house of usher

HALLUCINATIONS ALLOWS DAVID USHER TO VISUALIZE A THRIVING SOLO CAREER

Author: Phil Duperron
Source: VUE Weekly (url)
Date: November 6, 2003

David Usher has worn a number of hats during his impressive musical career. As the frontman for Canadian rock superstars Moist, he topped the charts and toured the world before surprising fans and critics with the release of his minimalist solo project Little Songs in 1998. For a while he juggled both careers and released one more studio album with Moist, Mercedes Five and Dime, followed by another solo disc, the hit-laden Morning Orbit. But with his latest disc, Hallucinations, which came out this fall, he says from here on in all his creative energy will be focused on his solo career.

Unlike Little Songs, which was recorded in Usher’s kitchen, Hallucinations follows in the footsteps of Morning Orbit, using lush production and a variety of sounds to create a collection of dark, sensitive pop songs. "This is definitely a more produced album," Usher says over the phone en route to a tour stop in Thunder Bay. "There’s many more layers and I spent a lot of time just to find the sound. I try and make records that go a lot of different places and reflect a lot of different styles."

With Hallucinations, Usher wrote most of the songs with his touring band on hand and future live performances in mind. "The first album was built more in the studio and this was rehearsed with the live band first," he says. "Not all of it, but a lot of it. And I’m still heavily into deconstructing and reconstructing in the studio. But it started from a live base. You start live off the floor and then the whole producing process comes into play."

One of Usher’s most daunting tasks was making sure the songs didn’t lose any of their passion during the studio twiddling. "You’re always looking to make sure that the essence of what you’re doing doesn’t get beaten out of the studio versions," he says. "You want it to retain the life. The initial excitement you have when you write a song can really get killed in the studio. So whatever that is, the energy or the vibe you’re trying to get on a track, you try to keep that intact when it goes through that process. The studio process is a process of details and details are often, y’know, deadly for vibe."

For Usher, the real excitement comes from performing the songs live, where he gets direct feedback from the audience. He also likes changing the songs around at his concerts to give audiences a varied perspective into his music. "You want the live experience to be a different experience," he says, "and it should be, too. Because when you’re listening to a record it’s a much different experience than going to see a band and you want it to feel different."

While Usher doesn’t think of himself as a role model, he appreciates the impact artists can have on others’ lives and believes it’s important for artists not to pull any punches with themselves or their audience. "If a person is writing about something real to them, that’s real in their lives and they write about it honestly," he says. "I think it’s their right to do that. I think if you’re faking it, then that’s a different story. If you’re documenting something you’ve seen in the world or the world around you and that’s the way it is, you have the right to talk about it and describe it as it is without sugarcoating it. It’s when it’s not sincere and it’s obviously dishonest that there’s a problem with it.

"When Public Enemy was talking about the things Public Enemy were talking about," he continues, "they were obviously coming from an honest place and it was about real ideas and descriptions of real life. They have the right to talk about it because it brings certain issues to light. For myself, I just write about the things that are around me. Y’know, personal life. Things I see or things in stories, on the news or in books I’m reading. Whatever. But generally they come from an honest place, so I don’t worry about the rest."

David Usher
With Pilate - Red’s - Sat, Nov 8

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