‘It’s so hard being in your mid-twenties’: Asian musical duo Sundial on making mistakes, the American dream and helping people feel less alone

Dorothy Chan and Jisu Kim of Sundial often write songs about the insecurities, anxieties and conflict in their lives, and do so again on EP The Roaring Twenties

They talk to the Post about the album, growing up in Hong Kong and the US respectively, touching people with their music – and getting matching tattoos

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Dorothy Chan and Jisu Kim, who make up Asian-American musical duo Sundial. They talk to the Post about touching people with their music and the time they got matching tattoos. Photo: Sundial

Published: 7:15am, 28 Sep 2023

There is a good reason the quarter-life crisis is such a universal phenomenon – our twenties can be messy, exhilarating, confusing and transformative.

It is a time when people question their lives, careers and relationships, but also a time when people make lifelong memories and experience immense growth.

For singer-songwriters Dorothy Chan and Jisu Kim – who form the musical duo Sundial – the difficulties of living life in their twenties have served as an endless source of inspiration for their music.

That is why the couple named their latest EP, which dropped on September 15, The Roaring Twenties – the title is a nod to all the ups and downs that come with growing up.

Chan and Kim have just released an EP titled “The Roaring Twenties”. Photo: Sundial

“It’s so hard being in your mid-twenties, just feeling lost,” Chan says. “I think we really wanted to capture that.”

“Especially during your early twenties, you go through a lot of self-discovery,” Kim adds. “You make a lot of mistakes … I think there is something very traumatic about living, period.”