Singer-songwriter EJAE says she joined KPop Demon Hunters back in 2020 when it was a small creative team trying to put together an animated musical movie that would eventually become a global phenomenon.

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Her first creation with co-director and co-writer Chris Appelhans, co-writer Danya Jimenez and music producer Ian Eisendrath was "How It's Done."

"It was a lot of pressure, but I was writing a lot of girl crush songs back then, so it was really fun to experiment with my voice. It had to be iconic -- girls slaying it and killing it," EJAE said at a special screening of the film this week. "That's how it started, I think."

EJAE would ultimately provide the singing voice for heroine Rumi, as well as several songs for the Netflix sensation, which was recently nominated for three Golden Globes and five Grammys, including Song of the Year for "Golden."

The film follows a trio of pop stars who perform under the name HUNTR/X and fight evil in their downtime.

EJAE and her fellow HUNTR/X singers Audrey Nuna (Mira) and Rei Ami (Zoey) were honored at The Year In TIME event in New York on Wednesday.

"We had a beautiful pitch to the studio. We had beautiful artwork and our whole story structure and character arcs. But fundamental to that was, there's these women who have supernatural gifts of song that always can stir your soul," explained Appelhans.

"EJAE did two demos and we were like, 'Well, sure, we just found our HUNTR/X,'" he added. "We did this whole pitch and then they were like, 'OK, this sounds really cool, but it's a bit of a reach.'"

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The director said that after the studio executives heard EJAE's music, however, they green-lit the project.

"I didn't know that part," EJAE quipped.

"I should have told you earlier," Appelhans replied.

It wasn't always the plan for EJAE to actually sing in the movie.

"To me, I thought you guys got really used to my voice," she told Appelhans, Eisendrath and songwriter Mark Sonnenblick.

"But, then you guys were really kind enough to be like, 'Yeah, so, do you want to sing for Rumi?' At first, I was hesitant," she recalled. "I was like, 'Let me think about it,' because I'm just so used to being behind the scenes and just writing, but then I thought: 'It's animation. I don't have to sing it live.' Cut to, look, here I am."

EJAE has now sung the songs live at numerous high-profile events, including on The Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The artist described the Demon Hunters experience as a true collaboration between artists with different talents and styles, and strong opinions.

"If I find a good melody, I'm really adamant. I'm like: 'I don't care what it is. The words better make the melody sound amazing. Don't ruin the melody with words,'" she said.

"And Mark was also very adamant about the storytelling," EJAE added. "So, oftentimes, with Mark, I always have a bunch of melodic ideas down. I also vocal produce and record my melodies down when I think of it."