"I write in the morning," explains Usher during a Charlottetown stopover. "I work on songs late at night and all day, whenever, but I write every morning because I can't sleep, so I get up."

You could call Usher's song catalogue an ongoing dream diary, although occasionally that extends to nightmares, as in Alone in the Universe's images of "freaks and creatures" and awaking underwater "just screaming for air."

"That's the idea, you're much more connected at that time of day to the subconscious and ideas you've been collecting," he says.

"I think they come out in less of a thought-out way, because your brain's not working as well at that time of the morning, and you get a different connection."

As far as examining the meaning behind his early a.m. scribblings, Usher leaves that up to the listener.

"I really haven't done much analysis, I've been out there playing it so much. I don't usually go back and listen to records until much later."

In the three months since Morning Orbit's release, Usher has been on a non-stop cross-country tour, joined by Moist bandmates bassist Jeff Pearce and keyboardist Kevin Young, Kim "Mudgirl" Bingham, Christiana Munroe and Jerry Finn.

It's a different experience recording and touring as a solo act (Usher didn't play live in support of his first disc, Little Songs), but he welcomes the opportunity to shake up the creative process.

"With a band, you know how everything goes, how the band works and what voices you're dealing with. But on your own you can bring in anyone you want at anytime to try anything you want to do, and you don't have to ask anybody or get any consensus to do that. You just do it."

As for new material from Moist, Usher says the upcoming greatest hits CD and DVD Machine Punch Through will have to tide fans over.

"I'm more interested in the DVD that's coming out, to tell you the truth. It's coming out with all kinds of interesting footage.

"There's a photo montage that goes back to the beginning, that's pretty interesting."

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