INAEKKUM Releases New Single YIPS Ahead of Sophomore Album MY
Bassist and songwriter Min Wooseok explores healing and self-acceptance on the album MY, out via headindieclouds.
South Korean indie pop group inaekkum has released its new single 'Yips' ahead of the band's upcoming sophomore album, MY, out via the group's indie imprint headindieclouds.
Inaekkum's Min Wooseok is hiding something in his band's indie pop. If you can stop singing along to the sticky sweet hooks and bumping to the bubbly beats, you'll experience a radical self-possession transformation in his lyrics. The South Korean quartet's upcoming sophomore album, MY — out on the band's indie imprint, headindieclouds — chronicles Wooseok's childhood sexual trauma recovery with intricate literary devices and visceral vulnerability.
'This album is a record of the profound exhaustion I endured and the liberation I finally found at the end of it. For a very long time, I lived by suppressing my true self. I isolated myself from early childhood trauma and prioritized protecting others over my own truth,' says Wooseok, the band's bassist, primary singer-songwriter, and producer.
For Wooseok, songwriting functions as a tool of self-revelation. His lyrics—primarily in English—are cerebral yet deeply confessional, weaving narratives of healing, self-acceptance, and transformation. While such themes often reside in folk or punk traditions, Wooseok deliberately channels them through pop. The result is disarming: rugged beats, lush synth textures, elastic basslines, and finely crafted melodies that almost obscure the emotional weight beneath. Inaekkum invites comparisons to Big Thief, Soccer Mommy, and Beach House.
MY is inaekkum's phoenix rising statement, and it has been a long time coming. At just seven years old, Wooseok was sexually abused by a relative. The harrowing event coincided with his family enduring a financial crisis. Wooseok chose to remain silent to not add to their painfully complex time. A sense of escapism and labyrinthine self-knowledge permeate MY as Wooseok confronts his painful past, and moves toward a place of graceful self-possession.
Tenets of German philosopher Martin Heidegger's existentialism and Plato's Theory of Ideas—the pursuit of an uncorrupted, ultimate truth—are also explored on the album. 'I questioned my own identity deeply, drawing from Heidegger's concept of 'Dasein' (being-there). Ultimately, I wanted to prove to myself how beautiful it is to 'choose to exist' despite all the suffering,' Wooseok says. This conceptual world will be further expanded in December 2026 through the release of My Eternal Idea, an alternate reality novel that invites fans to actively decode the band's narrative universe.
This triumphant but cerebral inspiration sits powerfully alongside Wooseok's brave decision to examine the plight of his inner child which he believes inspired the album's lyrics and melodies. 'They were erupting from that child I had buried deep inside—the persona I now call Van Ji Chook. I decided to hand this music back to that child and the process of doing so became this album,' Wooseok reveals. Far from just a relic of past trauma, Van Ji Chook emerges as a free, avant-garde creative ego—signaling a sovereign rebirth (I will) destined to drive inaekkum's future sonic direction.
The single Yips oozes early 2000s indie-rock swagger with its sparse but driving rhythms, its shimmering atmospherics, and Wooseok's hazy but sensual vocals. The song perfectly exhibits MY's duality. It's a pop narcotic, intoxicating the listener with party beats, and it's a bold and literate confessional.
Wooseok uses a baseball game as a metaphor for life on Yips. The narrator makes a grave mistake and is mocked by the 'runner on second,' here symbolizing the humiliation both societal and self-inflicted when one fails to meet perceived life expectations. A sub-theme within the song is exploring the character Van Ji Chook's dissociative state. That motif can be found in a lyric such as: Blaming the head for not following the body.
Upcoming Shows
August 23rd // Seoul, South Korea // Moraenae Geukrak
September 9th // Geoje, South Korea // UND (4th Anniversary Relay Show)
September 10th // Daegu, South Korea // Silent Disco
September 19th // Daegu, South Korea // Club Heavy
November 16th // Daegu, South Korea // Cafe Chaeksang
