sundial
Jisu Kim and Dorothy Chan are the pop-duo that everybody needs in their life. The two artists make up sundial, a project which has seen great success since its start over four years ago. They first began making music together in college and rose to popularity after the success of “your text” in 2016. The song was a viral hit and currently has over 14 million Spotify streams. Since then, the duo has continued to put together an impressive catalog which was marked by the yours EP and a group of non-album singles. This includes the infectious melodies of 2019’s “that’s love” and their most recent hit, “sometimes i hate you.” Their songwriting process has seen changes over the years, something that both artists agree is a good thing. “In the beginning, we focused a lot on the technical aspects of music,” Dorothy explained. “Looking back, I definitely hid behind cool sounds and cool chords because I wasn’t comfortable with being vulnerable in my songwriting...I’ve learned that I feel most creatively fulfilled when I’m open and honest.” sundial continues to grow their following now with over 200k monthly listeners. Their most recent song, “i just want someone to love me”, is out now! We talked to the duo about their start in the industry, who they owe their biggest thanks to, and more!
Hey sundial! Thanks for speaking with us! Let’s start off with an introduction. How did you guys get started making music.
Hi! Thanks for having us :) We met during college and played a lot of music together. One day we decided to make a song, and that’s how we made “your scarf”.
You’ve been releasing music together for four years now. What has changed the most about your music during this time?
Dorothy: In the beginning, we focused a lot on the technical aspects of music. Looking back, I definitely hid behind cool sounds and cool chords because I wasn’t comfortable with being vulnerable in my songwriting. But overtime, I’ve learned that I feel most creatively fulfilled when I’m open and honest.
Jisu: We used to write songs second by second, but sometimes when you’re so zoomed in like that, the original intent of the song escapes you. Now that we’re starting every song with a strong concept in mind, all the elements created supports that, rather than having something sound good for the sake of it sounding good.
After so many of your songs have received significant success, it’s clear that you two are doing something right. With that said, what is the best part of working as a duo?
J: We come from very different backgrounds. Dorothy grew up playing classical piano with a singer-songwriter background, whereas I played cello and listened to post-hardcore/electronic music. Whatever one person lacks in, the other comes in and fills those holes nicely like a puzzle piece. There hasn’t been an idea/concept yet that I felt like we couldn’t create.
Your song “your text” is still a fan favorite four years after its debut. 14 million is a lot of streams haha. What does it mean for one of your first releases to still have such feedback?
It’s really cool that a song we just wrote for each other has that many plays. We never wrote “your text” thinking that so many other people would enjoy it.
We loved “sometimes i hate you”! What was the inspiration for the song?
D: I wrote the first verse and chorus of “sometimes I hate you” at the beginning of this year after Jisu and I had a fight. We were going through a hard season in our relationship at that time, so writing this together was honestly quite hard on the both of us emotionally. But now looking back, it was super cathartic and was a way for us to gain closure. This song is the first one where we felt the most vulnerable and raw. It’s not easy talking about the challenging times in a relationship, but we felt it was important for us to be authentic and share that side, since no relationship is perfect.
Walk us through your typical songwriting process. How does your typical sundial song come to be?
D: Every song process is different, but usually we start with a concept. Then we write a bit of the verse/chorus and then craft a sound/vibe around it.
Has the pandemic affected this process at all?
The pandemic has given us a lot of time to try different things, and we’ve started to really figure out our workflow. Before, our process wasn’t really efficient or structured, but now we write a lot quicker.
Do either of you ever encounter writer’s block? If so, how do you overcome this?
Oh ya, we get it all the time. We work best with spurts of creative energy and spend the the days where we’re less inspired doing “tedious” work like tuning and timing vocals.
For us, we treat writers block a like a clog in the drain. We try to squeeze out as many ideas as we can, but if that still doesn’t work, then we love to go outside and take walks. Fresh air is OP.
Who do you owe your biggest thanks to?
Our parents.
Lastly, what’s next for Sundial?
D: We’re not too sure what the future holds as of right now, but what we do know is that we’re sitting on a lot of new music, and we’re really excited to share them. :)