Hot on the heels of our interview with Audrey Nuna — the singing voice of Mira in KPop Demon Hunters — we’ve got Ejae in the hot seat. Her journey to become the singing voice of Rumi is pretty different. The Korean-American singer spent 11 years as a trainee and was dropped before she debuted, ultimately finding her way into songwriting, via Tisch School of Arts, and even returning to the very KPop company who dropped her to pen hits for other acts like Red Velvet, Twice, and Le Sserafim.

We get the skinny on what it was really like being K-pop trainee, why she was dropped, what Tisch was like (her classmates included Lauv, Phoebe Ryan, and Fletcher), and how she broke into songwriting, eventually leading to her writing the pop juggernaut that is ‘Golden’ (Grammy nominated!), not to mention a bunch of the other songs on the soundtrack. And let’s just say writing for film is very different than writing for a pop group.

Rei Ami, Audrey Nuna, and Ejae have only recently started performing live together and Ejae’s still getting her feet wet when it comes to the stage — it can be panic-inducing — so we also get into that, plus her debut solo single ‘In Another World,’ and so much more!

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Chapters:

05:00 Growing Up Between Korea & America

10:00 Writing "Psycho" for Red Velvet

12:34 Dreams of Being Korean Beyoncé

15:00 The Birth of "Golden"

17:45 Why SM Entertainment Dropped Her

20:00 The Dark Side of Fame

22:10 From NYU to Songwriting Career

25:00 Performing Live & Stage Fright

27:30 First Song Ever Written Gets Cut

30:00 Hard Work Finally Pays Off

33:15 Writing for K-Pop Demon Hunters

36:40 Balancing Fame & Mental Health

40:00 The Importance of Having No Ego

43:20 Dream Collaborations & Future Goals

45:00 Defining Success & Artistry

48:10 Representation for Asian Women in Music

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Ejae Talks "Golden," KPop Demon Hunters and "In Another World"