Kpop Demon Hunters is a juggernaut. Since its release on Netflix, not only has it become the streamer\u2019s most-watched film of all time, but the animated feature is the first to have four songs simultaneously on the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. In addition, the song \u201cGolden\u201d is now the longest-running number 1 by a girl group in the 21st century.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Applehans, the story is about K-pop girl group Huntr\/x, comprised of Rumi, Mira, and Zoey, who lead double lives as demon hunters. They fight a rival boy band made up of demons while trying to create a final seal to banish them. When they release the new single \u201cGolden,\u201d they hope the incredible earworm they\u2019ve conjured will also create the Golden Honmoon, which would banish all demons forever. It\u2019s not easy being a superstar group of pop singers and demon hunters simultaneously, but Rumi, Mira, and Zoey make it at least look like a lot of fun. And they\u2019re viciously talented, to boot.<\/p>\n
Awards season is getting underway, and \u201cGolden\u201d is the current frontrunner for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. It was written by Emmy-nominated composer Mark Sonnenblick, who is known for his work in musical theater and film, and K-pop singer\/songwriter and producer EJAE. Hearing EJAE\u2019s song demos early in production, the filmmakers cast her as Rumi\u2019s singing voice.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The Credits caught up with EJAE at the Middleburg Film Festival, where she talked about her journey and her role in creating this record-breaking production.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Starting when you were only 11, you were a K-pop trainee at SM Entertainment for over 10 years. Then, after being dropped as a singer in 2017, you attended their songwriting camp.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yes. Songwriting was never a career I\u2019d thought of, but around 2015, when I was 22, I was dropped. After that, I fell in love with the underground SoundCloud scene, and the music there was more instrumentally focused, so I made a lot of beats. Then, while I was figuring out my life, I started singing on original soundtracks for Korean dramas, and that\u2019s how I got into the music industry outside of SM. I started meeting songwriters who asked if I made music, brought me into the studio, and showed them my beats. They asked if I could topline, but I didn\u2019t know what that meant, and they explained it was writing a melody over tracks they had. That\u2019s how it started, and I just winged a melody. I wrote about my ex-boyfriend at the time, and that day it got cut by a pretty big artist in Korea. It was a song called \u201cHello,\u201d which Andrew Choi heard, and then he asked me to start writing with him. He started mentoring me and brought me to my first SM song camp, and that\u2019s where I wrote the song \u201cPsycho,\u201d which was released by Red Velvet. That was the fifth song I\u2019d ever written.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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How did that shift your thinking about your career?<\/p>\n
Back then, SM had a very specific kind of style, and they tried to change my voice. My vocals are very low and husky, and it was a big insecurity of mine because they weren\u2019t clean and pretty like the voices they wanted. I kept trying to change my voice to suit them, which caused a lot of issues with my vocal cords and led to my voice cracking or my not being able to sing at all. Then I noticed that when I got into songwriting, it fit my personality more. I got very realistic with myself about whether I actually wanted to be a singer. I\u2019d see my friends debut in the K-pop industry, and it seems glamorous from the outside, but it\u2019s really quite grueling. It\u2019s really hard on people mentally. I knew I didn\u2019t have a thick enough skin for that, but songwriting felt like home to me. It felt healing. I was able to write about whatever was troubling me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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KPOP DEMON HUNTERS \u2013 When they aren\u2019t selling out stadiums, Kpop superstars Rumi, Mira and Zoey use their secret identities as badass demon hunters to protect their fans from an ever-present supernatural threat. Together, they must face their biggest enemy yet \u2013 an irresistible rival boy band of demons in disguise. \u00a92025 Netflix<\/p>\n
How did your career progress from there?<\/p>\n
At first, beat-making was a passion of mine. Then, once I got into songwriting, I went with the flow of whatever opportunities came and just kept learning. K-pop allowed me to extend the ways I used my vocals, but also taught me about genres, because K-pop is such a melting pot of different genres. All that helped me grow as a writer. Then Covid happened, and that\u2019s where everything lifted up for me. At that point, I had a production background. My fianc\u00e9 is an audio engineer at Berkeley, and he taught me how to mix and produce vocals. A lot of songwriters don\u2019t know how to do that. He taught me how to send stems properly, which upped my game and made me more creative sonically in songwriting. It\u2019s not just writing a melody or lyric; it\u2019s how to express that with harmonies, mixing, adding reverb, adding crowd vocals, or using that as a sound, and designing the vocals for the performer. I completely fell in love with vocal production.<\/p>\n
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Your way into\u00a0Kpop Demon Hunters\u00a0was through Daniel Rojas. How did that come about?\u00a0<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve been friends since before\u00a0Kpop Demon Hunters. We had worked on other projects, like Netflix animation projects, and he and I have a really good working relationship and chemistry. He was brought on first, and he brought me in, telling Maggie Kang he knew a K-pop writer, so then it was just Maggie, Chris Appelhans, Daniel, and me. We were the only musicians on the team. I was so excited because it was the first animated film based in Korea. I\u2019d never seen that before, and I knew I\u2019d love seeing our food, our city, and so many other aspects of Korean life animated for the world. We created a sort of blueprint musically, and that\u2019s how the movie got greenlit. Then more people came on, including Mark Sonnenblick, whom I worked with on \u201cGolden,\u201d and came on a bit later to help with building the story. The songs had to not only be great K-pop songs, but they had to forward the storytelling.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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In\u00a0Kpop Demon Hunters, you\u2019re the singing voice of Rumi. How do you see yourself as similar to the character you play?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Well, first, her hair is lavender, and that\u2019s my favorite color! She\u2019s also a workaholic and perfectionist, and I\u2019m both those things. I see her working so hard to achieve her goal of breaking her patterns and hiding her shame and insecurities, and that\u2019s exactly how I felt in my trainee days. I was always trying to hide what I thought were my flaws and look perfect. That struggle is really toxic to your mental health. The more you try to hide or ignore your imperfections or demons, the more they grow. There was just a point in my life when I had to accept who I was on so many levels and accept my voice. I am also related to Rumi, always trying to solve things on her own and look strong, even though doing that is exhausting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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How did \u201cGolden\u201d get written? What\u2019s the story behind the production of that song?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The directors gave us the guidelines for what the scene was about. In Demon Hunters, they had teams of songwriters and scenes we were in charge of, but they\u2019d have other writers work on it if they didn\u2019t like what we\u2019d done. \u201cGolden\u201d was the last song we worked on, but it\u2019s the \u201cI want\u201d song, and the introduction of all the characters and what their problems and goals are, so it was very important. It was also an anti-victory song. For example, you hear Rumi sing on the bridge about not hiding anymore, at exactly the same time, she\u2019s hiding her true self. She\u2019s so focused on being perfect in the Honmoon, striving for that goal, so desperate, that she\u2019s ruining herself. I really related to that on so many levels. As much as it\u2019s a hopeful song, it\u2019s also bittersweet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What are you hoping the film will do in terms of inspiring other Asian women who want to create?<\/p>\n
I think the film\u2019s and the song\u2019s success are already giving many girls hope, and I love that. Even though this is very unfamiliar territory for me, since I\u2019m so used to being behind the scenes, I think my being the face of this helps other Asian women see what\u2019s possible. There are stereotypes of Asian women being submissive, and it\u2019s really hard for us, so I want to kill that imposter syndrome, because I do know what that feels like. I really want to reach out to more Korean girls and mentor them. That\u2019s a goal I definitely have going forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Kpop Demon Hunters\u00a0is streaming now on\u00a0Netflix.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For more big titles on Netflix, check these out:<\/p>\n
\u201cA House of Dynamite\u201d Scribe Noah Oppenheim on His Real-Time Nuclear Thriller\u2019s Emotional Stakes & Shocking Ending<\/a><\/p>\n