You know a little trick I have? People are like, “How do you hit that note?” [singing] For fun, sometimes with my fiancé, when I’m acting like, cute, I’m like, “Babe.” It’s like literally the same thing. Like, just use the same technique when you sing. “Hey!” You’re welcome. I got into a really prestigious Korean record label as an 11-year-old. I had a whole future set out for me. I was like, “OK, I’m going to be a K-pop idol, huge superstar by like 18.” But yeah, it definitely didn’t pan out that way. I ended up being too old to become a K-pop idol. I was like 22. Technically, that’s young, but not for K-pop idol age. That’s actually considered like the “Grandma Age” is what they call it. Depression was a thing, but what helped me get out of it was thankfully, accidentally getting into songwriting. That’s how the journey began. My grandpa was a huge figure in the movie industry of Korea. He would always tell me you have to work hard to be successful. Always — like would drill that in my head. There’s a famous saying in Korea, which is like, “What you say out loud becomes your story.” So I think at a young age that was always kind of instilled in me. I was like, well, how do you become a superstar? So I would go on YouTube, and I would watch like interviews of Beyoncé as a kid working her butt off, like dancing and singing. So I would work tirelessly, like seven, eight hours of dancing and singing every day. I went through so many rejections. I’m like, what am I doing wrong? One of the reasons why I wanted to have some level of success in songwriting or something was because I was like, I always thought that I would have a crazy story to tell. “And the Oscar goes to —” I tried not to expect anything, but when I heard — “Golden.” “Golden,” I couldn’t believe it. I remember thinking, I heard that before you die, you have flashback for three seconds of your whole life. I felt like I had that moment walking down that aisle. I was thinking about my trainee days all up until my songwriting days, and how hard that was, to this moment. Yeah — just tears. I couldn’t help but cry. “Oh my God.” This was a moment where I was like, I do really want to perform in front of people. It was at the Brits. [singing “Golden”] There was like fans, actual Huntrix fans in the crowd. [singing “Golden”] I have stage fright, right. I heard this kid go, “Rumi, you got this.” And that gave me so much courage. Like, it’s so simple. But I sang so well that day. The love from the fans was just why I feel confident about my singing voice. I appreciate it a lot. So — oh gosh. OK, get in there. It was just so beautiful. And just like the pure form of love, in a way. I feel like I found kind of my purpose, which is representation, especially when I see a little Asian girl looking at me and be like, “I want to be like you.” You know, I never had that opportunity as a kid. Girls who look like me in the U.S. or pop stars or singers, they were all in Korea. So I felt like a responsibility of giving those, the younger generation and younger Asian kids, Asian girls, some hope.
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