discovery

NOTHING WAS PLANNED IN DAVID USHER'S JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY

Author: Tom Harrison
Source: The Province (url)
Date: November 12, 2003

The David Usher of Hallucinations doesn't seem like the David Usher of Little Songs.

He claims not to have planned it this way but two things happened.

One is that Little Songs signified the beginning of a solo career that developed apart from his regular gig as singer with Moist. It might even be said to have eclipsed the popularity of Moist, rendering the band redundant.

Two is that David Usher has grown into David Usher. Before anybody grunts "Huh?" let it be said that Little Songs did not logically point the direction to Hallucinations. As he went along, from Little Songs to Morning Orbit, the second album, to Hallucinations, the singer had to discover who he was. He became David Usher, his own person. Nothing was planned; discovery seldom is.

Little Songs is modest, a kitchen album, an overspill of personal, obscure songs that Moist wouldn't get around to recording. Morning Orbit, which sold considerably and yielded the hit Black Black Heart, was more a statement; it outlined Usher's intention to make records with or without Moist.

Hallucinations could be called an extension of Morning Orbit in that it takes advantage of what a studio can offer and it enjoys the freedom that the success of Morning Orbit gave him but it also is exploratory. It is Usher discovering Usher.

"To be honest," he explains, "I don't think I'm real focused on the thought process of recording. I don't focus on the song structures. I try not to be so precious."

His mind is not on Moist either. Usher won't say that Moist has dissolved. In fact, the only reason Moist is mentioned at all is that the band inevitably came up in conversation. Officially, Moist is on hiatus. Jeff Pearce and Kevin Young are in Usher's six-piece band and guitarist Mark Makoway was involved in the production of Hallucinations. That leaves Paul Wilcox sitting at home in Montreal. As Hallucinations has been a top-five album and the solo career takes up most of David's time, it might be a long while before anyone hears anymore of Moist, if ever.

"I never had a game plan," Usher says of how his solo career has unfolded. "As soon as I finished one record, I started to think about what we could do for the next record."

That sounds focused. What's remarkable is that Hallucinations uses a lot of studio effects to change or manipulate the sound yet Usher claims that most of it was cut live. The touring band came off the road, Usher thew it his new songs. Free of strictures, the album formed as the band became familiar enough with the material to kick in ideas. That doesn't sound focused.

So maybe there isn't a game plan. The David Usher of the next record might be a different David Usher from the one who made Hallucinations.

IN CONCERT
David Usher
Where: Commodore Ballroom
When: Tomorrow night at 9
Tickets: $29.50

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