Mormor – Heaven’s Only Wishful

Album

The first few bars of “Heaven’s Only Wishful”, the new single from the Canadian singer/producer MorMor, are relatively run-of-the-mill: crisp, chiming guitars and mid-tempo drums that cruise along, chilled-out and melancholy.

But when an ear-splitting shriek interrupts the groove and cuts to a breath of silence, it rings like a warning: Stay on your toes. “I'm just a poor boy, waiting for answers,” MorMor sings, assuming command. “No one heard you coming.”

The artist, whose real name is Seth Nyquist, first emerged in 2015 in the same Toronto pop scene as BADBADNOTGOOD and Charlotte Day Wilson and is now readying a debut project. “Heaven’s Only Wishful” is the first taste: Laced with clever left-turns, it’s a moody rumination on the afterlife that never quite goes as expected.

What begins as brooding indie rock blossoms into new wave synth-pop. Most surprising are the subtle echoes between human and digital sounds: When the time comes to cue another scream, a gooey, high-pitched synth playfully takes its place. And as an electric guitar revs up the energy in the final verse, MorMor ratchets up his voice to match it, hardening his velvety croon into something strained, scratchy, and distorted.

That it all works so seamlessly is a testament to his auteurist vision; MorMor wrote, recorded, and produced the song, as well as directed the companion music video (made in collaboration with Max Chandler, Pia Perez, and Sylvain Chaussee) that is similarly loaded with artful imagery: cherry blossoms, railroad tracks, MorMor on an overpass with his arms stretched out like Jesus.

The closing shot zeroes in on him sitting on a chair, singing louder and louder until he’s practically shrieking. Just like that, we’re back where we started.

Artist

Seth Nyquist (born 1992), better known as MorMor, is a Canadian indie pop singer and songwriter.

Life

Seth Nyquist was born in Toronto, where he grew up with his adoptive mother, English professor Mary Nyquist, and his sister. He was in a foster home initially and then got adopted by a Swedish family. "Mormor" is a reference to his grandmother, with ”mormor” meaning grandmother in Swedish.

Nyquist sang in the school choir and played trumpet in a band. After he finished school, Nyquist started to study sociology at Toronto's Ryerson University. He dropped out after one semester and decided to focus on his musical career instead. He took piano and vocal training.

In 2015, he released his debut EP Live for Nothing under the moniker MorMor, which was the name he used to call his late grandmother. In 2018, MorMor released the EP Heaven's Only Wishful through his own label Don't Guess.

He received, in 2019, a SOCAN Songwriting Prize nomination for the song "Whatever Comes to Mind".