- 18 minutes ago
REI AMI is finally shining like she was born to be, as singing on the massive cultural phenomenon, “Golden,” from 'K-Pop Demon Hunters,' has introduced the artist to a new set of fans, and helped her find a new path in pursuit of making music. “2LOUD” is the latest offering from REI AMI, and she stopped by the Hard Rock Hotel New York to talk with Mike Adam about the song’s inspiration, and how her experience with “Golden” helped her find her voice.
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00:03We are at the Hard Rock Hotel New York this is your odyssey check-in with Rae Ami
00:09hello hello it is I yeah I'm so glad you're here um we're gonna get to the new music all
00:14that stuff
00:15uh first I want to see if you saw Kelly Clarkson's cover of good man like what that one that's
00:23not
00:23an easy song to sing live that but that was just cake because that's Kelly Clarkson that was another
00:28Tuesday for her for real you know it's so crazy because we were talking about this for like a long
00:32time we were like of all people who are gonna cover this song it's like we're like if Kelly Clarkson
00:37covers golden like it's a wrap yeah she might as well just start performing it now I mean she killed
00:43it and she saved it for the last show of her talk show like that's insane genius beautiful also thank
00:49you like that's so much love Kelly we love you miss independent I know so I got one uh k
00:56-pop demon
00:56hunter's question then we're gonna move on for it have we figured out the the huntrix netflix
01:02tour because I'm not trying to take my son to see a hologram of you oh like are are you
01:09gonna be out
01:09what's up so I I actually have no information
01:12and I feel like even even if I did yeah right right legally I could tell you nothing sorry Netflix
01:20fine fine let's move on to something you could talk about too loud is it's so good the production
01:28is phenomenal the melodies are phenomenal your rap on it's a perfect pop song oh my god I love it
01:33such an honor thank you so much no I I couldn't think of a better way to reintroduce myself to
01:38the world post you know k-pop demon hunters it's been crazy but you know I think for a lot
01:43of my newer
01:43audience they they're not familiar with like my uh journey as an artist previous to uh k-pop demon
01:49hunters so I you know wanted to come out the gate with a very um proud uh declaration of who
01:59I am
01:59and the very traits and parts of me that brought me here today where'd that come in the uh project
02:06process was that like one of the first songs to be done or okay it was probably one of the
02:11last
02:12few records we recorded it was back in I believe it was I was at the Hannah Montana 20th anniversary
02:19special and I went to that event and then I went directly to Paramount Studios after it was that
02:24night yeah so it was probably a few months ago you're like I'm inspired I was like Miley Cyrus my
02:30one of
02:30my idols has been in front of me and I'm at her event like I I had to channel that
02:35yeah and you know
02:36like you know even if you look at Miley's like journey she's had like a crazy ride right sure and
02:41you
02:41know she was tied to Disney she was a child star blah blah and so I like felt like kind
02:46of I saw many
02:48similarities and I guess subconsciously like I went into the studio and I'm that's yeah yeah well she's
02:54the blueprint right she's she's reinvented herself so many times that's what you want exactly um so what
03:01did your parents think when they first heard this song I imagine it was a very different reaction from
03:06when they heard snow cone or whatever oh my god my mom was actually so happy what okay because they
03:12heard the hook right um and they were just like you're finally singing again like like really
03:17singing and like my dad has always been like you know he knows you know I love to rap and
03:22I love to
03:23do other things but he's like you have such a beautiful voice and you don't use it a lot in
03:26your
03:26music and I don't understand why yeah and and due to personal reasons there were there were many
03:31reasons as to why I like kept that tucked away yeah um but I think uh especially recording for
03:37k-pop demon hunters working closely with ej too who's such a powerhouse vocalist and also someone I
03:42consider to be like an older sister and just someone I trust dearly she really got me out of my
03:48head and
03:49out of my own body when it came to singing and she was like you have this voice that no
03:53one's heard
03:54you you sing in ways that like I had no idea you could sing and I just don't understand why
03:59you're
03:59not showcasing this and I think again it ties in perfectly with too loud like yeah I can sing and
04:05I can do these things and especially with the uh the rest of the album there's just their records
04:10where yeah like I've never sang like that before or at least I've never shown the world that side of
04:15me so I'm very excited I love that so growing up um were you told you were too loud or
04:22too much or
04:23so it's a really interesting story so like when I was living in Korea because I was born in Seoul
04:27yeah um up until like the age of like six seven I was really shy okay I I like would
04:34perform little
04:35things at school but I would be petrified my face would get red I would freeze up right I don't
04:40know
04:41what the switch was but I think once I moved to the states and I maybe it was the cheetah
04:45girls
04:47maybe was watching the cheetah girls for the first time and seeing Galleria lock in yeah and I was
04:53like I I want to do this and I want to be this so I I think once I really
04:57started like admiring pop
04:59girls and diving into their work I think that like brought the sense of like confidence in me and the
05:05self-assurance and then and deep down I knew this is what I wanted to do and I think the
05:09more I started
05:09to perform um yeah the confidence was there and I was very proud of my skills and my talents and
05:16my
05:16accomplishments and I'm quite an expressive person yeah yeah and um you know sometimes people don't
05:23react too well to that I don't know why it's not my problem but yeah I have been told I'm
05:28a little too
05:28much a little too extra especially I feel like in this last campaign you know when you are thrusted into
05:34that crazy level of visibility yeah yeah having like millions and millions of people like talk
05:39about you without knowing a single thing about you right right right you know and some preconceived
05:44notion or whatever like just assuming making judgments or just like flat-out rumors and lies
05:49you know um and so like you know eventually I had to really stop reading the comments and engaging but
05:55like there were times yeah I saw those comments of like she's too much yeah doing too much she's too
05:59loud she needs to be quiet yeah yeah and no I don't need to be quiet you shut the fuck
06:04up
06:04sorry all good beep beep beep beep beep shut up bitch yeah I can that's so crazy you everything
06:11I've watched of you you exude so much confidence I can't imagine you shy so you know thank you
06:16cheetah girls yeah I am shy though I'm an introvert I know that's hard to believe well it's funny before
06:22we got on camera you said you know after you're doing this radio run in this promo run you're like
06:27I need to go home and recharge my battery so I get that like I feel that heavily you know
06:33um so
06:33can you recall like when you were sneaking these album cds into your home and listening to stuff
06:40without your parents what were like some of the first albums okay so no actually it was more like
06:45on yahoo music when the music video pages were happening yes yes so I would so we had the family
06:50computer you know like the bulky screen and you had to push the button on the yeah it was like
06:55one of
06:56those setups but how'd you keep it hidden from your my parents you know they're blue collar immigrant
07:00yeah yeah they worked very long hours so it was just honestly me and my sister we'd get home and
07:05it wasn't until like 7 p.m that my dad would come home and like 10 p.m my mom
07:09would come home so
07:10we had a few hours to ourselves yeah yeah and she was on the same shit I was like anyways
07:16but the
07:16I remember the first ever music video that I clicked on was Survivor by Destiny's Child oh wow and that's
07:23that was my first introduction to Destiny's Child and Beyonce and then that led to uh We Belong
07:29Together by Mariah Carey yeah yeah yeah and then Britney and then Christina and all of it um so it
07:35was around like you know that era Pussy Hot Dolls was a huge one for me they I was just
07:40obsessed I love
07:41all the girl groups and like women empowerment that pop royalty hello yes yes I was raised and and I
07:48studied the greats of pop and um yeah that's like literally I would just you know download things one
07:55time my dad saw my iTunes pop up and there was birthday sex by Jeremiah and he told me I
08:00was going
08:00to hell yeah I was in like sixth grade I don't know why I was listening to birthday sex did
08:06dad just see
08:07the title or did he listen to the he listened to the song oh okay now if he heard the
08:12song I feel
08:13like that would be a get it oh okay because it's a fire song yeah yeah so you think the
08:19punishment
08:19would have been lesser if he listened to the song I think it would have been worse yeah no sorry
08:24I'm
08:24just yeah yeah so do you think fans will be able to hear any uh of your music influences on
08:33this album
08:34yeah okay I think so especially um production wise I feel like a lot of the references um that I
08:43channeled for this album they come directly from a lot of the pop inspiration that I grew up with
08:50um I've always been a pop girly at heart I think my previous work while yes I love it it's
08:55so me
08:56but it is an older version of me a past version of me a very angry resentful hurt version of
09:01me where I
09:02was so unhappy and miserable and you know like I I will always you know transmute like whatever
09:09negative energy and like turn it into something great right but I'm I'm like I'm not mad anymore
09:15yeah I'm really happy yeah I have a lot of peace in my life um I feel joy a lot
09:22more um and I just I
09:25wanted this next chapter to really be about that to be about expressing and feeling joy because it's
09:34so new to me and it's so such a first for me and it's something that I've been chasing for
09:39a very
09:39long time especially in this crazy industry that we're in yeah you know how I can guess it's a lot
09:44absolutely um and I think for the first time ever I really felt free to be myself and to be
09:51vulnerable and honest in a way that's reflective and not necessarily
09:57right right right but also I mean obviously there is that side too but um yeah it's it's really more
10:02I want people to feel happy so it's done done the track list is set in stone all that I
10:08would say
10:08like 95 percent I I'm a believer that the album is never done I feel like you're always like that
10:13so somebody's got to pry it from your hands you're a little like perfectionist a little bit I think
10:18I will know but it's like you know there are cases of like artists like throw like recording
10:24a song the night before it drops and they throw it in the album and then it ends up being
10:28like yeah
10:28right right yeah so it's like it's never technically over yeah so I'm you know no matter what I will
10:34always be in the studio just like figuring out what I want to make and just keep doing that it
10:39sounds
10:39like this should be a solo dolo project like you reintroducing yourself you should take that whole
10:46thing but did you reach out to anybody for features or um are there surprises you don't need
10:52to tell me like I mean of course if you want to name drop I did two years ago but
11:00I don't know maybe
11:02it's more like a remix situation I don't really hear too many features like even like I like sat down
11:08for like multiple days and I was like who would be a great feature on it and I just I
11:13don't know I
11:13love the idea also of having a debut album no features yeah because and you sing and rap it's
11:19like yeah like with too loud I feel like I am my own feature in the second right right exactly
11:24so it's
11:25like I I know I can bring that versatility obviously there's so many people I do want to collaborate
11:29with um but you know we'll cross that bridge when we get there and when it feels right uh before
11:35we
11:35wrap ray um what is one question you never want to be asked again and it can't be anything from
11:43this interview because they'll fire yeah no no oh my god this this interview is probably scrapped from
11:49the internet because apparently those people got canceled um but they how do we it was years ago I'm
11:56trying to remember they just asked I'm pretty sure they asked me what my favorite sex position was and
12:00I was like that is absolutely disgusting yeah who the sorry who the fuck raised you how dare you ask
12:06such an unprofessional question to a female artist also my thing is like female empowerment right
12:12right right female bodily autonomy and like a right a woman's right to choose how dare like you clearly
12:17I hope you just walked off yeah no I was like I'm not answering I literally was just like why
12:22would
12:22you ask me that you know what's crazy I feel like sometimes people feel like when it's at the start
12:28of certain artists careers they feel like they can push yeah you know what I mean and it's just I
12:35mean it's disgusting right right don't do that don't be that don't don't be that person yeah man I am
12:41so
12:41excited about all the stuff you have going on like I said the song is phenomenal you were just this
12:46ball of light and everything I've watched of you I was like man she is so badass thank you thank
12:51you for
12:51taking out the time thank you odyssey
12:53you
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