‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Songwriter Reveals Music And Song Inspirations

Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters is the talk of the town, hitting No. 1 in 26 countries and Top 10 in 93 countries in its debut week. The soundtrack itself has also seen its fair share of No. 1 in iTunes Top Albums Chart, Apple Music Pop Charts, and is currently No. 5 on Spotify’s Weekly Top Albums globally.

The film centers on a girl K-pop group, Huntrix, who are secretly demon hunters sworn to protect the world from supernatural threats. When a rival boy band group, The Saja Boys, are revealed to be demons, the trio must do whatever it takes to defeat them – in battle and with their music.

With the massive popularity of K-pop, KPop Demon Hunters has sparked many debates and discussions on their inspirations. From their looks to the culture to the music, fans have been dissecting the film and its characters for any signs of real-life K-pop inspirations.

Director Maggie Kang shared that the art team found inspiration for Huntrix and The Saja Boys from several groups. She later clarified that there were too many people in and out of K-pop, from which they drew from. The writing team, who are K-pop fans themselves, conducted extensive research on incorporating K-pop fan culture, including the use of lightsticks, variety shows, music awards, and fan signs.

As for the music, the film collaborated with THEBLACKLABEL to create the instrumental music styles and enlisted several pop songwriters and lyricists to craft lyrics that matched the story. One of the songwriters (and the singing voice of Rumi), EJAE, who has worked with TWICE, aespa, and many other K-pop groups, revealed the process she went through to develop the songs sung by Huntrix and The Saja Boys. She wrote and arranged “The Huntrix Mantra,” “How It’s Done,” “Golden,” and “Your Idol.”

“[It was] a lot,” EJAE says. “There were so many versions of [all the songs]. We had different songs that they scrapped or they’ll hold. I think for one of the songs, I’m not even kidding. I did [around] 57 demos.”

She would be sent the scene descriptions along with the director’s notes on the desired track type, song references, and the intended vibe. THEBLACKLABEL would create the instrumental track and send it to EJAE and the other songwriters to write the lyrics, create the concept and melodies, and then record the demo to send back to the music team for notes. She says, “It was a lot of back and forth.”

For Huntrix, EJAE reveals the music was inspired by several K-pop artists, particularly BLACKPINK and (“a little bit of”) aespa. It made sense as BLACKPINK has worked closely with the team at THEBLACKLABEL since their debut. EJAE herself has written several songs for aespa, creating this cinematic sound for their music. She applied all of that to the songs for Huntrix.

“It was a mixture of the two,” she says. “I wanted BLACKPINK but [add that] cinematic [element]. They all wanted Rumi to have power vocals, so I cranked up my attitude, screaming [the vocals] in this little corner [of my apartment].”

One of the tracks written by EJAE and her writing partner, Mark Sonnenblick, has been getting a lot of attention for its sound and meaning behind the music. The song “Your Idol,” sung by The Saja Boys in their demon form, highlights the fandom’s obsession with them. She reveals the track was inspired by EXO’s songs “MAMA” and “Obsession.” EJAE recalls receiving the instrumental track from THEBLACKLABEL and executive music producer Ian Eisendrath with the EXO references and began working on the lyrics – with THEBLACKLABEL songwriters KUSH and VINCE.

“It’s about the obsession of fans [because the Saja Boys] want them to be obsessed [to control them],” she explains. “That sounds like what an Idol is. I was raised Christian and remembered it’s a sin to idolize something. So, it was like a twist of “I’ll be your Idol.” It was kinda creepy.”

If a real K-pop group sang “I’ll be your Idol,” it would be considered cute. That’s why she wanted to incorporate some demonic elements to make it creepy. She recalls some horror stories of fan obsession as a former K-pop trainee and used that as inspiration for the lyrics and arrangements.

“When the obsession gets too much, it’s really creepy,” she says. “So I thought being an Idol and being obsessive wasn’t the best thing, so I wrote that into the lyrics.”

EJAE was inspired by the choir portion of EXO’s “MAMA” and added her version into the song. She created the harmonies and sounds to evoke a cathedral – a place of worship for the Idols. She reveals the chorus intro to “Your Idol” was “The Huntrix Mantra” in reverse.

“I reversed [the audio] and harmonized that [on the demo],” she shares. “I was like, ‘Whoa, this sounds like a cathedral. [It was] weird. So, I did that and added harmonies to make it sound even creepier and have a kind of old Latin vibe.”

Eisendrath, who helped write and produce the song, brought in a Broadway vocalist to create the full choir for the track.

“Ian [Eisendrath] really brought it to life with him as a producer,” says EJAE.

She enjoyed experimenting with the music, adding more layers and putting her K-pop twist to it. Having only worked with girl groups, she had fun creating a boy band song, making the demos in a girl’s key, then pitching it down to sound like a guy. She laughs, “It was interesting.”

KPop Demon Hunters is available to stream on Netflix.