EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami Break Down 'KPop Demon Hunters’ Hit Songs

If I had to describe the recording process for K-pop Demon Hunters in three words, it would be challenging, weirdly like invigorating, and emotional. For once, I was so proud of being loud, being too much, but being myself because that's entirely who I am and that too muchness brought me in this chair today. So, ha! What's up? I'm Andrew Nuna and I am the singing voice for Hi, I'm EJ. I'm the singing voice for Rumi. My name is Rayami and I'm the singing voice of Zoe. Today, we're talking about the making of K-pop Demon Hunters and this is my side of the story. First time I worked on K-pop Demon Hunters. So long ago. I remember something that happened a week ago, so. So, I got the audition, I believe early June of 2024. I, you know, recorded every part of the segment except for the highest note in Golden, A5, and I was like, listen, I can try screeching and screaming and belting this note, but I think it's actually gonna hurt my chances. So, I just decided, you know what? I'm not gonna do it. Here's everything but that. Tell them, take it or leave it. Three days later, I got the offer. It was a really sunny day. We were walking to the studio. We worked at Power Station in Manhattan. And all the greatest legends have recorded in that studio and also it's haunted. Oh, wow. I didn't know that at the time. It was during COVID. I was in Korea doing like K-pop songwriting sessions. Daniel Rojas, a writer in the project, and he got me on the project and it was just me, him, and Maggie, Chris, and the producer at that time. And I remember Maggie just talking about how it's gonna be about K-pop and Demon Hunters and shamanism. It's like, this sounds amazing. If I had to describe the recording process for K-pop Demon Hunters in three words, it would be challenging. Challenging. Tedious. And emotional. Weirdly, like, invigorating. Liberating. What's a word for that? Heartwarming. Growth. Growth. I think they all, I connect with them in different ways. For me, was what it sounds like. I felt like all my life I did cover up so many colors and for stupid reasons. The perception the world might have of me is so, like, I always hid and I always tried to dim myself and make myself feel small. I'm not gonna cry. And so that song just was really emotional and it just made me think about all the times I minimized myself and there's a lot of shame in that, you know? For once, I was so proud of being loud, being too much, but being myself because that's entirely who I am and that too muchness brought me in this chair today. So, immediately on a visceral level, I love how it's done. It's so reminiscent of, you know, K-pop groups who really, I think, broke a lot of barriers. Whether it be 2NE1, Big Bang, I think I felt really seen, you know? Because I think there's an aggression, there's a boldness to it that a lot of the times you don't get to express that much as a Korean kid growing up in 2007. I think for me was Golden. I had a lot of connection to that song. I was really grateful that Maggie and Chris gave me the opportunity to write this section. Everyone's chemistry actually started flowing. The song itself is quite hopeful and I didn't feel hopeful at that time and it really did help me get through or made me feel like I can get through things at least. If I had to describe Golden in one word, it would be human. It gives yearning. Hope. We did so many takes of every single line. I was challenged to go outside of my range in terms of what I'm comfortable really projecting in my mid-range. When it comes to, like, choosing what parts are Korean was all, you know, from the director's guide and I love that they also chose the hook to have Korean in it because that's the part where most people, you know, remember and can repeat. 영원히 깨질 수 없는 part is my favorite. It's like forever unbreaking. It took me maybe one or two listens and I knew the whole song based off those and I think that's always such a great marker for incredible pop music. The stuff that really seeps into your bones. My first memory of performing Golden live was almost slipping on the stage at Jimmy Falun. If you don't count SNL, but technically we did sing that. Jimmy Falun. I had a panic attack right before the performance. No one knows how we look like and we're finally performing it live on one of the biggest shows in America. That's a lot of pressure. I remember being sweaty. Also, one of the hardest songs ever. I felt like I was in theater camp, you know. I felt like I was back in the space of it's just really fun. We didn't actually record together, so I think rehearsals is the space where we found so much synergy as people and as performers. My fiance and my manager kind of helped me get out of my head, which actually I didn't learn during my trainee days, which I wish I did, was to focus on the lyrics instead of focusing on your technique and your singing. So I kept focusing on hitting the high note. That ruined me. They were like kind of like stop focusing on that. Remember how the song when you were writing it, how did that make you feel? Focus on that and also just know that this song helps so many people. He got off stage and Ray was sobbing and EJ was crying and my emotionally constipated self was just like having existential crisis, but it was really beautiful. What was the hardest song for me to record was definitely Takedown. Takedown had a very specific flavor of challenge. I was rapping very aggressively in Korean for the first time. And Korean is a language I learned from my grandparents, so you know Korean culture is very heavy on respect. You will get smacked if you are disrespectful to your elders. This song where the girls are like really hating on the demons, so you have to have that like hatred energy. And so that was like a lot of my vocal cords I think. So I had to be like, I don't think you're ready for it. Like the whole time it doesn't stop. Even in the bridge it's like How It's Done, which is the intro of the film. Zoe's rapping is so fast. Sure we were enunciating every word, highlighting certain phrases, the timing, the rhythm, making sure it really aligned with the story. Being Grammy nominated is insane. Like I was when I found out. I was actually in my apartment in Koreatown on the couch. We were all on Zoom together. Obviously we didn't know that we were going to be nominated, but we figured you know we should do this because like we might. I was eating cheese bread and I was just, I remember almost feeling like I was going to vomit. I remember just immediately crying. Hard work paid off and I'm like, wait I was on the right road. Like I did the right thing. This whole film, working on it was definitely an emotional roller coaster in every way. I think it's interesting because I thought, oh this is pretty niche. You know this is a K-pop group. I know that K-pop has had such global support for a long time now, but and honestly when I went to Big Bang concert when I was 12 and I fainted there, it was crazy then too. But I just didn't think that it was going to become so mainstream the way that it has. I didn't expect that at all. One of the moments where I was like okay this has really really like huge potential was when I saw the drawings, the artwork. I was like so beautiful and I actually cried looking at it because again I've never seen Korea animated. I remember when I saw the storyboard and first iteration of What It Sounds Like, I was crying because I was like this is this is some this is just some good ----. On the last day of recording and it was What It Sounds Like and I got to finally hear the song and see the animation like the scene behind it. After I saw it I got really emotional and I look over to the computer screen where Ian is you know there and I'm like hey Ian I think we're gonna change the world and I went home and I was like oh you idiot why would you say that but I'm so glad I said that because it literally changed the world and it also changed mine. The day it came out like June 20th right, I remember getting off the plane and my phone was just like blowing up and my fiancé loves reddit and his reddit posts were all about k-pop event interviews. So he's like EJ like babe I think this is like getting pretty viral right now. I like go on tiktok and I would literally see this hajime soda pop challenge like it was all over tiktok and the biggest thing that made me feel like wow this is huge was when the fans kept going like we need to bring golden up to the charts we need the whole world to be sealed like it's so crazy how the movie just became reality. Your new single is on fire everyone's listening to it. When I found out that it's become the number one most watched not just animated just overall film in Netflix history that's not something you even like dare to dream of because that is such a big goal that is such a huge dream and you really have to have some balls to be that delusional and I can be very delusional but to that level it just like challenged me more to I don't know be even more delusional. I relate to Mira so much on so many levels. He's really not very similar she's incredibly hard-working she's a perfectionist she's uh likes to hide her insecurities. I resonate a little too much with Zoe. Zoe is so whimsical she is multifaceted there's a very dual personality with her the duality that she has. She can be the maknae and the sweetest she can also be the most fierce protected temperamental girl. She goes hard she gets real scary like so scary like you better watch out. We also both love pink. I think pink gives a sense of wonder about the world. I would say pink is the color of brains it's the color of bubblegum it's the color of um spam you know so sense of wonder of the world. Also the fact that Zoe grew up in America I was born in Seoul, South Korea. My family immigrated to Maryland when I was six years old and all my life I felt like I was living between two sides whether do I embrace my Korean heritage fully but at the same time like not be part of the cool kids or like be American enough or do I completely embrace my American side and completely abandon the Korean. I hope that any little kid at home who's Korean whether you're mixed with Korean whatever um just know that you should be so proud. I don't know if this project has necessarily changed the way I viewed myself as a performer as much as reminded me of why I do the things I do. After Jimmy Falun I was like wait I could do that what and then once I like started like stop focusing on the lyrics and just focusing on the synergy between me and the audience because they're all fans like it was so cool and like I felt the connection like oh wow this is why singers perform. Being a part of this film has made me fall in love even more with performing. It's put gasoline into that fire and it's made me like not want to pull back and lock in even more and harder and be more in people's faces because I don't care. I think that we all start making music and performing music because we do genuinely believe that music can bring joy to people. It's just really brought me closer to that essence of why I choose to dedicate my life to this craft.