{"id":276224,"date":"2025-11-07T00:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T00:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/276224\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T00:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T00:49:08","slug":"ejae-mark-sonnenblick-on-writing-golden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/276224\/","title":{"rendered":"EJAE & Mark Sonnenblick On Writing “Golden”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMany layers went into the process of creating \u201cGolden,\u201d the breakout anthem from Netflix<\/a>\u2019s most-watched film ever, KPop Demon Hunters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt Deadline\u2019s Sound & Screen: Film event, singer-songwriter EJAE<\/a>, who sings the vocals for the film\u2019s main character Rumi (voiced by Arden Cho), unpacked the creation process with co-writer Mark Sonnenblick<\/a>. Since its debut on the streamer in June, the film has netted 325 million global views, with its soundtrack racking up 8.3 billion streams.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEvery line and every 10 seconds of the song has to do something different because it\u2019s a move. It has to be on story and figuring out. I mean, this was the seventh song that was written for this slot,\u201d Sonnenblick explained. \u201cPart of what really clicked with this version of it, aside from this amazing track and its iconic dentist melody, everyone had the best sense of what exactly needed to happen storywise. It\u2019s a song about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEJAE first came up with the melody on the way to the dentist, and she played the original voice memo for the audience at UCLA\u2019s Royce Hall. \u201cGolden\u201d has amassed 952 million streams on Spotify.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe track had this bittersweet sound to it that instantly required me to create a melody, but when I was making the melody, it was always with the intention of what the directors wanted in that scene,\u201d she said. \u201cMaggie [Kang] really did want a scale going up melodically and also being really hard. She said, \u2018I want a high note the main character can almost hit.\u2019 That was all intentional.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pair demonstrated an early draft of the song with longer, more theatrical lyrics that were edited down for the final version. Part of the revision process involved taking into consideration the imagery in the film while the song played to infer how much audiences would interpret from that in conjunction with the lyrics. Certain details in the animation allowed EJAE and Sonnenblick to simplify some lyrics. For example, \u201ccovered in the poison that\u2019s inked on my skin\u201d was an early line that was simplified because Rumi visibly demonstrates this image by taking off a robe to show her shoulders.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe first four lines are Rumi\u2019s anxiety about inheriting this role from her mother who was also a hunter. Then you see in the animation, you have Zoey\u2019s backstory with two lives. That\u2019s literally because she\u2019s pulled between two cultures and two homes. And then you have two lines about Mira,\u201d Sonnenblick added. \u201cBut really dialing in. \u2018Okay, what is the story you need to hear about these characters in that moment?\u2019 And then, in a cool way, you get to the bridge, where you\u2019re in a pop song, the literal pop song they\u2019re releasing. The bridge is Rumi alone, singing her feelings like a musical that is not diegetic. You have the song in universe that then the bridge is actually her, singing something that is not a part of the song.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEJAE compared the combination of watching the film and hearing the song versus just listening to the song, emphasizing that the movie\u2019s story gives the song that much more meaning.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Kpop Demon Hunters\u2019 Stars Arden Cho, May Hong & Ji-young Yoo On Portraying \u201cVulnerable Girls Who Also Kick Ass\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe concept of duality is so layered in the whole film. The song in general, if you just hear it as a pop song and you haven\u2019t seen the film, it\u2019s a great pop song,\u201d she said. \u201cBut if you watch the film, it has a completely different meaning. In the bridge, again, you see the depth of the song and the lyric and what the song really means when you watch the film.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA sequel film is being eyed for 2029<\/a>, but EJAE and Sonnenblick remained tight-lipped when asked if they had any upcoming dentist appointments.<\/p>\n

\n\tCheck back Monday for the panel video.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many layers went into the process of creating \u201cGolden,\u201d the breakout anthem from Netflix\u2019s most-watched film ever, KPop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[81903,88,2696,146961,216,217,146962],"class_list":{"0":"post-276224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ejae","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-kpop-demon-hunters","11":"tag-mark-sonnenblick","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-netflix","14":"tag-sound-and-screen"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}