Erasure, Memory, and Making Songs: An Interview with Morning Coyote

Photo by Ian Maxwell in Edmonton’s Whitemud Ravine

Morning Coyote is an Edmonton-based collective fronted by singer-songwriter Sawyer Begg, weaving mercurial arrangements that draw from classic folk-jazz traditions while firmly existing in a modern indie space. Fluid and improvisational by design, the project shifts shape from show to show, balancing intimacy with unpredictability.

Begg first began releasing music in 2019 under the name Bedroom Drum, a project that found an audience but never quite felt like a true reflection of who he was. After studying music at MacEwan University, he became immersed in the Edmonton scene and was encouraged to bring his songs out of the bedroom and onto the stage. That transition reshaped both his writing and his sense of identity as an artist, leading to the formation of Morning Coyote as a more honest and collaborative outlet.

The project’s latest single, ‘Ozymandias,’ takes inspiration from Percy Shelley’s sonnet, tracing the collapse of power and the quiet erosion of legacy. Its accompanying video was filmed in an abandoned house in Alberta, chosen not to illustrate the song directly but to echo its themes. As Begg discovered more about the house’s former owner through what was left behind, the parallels to the poem became difficult to ignore.

With the release of their self-titled EP on 21 February 2025, we spoke to Sawyer about how he continues to explore the space between structure and spontaneity, and crafting songs that feel lived-in, and unsettled.

Morning Coyote grew out of your earlier project, Bedroom Drum. What sparked the shift, and why did this new project feel necessary?

Going to MacEwan University in Edmonton is really what made me a musician. Before that, I was making music in junior high and high school, and while I did release some of it, I’m glad I didn’t release all of it. I wasn’t fully myself yet, and I think that’s why I feel embarrassed about that music now. It doesn’t speak to who I am as an adult.

Bedroom Drum also became tied to bedroom pop, which wasn’t where my taste was heading. At one point I was listening to a lot of Frank Ocean, Solange, and R&B and wanting to make that kind of music, but I realised it wasn’t honest for me. Then I found artists like Joni Mitchell and Laura Nyro – people who really felt like me. Morning Coyote came from that realignment.

The name itself came from two places: Joni Mitchell’s song ‘Coyote,’ and a moment when I saw a coyote sprinting past my high school one morning. It was skittish, out of place, but not afraid. Coyotes are everywhere in my city, and I really relate to that image of being somewhere you don’t quite belong but moving anyway.

Photo by Ella Chmilar - Acoustic Concert-Film in Knox Church

Your sound blends folk and jazz, shoegaze. How would you describe the band’s identity to someone hearing you for the first time?

I really struggled with that at first. How do you blend My Bloody Valentine with Sibylle Baier? Eventually I stopped trying to describe it in genre terms. Now I usually just say Jeff Buckley and then immediately admit that it’s a very wanky comparison. He’s a favourite of mine, and we get compared to him often.

It’s an easy shorthand for saying we can be very soft and delicate, but also loud and rocky. I don’t think in genres so much. I think in reference points and emotional range.

After studying music and becoming part of the Edmonton scene, what role did playing live have in shaping Morning Coyote?

It completely flipped the project. At first, it was a studio-only thing, and now I’m writing songs to be played live. My biggest challenge is figuring out how to translate that into recordings. Sometimes the studio version feels like an entirely different song.

I really admire how Adrianne Lenker approaches that – how songs can exist in multiple forms. What we’re making now feels wild, raw, and hard to categorise, which doesn’t always translate easily to recordings. But with the EP we’re working on, especially a song like ‘Lattice Climbing,’ I feel like we’ve finally captured what Morning Coyote actually is.

Your single “Ozymandias” is inspired by a poem by Percy Shelley. What drew you to that story, and why did it feel relevant now?

It’s slightly embarrassing, but the song came out of a songwriting competition at my university. They wanted songs written for an existing film series. I always feel the need to clarify that it has nothing to do with Breaking Bad. The song is much more removed from that and closer to the themes of Shelley’s sonnets.

The “Ozymandias” video was filmed in an abandoned house with a strange past. How did that setting affect the way you approached the song?

I’m incredibly proud of that video and the friends who helped make it. I’m very particular about visuals, and we worked collaboratively rather than me directing outright. I don’t like music videos that force a narrative onto a song, rather, I want people to form their own meanings.

That said, the setting ended up resonating with the song anyway. The house belonged to a wealthy philanthropist who doesn’t even live in Canada and has left it to rot. There’s something unsettling about that kind of excess and neglect. The song is inspired by a lot of powerful, awful men – especially figures in tech and AI who dismiss the value of making art at all. That disconnect really horrifies me.

How did you find out about this house? Is it something everyone in Edmonton knows about?

No, actually nobody in Edmonton really knows about it. People know it exists but I’ve kept the location secret. My buddy that helped direct the video, was talking about how he’d been to a party there and then the cops got called. 

With your self-titled EP out now, what do you hope listeners take away from Morning Coyote at this stage?

Honestly, I feel like our best music is still coming. The next EP is more collaborative with my band back home, and I’m incredibly proud of it. Some of the songs on the last EP feel a bit juvenile to me now. It was a necessary step, but I’ve grown since then.

We’re aiming to finish the next release soon and hopefully put it out over the summer, in time for a festival in Toronto. Long-term, I want to tour Canada and eventually make a full album. I write, record, and produce everything myself, but distribution is the hard part. Edmonton is a great place to make music, but it’s limiting in terms of reach. Working with a label or distributor would really help get the music where it needs to go.

Listen to Morning Coyote on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Music and follow them on Instagram.