I’m not one of those who follow the indie scene systematically. But sometimes something finds you on its own – and it’s already hard to pretend you haven’t heard it. “Rose Up” by Angela Begin found me exactly like that. A Canadian singer-songwriter based between Montreal and Edmonton, she writes music about nature, space, temporality, and transformation – and in “Rose Up” all of this was audible: indie folk with deviations into country, grunge, jazz-folk, and shoegaze – not as a genre menu, but as a living character. The new single “Coquihalla” takes the next step – more confident, more expansive, sharper. The single was released on April 17 – independently, without a label.
It is about a specific highway – number 5 in the province of British Columbia: grey asphalt through the Coquihalla Pass. In winter, it gets so snowed in that truck drivers stop and wait. No “wind in your hair” – only the road and its conditions. Begin is clearly not one of those who hides meaning behind pretty words. The track opens with an acoustic guitar – warm, with a slight creak, as if the wood retained a memory of roads. Begin’s voice enters, and you can immediately hear both folk intimacy and restraint in it. About halfway through the track, indie folk moves aside, and alternative rock enters the song like a gust of wind. The drums expand, the guitars acquire a nerve, and the whole structure begins to move.
Begin’s genre eclecticism works like a navigator: country melancholy appears in the intonations, grunge leaves a crack, a roughness. Sometimes the melody turns aside – unexpectedly, but precisely. In the finale, everything dissolves into reverb: the sound blurs, and the song turns from a story into a state. “Coquihalla” is music of open spaces. It has a horizon. You listen – and the ceiling above your head becomes a little higher. Begin is a member of the art collective CARBON, where artists explore the “being-ness of nature,” and the host of an astrological playlist on Montreal’s CJLO. On paper, this sounds like the perfect résumé for a Brooklyn coffee menu. In practice, everything is organic: she thinks about space, temporality, and transformation and writes songs about it. Without a gap between concept and sound.
The debut album Messenger is expected in June 2026. If “Coquihalla” is a road sign, then June promises to be a long drive in good company.
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