The animated film “KPop Demon Hunters” is up for three Golden Globe Awards on Sunday.
The nominations include Best Motion Picture Animated, Cinema and Box Office Achievement, and Best Original Song for the hit “Golden.”
“Golden” hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for months. The whole “KPop Demon Hunters” soundtrack also topped the charts.
This animated film is Netflix’s most-watched film ever — and music is a big reason why.
The man behind the music, executive music producer Ian Eisendrath, tells us about his process.
What is this movie about?
“Oh, that’s always a tough one because it’s about so much. But I’d say in its essence, it is about a young woman who has been raised to be, really, the greatest singer of all time, the lead singer of the greatest K-pop group of all time. And the singers are saving the world by bringing people together through the power of connection that can only be found through music.
“By doing that, they’re sealing the Honmoon, which is the protective layer of the world that keeps the demons out. And our leading lady has a huge secret that is shrouded in shame, and that is that she is part demon, and the show is about her figuring out who she is, realizing that we are all made up of many parts, and that it’s only through vulnerability, honesty, and bringing all of our parts together that we can truly harmonize and save the world.”
Did you feel pressure to make good music for the movie?
“ A thousand percent. I think that first of all, the pressure — or the opportunity is another way to say — it came from [co-directors] Maggie [Kang] and Chris [Appelhans] and the studio’s vision that we really create an authentic K-pop girl group. And the way to do that is actually to use the people that have created that music, to actually go to the hit makers.
“I really do want to credit Spring Aspers, who’s president of Sony Pictures Music Department, and she immediately formed a really strong bond with The Black Label, who are behind so many groups, including BLACKPINK and the artist Rosé, and brought them on board our team, among many other K-pop artists. So we had this incredible stable of K-pop hit makers whose paths had never crossed before. But this was this crazy opportunity for all of this collaboration.
“So yes, the pressure was high, and that meant that there were dozens and dozens of songs written for the film that were thrown out until we found the perfect songs. And then it was about, once the songs were written, finding this vocal talent and shaping this vocal talent to become a group that had its own identity.”
Tell me about the first song, “How It’s Done.”
“This is one that had many stages of development early on. Ejae Kim, who everyone now knows as the voice of Rumi and lead singer of HUNTR/X, had created demos with Daniel Rojas, who contributed to the score. They’d created something called ‘Bite Back.’ It had a lot of the ferocity and intensity of ‘How It’s Done.’ So we actually ended up using some elements from that original song ‘Bite Back’ in terms of just sort of the feel and the vibe.
“We wanted to capture all of the intensity of these badass demon fighters, demon hunters. And like we needed to musicalize that right away. And basically, because what happens is these Saja Boys come along, the demon boy band that tries to steal the fans. But we had to establish that until then, these girls ruled the town.”
What’s it like making music for a film?
“ The story comes first. It feels like so much less of a blank screen to me than I think people might think it is, because if you know that there’s this boy band, they make the plan to steal the fans, and the way they’re going to do it is to become this really adorable group of singers, sort of in the style of BTS, and they’re going to show up and they’re going to look innocent. Well, so it tells you the kind of song you need, right? You need something that is disarming. You need something that’s super sweet and naive, a little bit like bubblegum pop, but actually, if you just listen to the words, it’s like, ‘Oh, these guys are actually parasites.’
“And then I think the way the story goes, we know that by the last 15 minutes of the film, the Saja Boys are now unmasked, so we get to see who these demons really are. Well, that demands something really tough, really dark. There were many, many influences that we had for that song, and so story dictates the music.”
What makes “This Is What It Sounds Like” a strong final song?
“ I will say this song, this moment, is the whole reason I wanted to do the film because I loved this idea of the world is separated by this shield that separates the humans from the demons. It’s very binary. It’s black or white, and Rumi doesn’t fit in that. And so she faces the demon king, and she does it by saying, ‘This is who I am. I’m not going to hide anymore. You are not going to separate me with shame and secrecy.’ And it is through standing in that truth and owning that, that she actually is willing to bring everyone together to create a new song that is going to be the song that is going to free the world.
“The idea of finding a hook that talks about singing, that talks about sound, it took a while to get to. There was a lot of different ideas on how to do this, but the point is that this is what truth and authenticity sound like. And it needed to be a song that could build, build, build into a giant demon battle and culminate with the entire stadium singing together.”
How do you write a catchy song?
“ That’s everyone’s goal and everyone’s question. There’s certainly a thing called a hook. The very simple, repeated melodic and or lyric idea, and it’s something that you’re always looking for in a song. Sometimes it’s where you start when you write it. Sometimes it’s where you end, but it’s like, what is that thing that can keep repeating over and over again? This is what it sounds like. ‘Be your idol.’ ‘My little soda pop.’ ‘How it’s done, done, done.’ ‘Gonna be, gonna be golden.’
“These are all these things that sort of repeat and cement their way into your mind and your ear, but there’s so many other things, right? There’s the beat. There’s the way the music opens up and builds the harmony.”
This interview was edited for clarity.
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Julia Corcoran produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Todd Mundt. Allison Hagan produced it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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