and their debut Surfer Rosa — deserve a place in that debate. This quicksilver classic introduced us to a lot of Steve Albini's touchstones: capacious miking techniques; unadulterated, audio verite takes; serrated noise.

PJ Harvey - Rid of Me (1993)

Some of Albini's finest hours have resulted from carefully arranging the room, hitting record, and letting an artist stalk the studio like a caged animal.

It happened on Scout Niblett's This Fool Can Die Now; it happened on Laura Jane Grace's Stay Alive; and it most certainly happened on PJ Harvey's Rid of Me, which can be seen as a precedent for both. Let tunes like "Man-Size" take a shot at you; that scar won't heal anytime soon.

Nirvana - In Utero (1993)

Nirvana's unintended swan song in the studio was meant to burn the polished Nevermind in effigy.

And while Kurt Cobain was too much of a pop beautician to fully do that, In Utero is still one of the most bracing and unvarnished mainstream rock albums ever made. Dave Grohl's drum sound on "Scentless Apprentice" alone is a shot to your solar plexus.

"The thing that I was really charmed most by in the whole process was just hearing how good a job the band had done the first time around," Albini told GRAMMY.com upon In Utero's 20th anniversary remix and remastering. "What struck me the most about the [remastering and reissue] process was the fact that everybody was willing to go the full nine yards for quality."

Songs: Ohia - The Magnolia Electric Co. (2003)

When almost a dozen musicians packed into Electrical Audio to make The Magnolia Electric Co., the vibe was, well, electric — prolific singer/songwriter Jason Molina was on the verge of something earth-shaking.

It's up for debate as to whether the album they made was the final Songs: Ohia record, or the first by his following project, Magnolia Electric Co. — is a tempestuous, majestic, symbolism-heavy, Crazy Horse-scaled ride through Molina's troubled psyche.

Code Orange - The Above (2023)

A health issue kept Code Orange from touring behind The Above, which is a shame for many reasons. One is that they're a world-class live band. The other is that The Above consists of their most detailed and accomplished material to date.

The band's frontman Morgan and keyboardist Eric "Shade" Balderose produced The Above, which combines hardcore, metalcore and industrial rock with concision and vision. And by capturing their onstage fire like never before on record, Albini helped glue it all together.

"It was a match made in heaven," Morgan said. And Albini made ferocity, ugliness and transgression seem heavenly all the same.

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What is about the Beatles' Let it Be sessions that continues to bedevil diehards?

Even after their aperture was tremendously widened with Get Back — Peter Jackson's three-part, almost eight hour, 2021 doc — something's always been missing. Because it was meant as a corrective to a film that, well, most of us haven't seen in a long time — if at all.

That's Let it Be, the original 1970 documentary on those contested, pivotal, hot-and-cold sessions, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Much of the calcified lore around the Beatles' last stand comes not from the film itself, but what we think is in the film.

Let it Be does contain a couple of emotionally charged moments between maturing Beatles. The most famous one: George Harrison getting snippy with Paul McCartney over a guitar part, which might just be the most blown-out-of-proportion squabble in rock history.

But superfans smelled blood in the water: the film had to be a locus for the Beatles' untimely demise. To which the film's director, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, might say: did we see the same movie?

"Looking back from history's vantage point, it seems like everybody drank the bad batch of Kool-Aid," he tells GRAMMY.com. Lindsay-Hogg had just appeared at an NYC screening, and seemed as surprised by it as the fans: "Because the opinion that was first formed about the movie, you could not form on the actual movie we saw the other night."

He's correct. If you saw Get Back, Lindsay-Hogg is the babyfaced, cigar-puffing auteur seen throughout; today, at 84, his original vision has been reclaimed. On May 8, Disney+ unveiled a restored and refreshed version of the Let it Be film — a historical counterweight to Get Back. Temperamentally, though, it's right on the same wavelength, which is bound to surprise some Fabs disciples.

With the benefit of Peter Jackson's sound-polishing magic and Giles Martin's inspired remixes of performances, Let it Be offers a quieter, more muted, more atmospheric take on these sessions. (Think fewer goofy antics, and more tight, lingering shots of four of rock's most evocative faces.)

As you absorb the long-on-ice Let it Be, here are some lesser-known facts about this film, and the era of the Beatles it captures — with a little help from Lindsay-Hogg himself.

The Beatles Were Happy With The Let It Be Film

After Lindsay-Hogg showed the Beatles the final rough cut, he says they all went out to a jovial meal and drinks: "Nice food, collegial, pleasant, witty conversation, nice wine."

Afterward, they went downstairs to a discotheque for nightcaps. "Paul said he thought Let it Be was good. We'd all done a good job," Lindsay-Hogg remembers. "And Ringo and [wife] Maureen were jiving to the music until two in the morning."

"They had a really, really good time," he adds. "And you can see like [in the film], on their faces, their interactions — it was like it always was."

About "That" Fight: Neither Paul Nor George Made A Big Deal

At this point, Beatles fanatics can recite this Harrison-in-a-snit quote to McCartney: "I'll play, you know, whatever you want me to play, or I won't play at all if you don't want me to play. Whatever it is that will please you… I'll do it." (Yes, that's widely viewed among fans as a tremendous deal.)

If this was such a fissure, why did McCartney and Harrison allow it in the film? After all, they had say in the final cut, like the other Beatles.

"Nothing was going to be in the picture that they didn't want," Lindsay-Hogg asserts. "They never commented on that. They took that exchange as like many other exchanges they'd had over the years… but, of course, since they'd broken up a month before [the film's release], everyone was looking for little bits of sharp metal on the sand to think why they'd broken up."

About Ringo's "Not A Lot Of Joy" Comment…

Recently, Ringo Starr opined that there was "not a lot of joy" in the Let it Be film; Lindsay-Hogg says Starr framed it to him as "no joy."

Of course, that's Starr's prerogative. But it's not quite borne out by what we see — especially that merry scene where he and Harrison work out an early draft of Abbey Road's "Octopus's Garden."

"And Ringo's a combination of so pleased to be working on the song, pleased to be working with his friend, glad for the input," Lindsay-Hogg says. "He's a wonderful guy. I mean, he can think what he wants and I will always have greater affection for him.

"Let's see if he changes his mind by the time he's 100," he added mirthfully.

Lindsay-Hogg Thought It'd Never Be Released Again

"I went through many years of thinking, It's not going to come out," Lindsay-Hogg says. In this regard, he characterizes 25 or 30 years of his life as "solitary confinement," although he was "pushing for it, and educating for it."

"Then, suddenly, the sun comes out" — which may be thanks to Peter Jackson, and renewed interest via Get Back. "And someone opens the cell door, and Let it Be walks out."

Nobody Asked Him What The Sessions Were Like

All four Beatles, and many of their associates, have spoken their piece on Let it Be sessions — and journalists, authors, documentarians, and fans all have their own slant on them.

But what was this time like from Lindsay-Hogg's perspective? Incredibly, nobody ever thought to check. "You asked the one question which no one has asked," he says. "No one."

So, give us the vibe check. Were the Let it Be sessions ever remotely as tense as they've been described, since man landed on the moon? And to that, Lindsay-Hogg's response is a chuckle, and a resounding, "No, no, no."

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Yaya Bey possesses a dizzying talent: The ability to draw everything from reggae to house music into her sonic worldview without it ever feeling anything but inventive.

On her innovative upcoming record Ten Fold, the Brooklyn-based artist tethers her R&B sound to pangs of hip-hop, pop, and soul. She's also attuned to the sound and vibration of her city, a reference point shown as early as her 2016 debut, The Many Alter-Egos of Trill’eta Brown.

Whether on record or in conversation, Bey carries that classic native New Yorker duality: She’s well aware that the city’s constantly evolving energy means that no one perspective could possibly speak for it, but she also knows when it needs her to speak up. 

"People who are born and raised here are like unicorns," the experimental R&B/pop artist says — herself having grown up in Queens, the daughter of Grand Daddy I.U., a member of the legendary hip-hop collective the Juice Crew. So when mayor Eric Adams was at an event while raging Canadian wildfires dyed the city orange and covered it in smoke, she put her thoughts to record with the track, "eric adams in the club." 

That fiery critique is only one of the powerful emotions that fueled Ten Fold; the passing of her father (rapper Grand Daddy I.U.) adds a tragic shade, and her new marriage brings a flash of joy, among other prismatics. While 2022’s grand Remember Your North Star were built on thematic cohesion, Ten Fold’s 16 tracks are cathartic  in their ability to bound between extremes and find life’s most powerful moments. "I was experiencing success and grief at the same time, and that set the tone," Bey says of creating the new album.

While she’s continued experimenting as a visual artist and poet, Bey's work as an activist — including time as a street medic at protests — demonstrates the real-world ties to all of that expressive work. "It made me really focus on my responsibility to my neighbor and how I exist in the world, loving and caring not just about myself, but about the collective struggle," she says.

Bey spoke with GRAMMY.com about finding the creative energy to manage all of those practices, weaving her father’s voice into Ten Fold, and the state of music played at New York cookouts.

I need to thank you for "Sir Princess Bad Bitch" because it will never stop repeating in my head! It’s such an incredible track. Did you know you'd hit it out of the park when you were in the studio?

Well, Corey Fonville, who's the drummer in [jazz quintet] Butcher Brown, produced the track and he sent it to me. And I was like, "Wow, I'm about to do a house record?" 

I'd done dance records before, but this one felt different. The words and the melody, it came so easily that it felt right. That's usually how I gauge if something is the right song for me, if the melody and the words come quick. I have that kind of chemistry with Corey. 

If the lyrics and the melody meet in the way this album does, pushing inclusive, all-encompassing empowerment, that must feel so encouraging as an artist. 

You know, when I was making this album, my dad passed away in December of ‘22. And that happened, like, right as I put out another album called North Star. 

That album sort of shifted me into a space where [I was] making a living off of my art, and people are interested in me, and I got a publishing deal, and I went to Europe to play some gigs for the first time in about November. I stayed for a month and I came home and my dad died. 

Right when that happened, I was presented with the option to renew my record deal and put another album out. So I started working on it almost immediately after he died. I went through 2023 making the album and I had to find light. So I put in a lot of songs just trying to encourage myself.  

I’m so sorry. My heart breaks for you. I lost my dad in 2021, right before I started a massive project, and it shifted my process completely. Is that why the album starts with "crying through my teeth."? You’re expressing your grief before anything else.

Yeah. I usually start my other projects with a little rap. But I knew that this project was different and I needed to start it out setting the tone. We're starting out in a dark place and then we try to journey out of it.

 And then you incorporated your father's voice in the intro to some of the songs, like on "east coast mami." How did it come to you to bring his memory into the album? 

To be honest, especially during this process, I’ve just been trying to keep whatever I can from him. One day, I was trying to find voice notes from him. My phone had deleted all of our text messages and thank God I had some screenshots of it. I was looking for what I had left, and I had these voice notes.

It’s difficult enough to determine what message you want to convey with any album, but then having this grief, this audible connection to your dad, must have been a lot to consider.

Yeah. The album is also about more than the grief. My albums are more thematic; this album isn't thematic as much as it was just my life turned upside down. My dad was my best friend. And at the same time, my dad was also a musician and I followed in his footsteps. But in the blink of an eye, I was living a completely different life.

My life changed overnight when I made North Star. I was three months behind on my rent, and in the blink of an eye I had money to pay my rent for the year if I wanted. I had got all these things that I thought I was going to share with my dad. I got married. My whole life just shifted. And so the album is like, documenting that. I had no control. I just had to go with the ebbs and flows of life and make songs as I went along.

Both the good and bad, how do you think all that change affected your actual music? Even just in your quality of life, being exposed to different things. 

I think it gave me more perspective, for sure. I've seen more of the world, I've experienced new things. I can write from a place of joy, too. I made [North Star] in despair, and I'm not in despair anymore. You have more things to write about when you’re not three months behind on rent, not in a relationship with some guy that's driving you crazy. 

Between your music, poetry, visual art, mutual aid work, you're outputting so much creative and connected energy into the world. Were you ever wary of not being able to tackle those things, especially while going through multiple different shifts in your life? 

To be honest, I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to make an album again. I did have those thoughts. But I find that if I just show up, like, I'm going to just tell what's true for me, I'll probably be fine. And it's still working out in that way.

It's still cathartic. It’s still just trying to feel something, express something, even with the dance records, just trying to tap into something that feels good. 

Speaking of those dance records, were there any particular artists you were channeling when developing your take on that sound? 

Phyllis Hyman and Frankie Beverly are really big inspirations for me. Growing up in New York, when you go to cookouts, Black people, they play Frankie Beverly, they play Alicia Myers, they play Phyllis Hyman. It's a certain sound that you're gonna hear at a cookout. I just grew up with the sound. Phyllis Hyman is iconic.

I think that dance music has a long history in that debate about art produced in troubled times. Speaking of, we’ve got to talk about "eric adams in the club", which is a phrase I never thought I'd get to say in an interview. Did you go into the writing process wanting to write about Eric Adams to a dance beat, or was that more serendipitous in the studio? 

Last June there was a wildfire in Canada, and it impacted the air quality in New York. He was in the club with Robert De Niro. And I remember thinking to myself, like, Yo, this is insane. Being a New Yorker, seeing how much people's rent raised when they decided it wasn't a pandemic anymore, in a matter of months — it sent the city into a housing crisis, and he refused to address it. And then that wildfire thing happened, and I was like, Oh, yeah, I'm gonna write a song about this guy, but I want it to be a club record because he's in the club. 

New York is an interesting city. It doesn't care about its natives, in a way that is unique. Gentrification happens everywhere, but the way that it happens in a city like New York is that people who are born and raised here are like unicorns. And there are a lot of things that happen that we don't have a voice on. 

I've also been grieving the city that I grew up in, that it doesn't even exist anymore because of people like Eric Adams. The city is more than just the restaurants and things like that. It's the people and the people that create the culture. And if that's pushed out, it's not even what it was anymore, it's something new. 

Obviously there's so many things that need to change, but by being a musician and being an artist, how do you feel like you can shift some mindsets? 

I think I can have the conversations or make the music that starts conversations. I was listening to a lot of Frankie Beverly and Maze when the pandemic was at its height, and [that was] focused on unity a lot. If you listen to, like, "We Are One," "Happy Feelin’s," their message is love, their message is unity. And it got me through the pandemic. I couldn't stop listening to it. 

It made me really focus on my responsibility to my neighbor and how I exist in the world, loving and caring not just about myself, but about the collective struggle. And they did it in such a beautiful way that I kept coming back to listen to the music again and again and again.

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