How Singer-Songwriter EJAE Found Rumi’s Voice In ‘KPop Demon Hunters’

Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters premiered nearly a week ago and has already set new records during its debut. The film reached No. 1 in 26 countries, was in the Top 10 in 93 countries, and hit No. 1 on the iTunes Top Album Charts, K-pop Charts, and Apple Music’s Pop and K-Pop Album Charts. Eight songs from the soundtrack are currently charting on the iTunes Top Songs tally, including “How It’s Done,” “Golden,” and “Your Idol.”

For singer-songwriter-producer EJAE, she is happy that her hard work – “blood, sweat, and tears” – is finally out there to the world.

“It’s surreal,” EJAE says through Zoom from her New York home. “It was the craziest rollercoaster ride. It was super worth it. I’m really happy that my hard work did something.”

The film centers on Huntrix, a K-pop girl group – comprising Rumi, Mira, and Zoey – that is also secretly a team of demon hunters, sworn to protect the world from supernatural threats. Things become messy when a popular rival boy band – The Saja Boys – are revealed to be demons. In the midst of the battle between good and evil, Rumi, who is half-Demon, must also come to terms with her heritage.

The Korean American songstress has been involved in the project since around late 2020-early 2021, serving as the vocal producer and songwriter for the film. During pre-production, she worked closely with composer Daniel Rojas, who brought her onto the project, before collaborating with executive music producer Ian Eisendrath to develop the songs in line with the story.

Best known for her work writing for K-pop artists like Red Velvet, TWICE, aespa, and many more, KPop Demon Hunters was EJAE’s first film project. She was given descriptions of how the story was going to unfold, then had to create a song based on those. It was very difficult, as she had to use her imagination. She created so many demos, but as the story evolved, so did the music. THEBLACKLABEL then signed on to provide the tracks.

“A lot has changed,” says EJAE. “Almost all the songs have changed, except [the song, “How It’s Done”]. The evolution [of the music] is incredibly crazy. It was really fast paced [after THEBLACKLABEL and Eisendrath joined].”

In the early stages of song creation, it was fun for the writing team because they were experimenting with different sounds (“What’s a demonic sound?”) and blending traditional Korean sounds and instruments with modern K-pop elements. There were a lot of edits and cuts as the scenes kept changing.

“That was an interesting process,” she recalls. “I’ve never done it before, so it was really cool seeing the process.”

She had a great working relationship with THEBLACKLABEL before the film, so she knew how they worked. The directors – Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans – would tell the producing and writing team what kind of track they wanted and provide references of songs to create that vibe, along with a description of the scene for the lyrics. THEBLACKLABEL would create an instrumental track for EJAE and her co-writer, Mark Sonnenblick, to write the lyrics and find the concept and melody. She would then record the demo, including the lead, background vocals, and harmonies. Once that is completed, they would send it over to see what they wanted to change. She recalls “a lot of going back and forth online.”

Her voice became the base for all the demos, including The Saja Boys song, “Your Idol” (“I sang it in the girl’s key and would pitch it down. I pitch every harmony and every vocal down to sound like a guy”). The directors and producers wanted Rumi’s voice to be a lower register than the other two characters, which matched perfectly with EJAE’s voice. Because she was so close to the source material, it made sense for her to be the singing voice for Rumi. (Arden Cho plays Rumi’s speaking part.)

“It was a natural process because I’ve been singing all the Rumi’s parts,” says EJAE. “I was singing Mira and Zoey’s parts, including the raps. I got to use my voice, as I wrote some of the songs. It was naturally connected to me. I express myself more if it’s a melody or a lyric that I wrote. I think that helped me, even with the directors, on how they wanted Rumi’s voice to be.”

She was most excited to portray Rumi because EJAE felt connected to Rumi’s story. She shares, “I was honestly super excited, because I freaking love this character. I resonate so much with the character.”

As a former K-pop trainee, EJAE had to undergo the K-pop idol process, but also had to change many aspects of herself to fit the expectations. She recalls the scene where Celine, Rumi’s guardian, tells Rumi that she has to hide her demon side. That scene was the story of EJAE’s life. She comes from a long line ot entertainers, who emphasized physical appearance.

“That’s the part where you have to hide your insecurities,” says EJAE. “You can’t be too masculine. You can’t be too outspoken. You’re not feminine enough. You can’t be big and so forth. I’m very loud. It just resonated with me. I feel all Koreans can relate to this high standard. It’s so much perfectionist pressure – that’s how it felt to me. Sometimes it’s okay to be broken. That’s what makes you human. When you’re at your worst is when you learn the most. You learn from your mistakes.”

She loved the film’s message of acceptance and seeing the beauty of being in both worlds for Rumi. EJAE could relate as a Korean American who lived and worked in Korea and America. The movie itself is an American production that centers on a Korean story and culture.

“It’s a beautiful thing that we have two different sides that we get pulled back and forth,” she says. “It’s fun. Sometimes I could be more Korean. The fact that I have that choice, there’s beauty to that. I see it as a prideful thing for me that I’m both. Everything is both, right? Even the color green, [it’s the result of] yellow and blue mixed together to create this beautiful color. That’s how I see being Korean American.”

It’s another reason why EJAE was the perfect person to work on the music. For the most part, the songs were mainly in English, but there were moments when Korean was used, adding authenticity to the story. She feels blessed to be bilingual, not only in the language, but also in both cultures.

“That really helped when I was writing [the songs] because I know Korean culture,” EJAE says. “I know the idioms in Korean. I watch K-dramas, and I trained as an idol myself. My Korean is good. English is my first language. So, when I was writing the lyrics, I wanted [both languages to flow] to make sense.”

KPop Demon Hunters marks EJAE’s first acting credit as the singing voice for Rumi. Critics have praised her powerful performance in the film. In the final act of the film, Rumi is slowly coming to terms with her identity, bruised and broken. As she sings “This is What It Sounds Like” towards the evil demons, she begins to feel empowered and confident, and is reunited with her fellow Hunters. There is so much emotion and vulnerability in EJAE’s voice throughout the songs.

“I think singing is acting in a way,” she describes. “Writing the songs helped because when I was writing it, I was honed in on that emotion. So naturally, when I sing it, it releases my stress and inner trauma. The melody and everything were just so beautiful. “This is What It Sounds Like” was awesome. They gave me the freedom to do a lot of the vocal arrangement and the harmonies like a finale.”

She credits Eisendrath for guiding her through the emotions in the scenes. EJAE has never had vocal direction like this before, especially since she didn’t have the animation in front of her when she recorded. She was performing the songs blindly.

“Ian was a huge help,” EJAE recalls. “He killed it being the middle person. It’s not easy. I’ve never had vocal direction like this before. He’d tell me when the character is depressed here or when they’re hopeful here or ‘Rumi’s come out of their shell!’ That really helped me so much with the vocal direction.”

Though EJAE admits that it was a lot of hard work and long days of writing, arranging, singing, and editing, she said it was worth it. She does find it weird to hear her voice everywhere on social media. She’s used to hearing her voice in demos, but people have been sending her TikTok videos of people listening to her songs from the soundtrack. She also found it very serendipitous being part of Huntrix because, at one point in her life, EJAE was set to debut with a girl trio group.

“It’s weird,” she laughs. “It was perfect for me because when I was 25, I didn’t want to be an artist anymore. I was too scared. I don’t think I have thick enough skin for this. I have so much respect for all these artists. But, I literally said, ‘if I ever become an artist, I want to be like an animated character, singing from behind the scenes. Just use my voice. [Then this happened and] I was like, ‘Oh cool.’”

KPop Demon Hunters is available to stream now on Netflix.