KPop Demon Hunters has become a global phenomenon, in large part thanks to the film’s impeccable soundtrack. The movie musical recruited numerous real-life K-Pop creatives to bring an authentic edge to the film’s soundtrack, all while driving a fun action-adventure film. It was a unique challenge that the team behind the movie accomplished with some truly amazing results, leading to a soundtrack that’s been lighting up the music charts all around the world.

The impressive score helped turn the animated film into a major hit for Netflix. During an interview with ScreenRant, KPop Demon Hunters Executive Music Producer, Vocal Producer, and Conductor Ian Eisendrath discussed the challenges that came with making a soundtrack that worked both as a movie musical and a K-Pop album, how the music for the film developed, and what he’d want to bring from this experience into a potential sequel.

Making KPop Demon Hunters Musical Moments Sound Like An Authentic K-Pop Album

“It’s Something That Delivers On Everyone’s Expectations While Doing Something New”

The music for KPop Demon Hunters is one of the most universally acclaimed elements of the film, with the soundtrack exploding online in the weeks since the film debuted. “It’s thrilling​​​​​,” Eisendrath explained, saying that “I feel like the goal that we set out to accomplish was challenging. It could have gone terribly awry. I was really wondering, ‘What is the K-Pop audience going to think about these songs?’ At times, I was scared. Did I push them in the wrong direction?“

“The challenging thing about the songs for this film was creating songs for a K-Pop girl group that felt authentic. The same for the K-Pop boy band. One of the real missions was to create new K-Pop music that could really speak to modern audiences. It’s something that delivers on everyone’s expectations while doing something new. It seems like people are really connecting to it.” However, that wasn’t the only challenge of the music production, as the songs also had to move along the plot.

In many ways, KPop Demon Hunters is a musical that hides many of the conventions of that genre beneath the outer layer of catchy K-Pop tracks. “The other goal, which is where I think we could have really lost our way, was to create songs that fit the context of the film. A song does not start and end in the same place, story-wise. That the audience can feel that is critical to the story. Even with a performance song, we always want to make sure we’re using the real estate to shed light on story and characters.”

“Even a song that’s just a performance song has story subtext, which helps us understand and evolve into the next beat of the story. With all those goals, they could have easily gone the wrong direction and cross purposes. It’s just been so satisfying to develop, record, and produce these songs. Now, they’re being seen, in the movie and beyond it. That is what has been the most thrilling and satisfying thing to see.“

Balancing Musical Conventions And K-Pop Beats For KPop Demon Hunters

“It Really Gave Us The Opportunity To Do A Musical, But In An Almost Subversive Way”

Ian Eisendrath is no stranger to the world of musicals, as the music producer has worked as the Music Supervisor on several musicals over the years, including Come From Away, Diana, and A Christmas Story, The Musical. Those elements were useful tools in his repertoire during the production of KPop Demon Hunters, but Eisendrath also recognized the inherent challenge of getting audiences to dive headfirst into a musical film.

“I love live theater, I’ve done a lot of work on Broadway and all that. But people are incredibly suspicious of film musicals. I’ve worked on a lot of film musicals, and earning the right for a character to sing and having the audience be okay with that is such a challenge. It’s a pivotal thing. With Wicked, we all knew it. Everyone knows the musical, and they’re seeing the film in the context of it being a beloved musical.”

“For an original film that happens to be a musical, the first time a character opens their mouth is when you determine whether the film is going to work or not.” Looking back at his career, Eisendrath noted that there have been times when the musical execution failed to match the ambitions of the filmmakers, leaving him going “Oh, I did not sign up for this. This really belongs on stage!”

“So I think that’s something that’s been really gratifying about crafting [KPop Demon Hunters], because this is a world where characters sing as part of their reality. It really gave us the opportunity to do a musical, but in an almost subversive way, where the audience is not quite aware that it’s doing all the things that a musical does but in a way that feels authentic and disarming.”

“I have done those shows, those films, where it’s like, Oh, I did not sign up for this, and that really belongs on a stage. And so I think that’s been something really gratifying about crafting this is because we live in a world where characters sing as part of their reality. It really gave us the opportunity to do a musical, but in an almost subversive way, where the audience is not quite aware that it’s actually doing all the things that a musical musical does, yeah, but in a way that feels completely authentic and disarming.“

How The Music For KPop Demon Hunters Changed During Production

“I Got To Figure Out How To Make The Dream Team On Each Song”

One of the most surprising things about KPop Demon Hunters‘ soundtrack is how much the music evolved during production. While admitting that he goes back and forth on what his favorite song from the soundtrack is on a regular basis, Eisendrath explained that “I think the nice thing about having the time we had on this film, and with the demands of animation, the story is always changing so the songs had to change quite a bit too. I do feel like we ended up with songs we loved, and it was never the first thing written.”

According to Eisendrath, none of the songs that appear in KPop Demon Hunters were the original conceptions for these tracks. Instead, Eisendrath revealed that every song took multiple approaches to really develop into their best possible versions. “I’ve worked on film musicals and theater musicals where you end up with a song that functions better for the story, but it’s not the best song you wrote for that spot. I do think, because of how iterative this process was, we really did end up with the best songs for these spots.“

This is also where a lot of KPop Demon Hunters deep bench of actual pop stars and musicians came in very handy. Eisendrath was nothing but complimentary towards Sony Pictures President of Music Spring Aspers, revealing that “she brought me on board, and then she brought on this stable of writers and producers ot work with. We got to cast people. It was like, we wanted Black Label to create the production, but we’d love this person to create the top line and collaborate with this other person on the lyrics.“

Eisendrath explained how “on film musicals, there is just one writing team that does everything. You can skip figuring out who’s going to do what. But it was the most thrilling part of this, because I got to figure out how to make the dream team on each song. We had so many skills among all these writers. There are songs that started with one writing team and ended up with another. It was a really cool way to create songs. I know it’s always done like this in the pop music space, but rarely in the film musical space.”

Looking Back To The Biggest Surprises (And Ahead To A Potential KPop Demon Hunters 2)

“I Would Love To Dive Into This Again.”

The mᴀssive success of the film has naturally led to speculation regarding a potential sequel to KPop Demon Hunters and what that soundtrack could look like. Eisendrath revealed that “I’ve literally been told I’m not allowed to talk about it,” but did admit to his excitement about potentially revisiting these characters and this world. Looking ahead to a possible sequel, Eisendrath believes the biggest advantage going into a follow-up would be the way the first film perfected a pipeline approach to creating music that could streamline the creative process on a potential sequel.

“We were all learning to work together. It took time to figure out, working with all these artists, bi-coastal in the United States and internationally around the world. It took a beat to figure out how to make this stuff, how to set the tone and goal and approach to these songs. What I’m really excited about, if [a sequel] were to happen, would be the opportunity to build from where we left off. I can only imagine the results would be greater. I would love to dive into this again and just keep going and just keep building.”

Looking back at his experience on KPop Demon Hunters, Eisendrath admitted that one of the things that really surprised him on this film was how it proved to him that “everyone can be, and has the innate ability, to be a storyteller. So often in these film musicals, the writers tend to come from a narrative, theater background. Which was fantastic and created amazing results. Then you have writers at the top of their game in the pop music space, converting them to the narrative music space… it was surprising to keep discovering how to make these songs better.”

Check out our previous interview with the cast and directors.