KPop Demon Hunters has been a cultural phenomenon for six months now, and it’s surprising to me that Ejae, the songwriter and singing voice of main character Rumi, hadn’t already revealed every demo for the film’s soundtrack months ago. My favorite song on the soundtrack is the closing number, “What it Sounds Like,” in which Rumi and the rest of the Huntr/x girls come together, sing apologies to each other across a crowded stadium, and then defeat the demon king Gwi-ma. It is an incredible, anthemic finale that ties everything the movie has said and done together in one ensemble performance. It turns out, the demo laid that on a little thicker.
Ejae sat down with YouTuber Daniel Wall for a lengthy interview discussing her process and playing demos of the film’s songs. She is the sole vocalist on these early recordings, as they were meant to be proofs of concept for the songs that would finally appear in the film, and other vocalists, like the other two members of Huntr/x, Rei Ami and Audrey Nuna, hadn’t recorded their parts yet.
Among these demos is one for “What It Sounds Like,” which was already meant to be the final song in the movie in these early stages. The final version of the song has the crowd singing the Korean “Hunter’s Mantra” underneath the final chorus, but surprisingly the demo version actually had the big closing number drawing from every song in the soundtrack, with a full medley of songs like “Free” and “How It’s Done” mixed in. Notably, you won’t hear Huntr/x’s award-winning lead single “Golden” in the mix here, as that song hadn’t been written yet. You can hear Ejae play the demo in full at the 1:21:31 mark of the full interview:
The interpolation is one amazing difference between the demo and the final version, but I also gotta call out the incredible harmonies throughout. A lot of those are still in “What It Sounds Like,” but that final mix does foreground Rumi’s voice over those of the other two Huntr/x girls to bring the melody out. I get why it was mixed that way, but I love the three-part harmonies of the song and wish you could hear Zoey and Mira’s parts better in the final piece. So hearing Rumi’s multiple tracks dancing around each other here is delightful.
Just when I thought I couldn’t love this song more, I get to hear it in a new way. It was actually my top song on my Spotify Wrapped this year. Don’t ask how many times I listened to it in 2025.
772.
