{"id":586320,"date":"2026-08-07T20:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/586320\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:06:11","slug":"audrey-nuna-is-ready-to-reintroduce-herself-after-kpop-demon-hunters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/586320\/","title":{"rendered":"Audrey Nuna Is Ready to Reintroduce Herself After ‘KPop Demon Hunters’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSome artists wait decades for the breakthrough moment, and for others, everything seemingly happens overnight. For Audrey Nuna \u2014 the New Jersey-born artist whose music<\/a> blends rap, pop, alternative and R&B \u2014 that coveted breakout moment came via a little movie called KPop Demon Hunters.<\/p>\n

\n\tNuna provided the singing voice of Mira, the rebellious main dancer of HUNTR\/X, for the wildly successful animated film, which spawned a Billboard 200<\/a>-topping soundtrack and numerous Billboard Hot 100<\/a> smashes, including the top 10 hit \u201cHow It\u2019s Done\u201d and the Grammy- and Oscar-winning chart-topper \u201cGolden.\u201d According to Luminate, \u201cGolden\u201d has collected over 971.8 million official on-demand U.S. streams, with the overall soundtrack \u2014 which has spent 54 weeks (and counting) at No. 1 on Top Soundtracks \u2014 boasting over 4 billion official streams.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe KPop Demon Hunters phenomenon whisked Nuna and fellow HUNTR\/X singing voices EJAE and Rei Ami into a year-long whirlwind of late-night TV debuts, high-profile interviews, flashy photo shoots and a near-constant stream of performances. Now, Nuna is prioritizing recalibration; she\u2019s not just aiming to merge her new fans with her existing supporters, but also re-aligning her understanding and appreciation for the craft of pop music.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe biggest thing KPop Demon Hunters taught me is that it\u2019s okay to fail and struggle through making your art,\u201d she tells Billboard the day after playing Iowa\u2019s Hinterland Music Festival. \u201cAs an artist, I\u2019ve always tried to get things to feel good to me, but KPop Demon Hunters taught me structure and that, sometimes [when creating], there is a right answer, and we need to get to it. Almost like design-based thinking. [That experience] reinvigorated my love for pop, and the ideals and philosophies behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTrench, Nuna\u2019s last pre-KPop Demon Hunters project, remains quite different from the smash soundtrack\u2019s punchy, sugary pop. Released in 2024, Nuna\u2019s last album found her jumping from a Teezo Touchdown collaboration to an interpolation of Brandy and Monica\u2019s \u201cThe Boy Is Mine,\u201d making for an at-times dissonant soundscape that oscillates between lightness and darkness with impressive ease. Trench followed 2021\u2019s A Liquid Breakfast, which arrived in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic alongside a Jack Harlow collaboration (\u201cComic Sans\u201d).<\/p>\n

\n\tNow signed to Republic Records, Nuna is launching her new era with \u201cSuperHuman,\u201d a high-octane, dance-infused rap banger that brings her back to the gritty, rap-forward energy of her earlier work. The song, which she crafted alongside Grammy-winning superproducer Cirkut, also marks Nuna\u2019s second collaboration with video game developer Riot Games\u2019 Valorant, a five v. five, character-based tactical first-person shooter game. \u201cSuperHuman\u201d \u2014 Nuna\u2019s first solo release since Trench \u2014 will serve as an official track for the 2026 Valorant Champions Tour Pacific in Busan, South Korea.<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, Billboard catches up with Nuna as she continues to wrap her head around the explosion of KPop Demon Hunters and begins crafting an album that blends her true sound with the energy billions of fans connected to via her Mira singing voice.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat do your festival sets look like now?<\/p>\n

\n\tA lot of breathing new life into [my] older catalog \u2014 and that process has been really fun. [I\u2019m playing] a lot of Trench songs, some Liquid Breakfast songs and a KPop Demon Hunters song as well. I also play \u201cSuperHuman,\u201d so it\u2019s been cool seeing how people react to it live.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhich KPop Demon Hunters Song?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHow It\u2019s Done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did \u201cSuperHuman\u201d come together?<\/p>\n

\n\tI made \u201cSuperHuman\u201d in my second-ever session with Cirkut. It was written during the time when all of the KPop Demon Hunters stuff was going absolutely bonkers. Trench felt like a time of looking from underground up at the sun, and the whole film moment felt like such a rise and redemption. At the same time, I told Bava and Madison Love \u2014 who I was also working with on the writing side \u2014 that I wanted to illustrate this longing to stay human through it all. I want to help people remember that our most important quality and biggest superpower is being human.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe wrote the song in three hours and had a solid demo by the end of the first. Even though he\u2019s done all of these massive pop records, Cirkut has this weird, quirky angle on things that we really connected on. He\u2019s as big a Daft Punk fan as I am, and I also noticed these books and figureheads of Gorillaz sitting in his studio \u2014 he\u2019s a nerd, honestly. He got so excited when I showed him this string quartet remix of Bj\u00f6rk\u2019s \u201cHyperballad.\u201d We definitely speak the same language in terms of the music we like to nerd out about.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow have you found that your creative process overall has shifted post-KPop Demon Hunters?<\/p>\n

\n\tSeeing how this move affected people and how the process ended up translating into real-world impact was also inspiring. It put a fire under my buttocks of like\u2026 if we\u2019re not making music to connect with people or make them feel more seen, why are we making it? Those kinds of questions impacted how much discomfort I\u2019m willing to handle in my process. I tried a lot of different producers; some sessions were horrible, and others were amazing. And it was okay that things didn\u2019t feel good all the time, because I wanted to graduate from artistry that\u2019s all about my feelings to artistry that actually moves people.<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you hope that \u201cSuperHuman\u201d serves as a reset or palate cleanser to properly introduce newer fans to the Audrey Nuna sound?<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s more of a bridge. It\u2019s a weird thing to go from a 19-year-old making alternative music to joining a project that becomes the biggest thing in your career, commercially, and makes people fall in love with your voice in a way \u2014 and through a character \u2014 you never expected.<\/p>\n

\n\tI feel so connected to the character of Mira. We are so similar, and I really love and cherish who she is as a character, but at the same time, I am not Mira, and we\u2019re not the same exact person. I hope \u201cSuperHuman\u201d builds a bridge for people to fuse whatever they connected with in the voice of the character with what I have to say as my own person. And, sonically, \u201cSuperHuman\u201d has the hard, dissonant [energy] of Trench, but also the pop sensibilities I was inspired by after working on KPop Demon Hunters.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhere are you sonically right now?<\/p>\n

\n\tA conversation we had during the \u201cSuperHuman\u201d session was this idea of reharmonization and things feeling harmonically bright and dark at the same time. I also grew up in the Catholic church, so a lot of the harmonies on \u201cSuperHuman\u201d remind me of my roots. This process has been a lot of getting back to childhood basics. I have an urge to rewatch all my favorite childhood movies and listen to those scores and figure out what made me fall in love with those pieces of art.<\/p>\n

\n\tI originally thought this project was going to be a reintroduction of myself to the world, which I felt was necessary, but I\u2019ve realized it\u2019s actually more important for this to be a reintroduction of myself to myself. I want to evolve from a cool, aesthetic artist to somebody who can tell stories people can relate to.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat can you tell us about the new project?<\/p>\n

\n\tI want this music to sound as human as possible. I want to hear some mouth sounds in the background. I want to hear the imperfections in my voice. I want to know that a human being made this music. I\u2019ve been trying different studios and really financially investing in my music. Does certain analog gear do anything for me or not? I want to find out. I like the idea that music takes time.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy did this feel like the right song to share with Valorant?<\/p>\n

\n\tIf I were a 14-year-old kid playing Valorant and doing these crazy missions, I would just go so hard and get my high score of all time if I heard this song. I sound like a freaking grandma. [Laughs.] But it\u2019s true! This is the first song of my own that I listened to in the gym \u2014 and I literally started going harder. Instead of 10 push-ups, I did 11 and a half or something. I also love performing this song. I just wanted to make a link between the virtual world and visceral body music.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat does rest look like for you?<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m such an introvert, truly. I need my alone time. True rest to me is just sitting there doing nothing. There\u2019s so much beauty in being alone and spending time with yourself. There\u2019s also like this lady I found who\u2019s an amazing masseuse\u2026 she does things to me that I didn\u2019t know could be done. So much tension lives in your body, especially when you\u2019re on the plane or on the stage thrashing your neck around for like an hour or every other day.<\/p>\n


\"Billboard
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