Cover: Mark Sonnenblick and EJAE together. Photograph: Dana Scruggs / Netflix, via their Tudum interview.
The first spark of Golden arrived on the way to a dentist appointment. EJAE was in a taxi when she received a track from THEBLACKLABEL’s Teddy, IDO and 24. She started recording ideas into her phone.
That is a good origin story, but it is only the beginning. Turning the idea into a song for KPop Demon Hunters meant solving a harder problem: how could a huge, hopeful chorus carry a character’s uncertainty without losing its pop appeal?
A song written for a particular moment
Directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans needed music that belonged both to the fictional group HUNTR/X and to the film around it. Rumi, Mira and Zoey could not simply stop the story to perform an unrelated hit.
In TheWrap’s interview with the writers, Sonnenblick explains that several songs had already been considered for this point in the film. The right answer depended on the filmmakers understanding exactly where the characters were emotionally.
That matters because a promising song can still be wrong for a scene. Golden emerged when the needs of the story and the writers’ musical approach began to meet.
The track, the voice memo and the collaborator
EJAE told Netflix’s Tudum that the instrumental track gave her an immediate emotional foundation. Her first response was melodic: sing something, catch it on the phone, then bring it into the writing process.
Sonnenblick came from musical theatre. EJAE brought experience writing pop songs as well as the voice of Rumi. Their different instincts gave them a useful way to test each other’s ideas.
A melody had to feel good to sing. A lyric had to make sense for the person singing it. The finished song needed both tests, repeatedly.
Why the personal connection mattered
For EJAE, Rumi’s pressure to be perfect was familiar. In the Tudum conversation, she connects that feeling with her own years as a trainee. She could recognise the gap between presenting confidence and privately struggling to meet an expectation.
That connection gave the performance something more specific than a general message about following your dreams. The singer understood the effort of trying to appear ready.
The high note had a storytelling job
The vocal peak was deliberately demanding. In her Music Week interview, EJAE describes the directors wanting a note that felt almost impossible.
It demonstrates what Rumi’s voice can do, while giving the film something tangible to put at risk. The audience hears the height she is trying to reach.
This is a useful example of music participating in the drama. The technical difficulty is not separate from the character. It becomes one way of understanding the pressure she carries.
An early draft is not a finished record
The taxi memo makes the process sound sudden. EJAE’s account of the work afterwards is much less instant: she told Music Week that the team spent a month or two refining the song. She also describes producing her own vocals and recording its harmonies.
Those layers are part of the storytelling too. A first melody can establish the feeling, but arrangement, performance and revision decide how clearly that feeling reaches the listener.
What filmmakers can take from Golden
- Give the song a dramatic purpose. Define what changes for the character during the scene.
- Let collaborators bring different instincts. Pop craft and theatre writing can challenge and strengthen each other.
- Keep the first spark, then keep working. A voice memo captures an idea; it does not replace the decisions needed to finish it.
- Make a musical choice carry meaning. A difficult note can reveal something about a character, as well as impress an audience.
Golden is worth revisiting with that process in mind. The scale of the chorus is easy to notice. The more revealing question is what the person singing it still needs to believe.
For another story about finding a film’s emotional centre through music, read how Hans Zimmer and Roger Sayer developed Interstellar’s organ sound.
