hallucinations

DAVID USHER READIES NEW CD

Author: Karen Bliss
Source: JAM! Music (url)
Date: June 23, 2003

David Usher's third solo album, Hallucinations, will hit stores September 9. The Toronto-based singer just shot a video for the first single, Time Of Our Lives, with director Kyle Davison, who did Matthew Good's In A World Called Catastrophe.

"It's a video about small slices of life, sort of based on the song and trying to capture moments," says Usher. "The song is (about) how you're rolling around in your life and every day is a crazy busy day and then something stops you in your tracks, like someone you know gets sick or killed or those kinds of things, and for a short period of time, you are sort of brought into the moment.

"And if you notice, a couple of weeks later, that fades away so quickly. And this song is about that final time, at the very end of your life when that is the final moment, and you have to come to the fact that maybe you've wasted some time or maybe you haven't."

Usher, whose solo debut, 1999's Little Songs went gold, and 2001's Morning Orbit surpassed platinum, started working on the new album eight months ago, both in his home studio in Toronto and at Metalworks in Mississauga, Ont. Among the producers are his long-time friend and collaborator Byron Wong; Moist guitarist and studio owner Mark Makoway; and Britain's Lestyn Polson, known for his work with David Gray.

"This one, because I'd done a lot of touring on the last record, I wanted to use the band a lot more, but there are still a lot of loops and samples," says Usher. "Most of the songs were demoed at home and then brought to the band to bring a live element to the arrangements."

Hallucinations features members of his live band -- Moist bandmates Kevin Young (keys) and Jeff Pearce (bass); guitarist/vocalist Kim Bingham; guitarist Gerry Finn -- as well as My Brilliant Beast's Jonathan Gallivan, Byron Wong, and Julie Galios; guitarist Tim Welch and drummer Randy Cooke.

Live, Usher has just hired former Full Nine drummer Troy Fenner. "I think we are going to be touring pretty heavily," says Usher of promoting the new album. "I'm planning on spending a lot of time in Europe, southeast Asia, and in Canada obviously."

The album will be titled Hallucinations "unless I change my mind before the release," Usher assures.

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