Seth Nyquist, better known as MorMor, is one of Canada’s most daring indie exports. Unafraid to tackle the good, the bad and the existential, the musician’s ear for bright pop melodies don’t sacrifice the intensity of his pen. As he prepares for the release of his debut, Semblance, he pulls back the curtain on his final preview, “Here It Goes Again.”
If his name sounds familiar, it's for good reason. MorMor has released a series of EPs from 2015-2019, eventually using the universal time of rest and contemplation the pandemic gave us to craft his long-awaited debut. "When I started Heaven’s Only Wishful I already knew that I wanted to create Some Place Else before releasing my debut album," MorMor says of his process. "At that time, I felt that I needed to develop my craft further in order to create an album I would be proud of. But I know now that I will always feel that need."
"Here It Goes Again" is a sparkling disco and new-wave-inspired bop. MorMor's silky falsetto multiplies into a skin-tingling harmony, evoking wistfulness tinged with heartbreak. He captures feelings of love, loss and the confusion of how love changes a person when another steps into the frame.
In the haunting accompanying video, MorMor grapples with symbols of life, death and rebirth. A mysterious figure waits for him in a car, an old person serenades him as glimpses of their younger self flash. A euphoric collision of dancing bodies litter the ballroom. This all happens as MorMor revisits the room in a dizzying time loop, subtle differences coming to life before his eyes.
Across the dazzling visuals MorMor helped develop for the album’s singles, there’s recurring themes and characters. “The main, omnipresent theme is repetition itself,” he says. “What I’m trying to convey is the experience of entrapment. The song is about the desire to recapture the honeymoon phase of a relationship that is falling apart. We felt that the best way to represent this was by means of an endless cycle.”
And for the keen-eyed watchers who notice these patterns, MorMor confirms the larger narrative that he's crafting with the visual language of Semblance:
"When writing both lyrics and music, I often begin to visualize a narrative or a space in which the story is taking place. There are definitely interconnections; however, when creating these videos I consider the individual song a prominent source of inspiration and let it direct the narrative. There is no single story. There is, however, the character of the one-eyed man who first appears in 'Some Place Else' and reappears in 'Don’t Cry' and 'Chasing Ghosts.' He does represent something to me but I would rather keep that to myself for now."
Below, watch the PAPER premiere of “Here It Goes Again” by MorMor.
Photo courtesy of Joshua Gordon
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