Q&A: Innuendo Experiments with Atmosphere and Embeds Jewel-Like Lessons on ‘System Overload’
WRITTEN BY AMANDA COLLINS
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Photo by Cate Dark
System Overload, the debut album from Korean trip-hop/electronic duo Innuendo, is made of dreams, hypnotic downtempo, and atmospheric experimentation. There is an inherent spirituality to the album’s soundscape, as there arguably is within all music and all things, and this is seen through the Los Angeles-based duo’s “show rather than tell” style throughout their project. Combining elements of shoegaze, trip-hop, and electronic, Innuendo created a 26-minute album that reminds one of the old yet calls upon the future, their album like an ever-changing spiral.
The album captures an evident nostalgia, felt thoroughly on track “BHB,” with its synths that harken back to the aqueously ambient soundscapes of the early 2000s. Track “Cold Intelligence” leans into a futuristic and crisp digital rhythm, while “Soft Return” introduces a natural atmosphere through its use of deep drums. On the thematic side, System Overload is laced with mysterious lyrics, like little twinkling lights to be followed through a foggy mist, each working in tandem with the experimental electronics to create a meditation of sorts. With stand-out lyrics repeated through the songs, such as ‘stones in the sea,’ ‘I’ll cut you off so I can grow again,’ ‘I’ve been here before,’ and ‘I am you,' System Overload is filled with hidden jewel-like lessons.
Meant for a crowd or to be enjoyed alone, System Overload calls upon the instinctual within us, invoking what is felt rather than said, all while bringing something new to be chewed on to the table. Innuendo’s debut album is modern without cutting the nerve between the instinctual and the created, the human and the other.
Read our full discussion below with the wonderfully mysterious Rachel and Lizzie of Innuendo.
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LIFE ON JUPITER: For readers who are not yet acquainted, can you briefly introduce us to Innuendo?
INNUENDO: We are Lizzie and Rachel, we’re a duo out of Los Angeles making experimental electronic music. Our music is influenced by our dreams and the sounds of the 90s/early 2000s. We released our debut album, System Overload, in January 2026. We love our cats. Meow.
You have mentioned that you met one another on Craigslist, which is such an unexpected and unique way to meet. Tell us the story about how you met.
LIZZIE: In 2022, I posted online looking for potential band members. I was releasing solo music prior.
RACHEL: I was in bed one night, jobless and scared, scrolling through gigs on Craigslist. I stumbled upon an ad, “WANT TO START A GIRLBOSS BAND?” and took a leap of faith. We met 48 hours later.
Did you both initially feel a sense of fate while meeting? Was there a sense that Innuendo would be the shared creation between you both, or did that come about later?
INNUENDO: Our friendship was pretty much instant. We focused on building our relationship in the first few months, and then the music came naturally.
What got you into music?
INNUENDO: We both grew up watching K-pop videos and taking piano lessons. As we got older, Tumblr showed us that there are other worlds of music besides what’s on the radio. These built the foundation of our artistic identity. Lizzie grew up with a pianist mom and spent her adolescence in choir and theater. Rachel’s grandpa was a composer in North Korea and she played in orchestras and jazz bands throughout her teenage years.
As mentioned on your website, which is so gorgeous by the way, what “off-putting dreams” do you feel your music is based on? How do these dreams show up on System Overload?
INNUENDO: Lizzie once had a dream about being a spider delivery girl, and that became the storyline for the “BHB” music video. We often have off-putting dreams and are inspired by them. Most of the time, they have some sort of symbolism that we try to translate through sound. Or sometimes they’re just random and fun. Like, what would making out with Anthony Bourdain sound like as a song? Or what would Stevia-flavored cigarettes sound like?
“Dormant rage” is mentioned on your site. How does that influence your music?
INNUENDO: Our music often has themes of breaking cycles and healing, and feeling rage is an inevitable part of getting there.
What does it mean to you to be making music about nature and technology existing side by side, especially in the context of our world today?
INNUENDO: We often use nature and tech as metaphors to process our experiences. They help us understand how we are connected to one another through human nature. The context of human experience is what makes art special, not just the output.
Do you have a stance you take when it comes to modern technology, or any thoughts/perspectives you’d like to share?
INNUENDO: We appreciate the technology that brought us together and our listeners to us. The passion and intention that art-making requires is something that technology alone is not capable of.
The album feels less like a cluster of questions for the universe, but instead like a peaceful explanation of it, or a space to exist in the infinite truths within it. Is there a personal experience, or journey, that you, as the humans behind the art, would like to share that got you to a place where you could create the depth that’s found within System Overload?
INNUENDO: The coming-of-age into our artistry informed the sound and identity of this album. There wasn’t one pivotal experience; it was more like the universe giving us the same lesson over and over again and we finally learned it. The lesson was to always listen to your intuition and not let outside forces take from you.
Is System Overload spiritual in any sense of the word? Would you assign this to the album, or would you rather it remain separate?
INNUENDO: Spirituality is an integral part of Innuendo, in our relationships and our music. It can’t be separated because everything is interconnected.
In past interviews, you’ve mentioned that “you don’t explain music, you feel it in your body.” Can you speak to this sense of music being instinctual?
INNUENDO: Sometimes you can’t articulate a feeling with words, but when you’re in creation mode, it’s like a snowball that rolls. When we jam, it’s very intuitive. It comes together with very few words spoken to each other. We literally just play until it clicks.
What’s the main feeling, if any, that you expect listeners to feel while listening to System Overload? What’s the main feeling you felt while making it?
INNUENDO: We want them to feel fragments of themselves in the music. We want our music to activate their senses, like a cold wind hitting their face. Creating it was like popping the tab of a shaken soda can. Ssssssss.
What’s something you absolutely don’t want people to miss on System Overload?
INNUENDO: There are a lot of Korean tidbits sprinkled throughout the project. For example, Rachel’s mom performed the poem at the end of our song “Face Like a Flower,” and we sampled a classic K-pop song in our song “Mirror.”
What does the phrase “cold intelligence” mean to you in the context of the album?
INNUENDO: The song was originally about loving a robot. It’s the only heartbreak song on the album. The song is a climactic point; it’s about yearning for someone who iced you out, and accepting how you got there.
On your Instagram, Innuendo has posted videos about the love of a car for the track “Cold Intelligence." Can you dive deeper into why you chose this for “Cold Intelligence”?
INNUENDO: We love reality TV. There’s an episode of TLC’s My Strange Addiction about a man who married his car, and that really stuck with us when we watched it as kids. The song is about a one-sided relationship, where it feels like the other person is just not really there. We saw that in Nathaniel and his car Chase, so we riffed on that idea in our video.
On the track “Mirror,” there is a repeated lyric of ‘I am you.’ Can you give us context for this?
INNUENDO: When you’re in a relationship, sometimes the other person holds up a mirror to you, and you feel seen. Maybe sometimes it can get a little obsessive.
On the track “Garden,” there is a moment of almost “spoken word” where it says, ‘we’re all born gentle and weak, at death we are hard and stiff.’ What is the significance of this part of the track to you?
INNUENDO: The phrase is from a Taoist prayer that reminds us to practice impermanence, as the song is about continuous death and rebirth.
I love the use of the sense of smell used on Instagram to provide meaning and texture to the songs. How do these other senses merge with your music?
INNUENDO: We want our music to be an immersive experience, not just sonic. Fragrance is one of the first senses that’s tied to memory. Nostalgia is a big theme of our project, so naturally, scent is a part of the listening experience.
If you were to create a fictional world based on System Overload, what would it look like? Who or what would live in it? What rules would there be, if any?
INNUENDO: System Overload is a dream world that feels just familiar enough. You would live in it, whoever’s reading this. The people around you live bizarre and lucky lives, your cat is a giant and works as a sushi chef, taboos are subcultures. There are no rules.
If you had to choose, what are both of your favorite lines from the album, and both of your favorite tracks on the album?
LIZZIE: I can be what sets you free, crash into me high speed’ from “Crash Interlude.” Favorite Song: “BHB”
RACHEL: ‘Stones in the sea, woven with you and me’ from “Soft Return.” Favorite Song: “BHB”
What spaces do you hope System Overload reaches the most?
INNUENDO: We hope it reaches alternative subcultures across the world, especially in Korea.
Where do you hope Innuendo goes? What are your biggest dreams for your creation?
INNUENDO: We want to see the world and connect with people. Our biggest dream is to create music we want to make as a living, and to find the people who resonate with our message and sound.