When life imitates art: Morning Coyote

Sawyer Begg, the man behind Morning Coyote, just released a new single and music video this summer. He sat down with The Gateway to chat about his beginning, his new single, and the wild story behind its music video.

Back in 2017, he wrote and recorded his first record under the name Bedroom Drum. Despite audiences maintaining interest in the project over the years, Begg doesn’t feel it is properly representative of himself. 

“I just wanted to be Brockhampton and Frank Ocean. And now, I look back and cringe at it,” he said. 

The record was recorded and released with the intention of anonymity. And looking back, Begg agreed this is likely because it didn’t legitimately represent him as an artist. “I hadn’t grown into myself yet. I just wanted to put it out and pretend to be somebody else,” he explained. 

After going to MacEwan University for music, Begg was absorbed into the Edmonton music scene and was convinced to start playing live. Begg credits Nathan Miller, a drummer he played with in his first year, as the one who got him to hit stages. And then another drummer, Zane Baker, who still plays in Begg’s band, got Begg to jam his songs to humour the idea of live shows. 

“The support of people being like ‘yo this is good music, lets play it together’ helped a lot,” Begg said. The support from people in the scene, and from MacEwan, prompted Begg to rebrand to Morning Coyote in 2023. The first show under the new name was an opening spot for another Edmonton group, Plain and Mary.

Since then, Begg has eight releases under the new name. 

His latest release, “Ozymandias,” is inspired by a sonnet by Percy Shelley. The song narratively details the story of a powerful person’s fall from grace, and eventual death in memory. “It’s about a king that years and years later, nobody remembers. People come across a statue of him in the desert and they don’t know who he is,” Begg explained. 

“We’re going down a bad path, and we don’t see it because we’re trying to make money,” Begg says

Being lost to memory is not a bad thing in this context, he added. He compared the king to current figures like Donald Trump or Elon Musk. He said that after they’re dead and gone, they will be forgotten at some point, implying that money and power can’t control one’s legacy. 

Capitalistic ideas of never-ending progress are also a part of the narrative, he said. “We’re going down a bad path, and we don’t see it because we’re trying to make money.” 

Begg released a music video for the new release, which he says was supposed to have a different narrative, but in terms of its creation process, fell parallel with the song, Begg said. 

Filmed in an abandoned house in Alberta, the music video shows the band playing throughout the eerie house. And while the music video itself isn’t what reflects the song’s narrative, the story of the house does. 

Based on what was left around the house by its past inhabitant, Begg found that the owner is similar to the king in “Ozymandias.” Begg said they found screenplays and CDs made by the man. After finding his his name they looked him up. They found that he claims to be ex-MI5, own an island in Hawaii, and they found he made a dating show in the 1990s.

“I found [the dating show] on Youtube. There’s all these comments like ‘I wonder where he is now’ or ‘this was so big back in the early 2000s.’ I think they’re bot comments. He would bring on these girls and he would start it off by saying ‘My name is … and this is my number. I’m very lonely, but I’m also incredibly rich. You should reach out to me, I want a lady,’” Begg said. 

The house itself has its own role in being similar to the narrative. Begg said that there “is egregious wealth among these people. This dude bought this beautiful mansion and just completely forgot about it.” 

What’s next for Begg is the release of another video project of an acoustic set at Knox Church.