ushering in new era

USHERING NEW ERA

Author: Mike Bell
Source: JAM!/Calgary Sun
URL: www.canoe.ca/JamMusic/sep4_usher-sun.html
Date: September 4, 2001

OK. Here goes.

I like the new David Usher album.

There, I said it. And I'm fine with that.

To fully appreciate the weight of that proclamation, you have to fully understand how much I do hate Moist.

"Yeah, I think I read one of your reviews once," Usher laughs on the other end of the line.

But that was Moist.

And perhaps the biggest compliment I could give Morning Orbit, the songwriter's second solo effort, is that it's nothing like any of the album's he's recorded with the popular Canadian band, or even his first disc Little Songs.

For the most part the disc is lighter, poppier, freer and more importantly, Usher doesn't seem to be taking himself so seriously.

That's a criticism that's dogged him for years, but not one that he was consciously addressing on Morning Orbit or one that particularly hurts even when he's away from the safety of the band.

"It's not really the criticism that kills, because I get lots of criticism," he says good-naturedly.

"But it's mostly that you're hoping people are connecting to it.

"You spend a lot of time making it and if people don't connect to it then it's a really big drag."

For this record, which he's promoting with a tour that makes a stop at the U of C's MacEwan Hall Ballroom on Friday night, the songwriter spent two years writing and recording.

He also enlisted the help of a number of notable Canadian artists, including Snow, Jeff Martin from The Tea Party, Jagori Tanna from I Mother Earth, as well as other members of Moist.

But even with the added talent, Usher is adamant that Morning Orbit is as close to a singular vision as you could hope from him.

"I'd have to be able to play all of the instruments," he says. "And nobody wants to hear my vision of drumming."

Instead, the other musicians we're there to fulfil his desires and follow his lead, and the freedom to fully explore his songwriting ideas is one that is -- despite the perception some might have -- in direct contrast to the experience as a member of Moist, even its frontman.

"Moist is very much a collaborative thing," Usher says.

"We're very much a democracy. To get ideas through, you rally. If you really have an idea you want, you have to fight your way through sometimes -- which is what's good and bad."

Bad enough that now he's had his second taste of freedom, it's something he'd be willing to give up?

"I'm not sure," he says after a pause. "I definitely enjoy working on solo records, but we're a really tight group of people, we're good friends ...

"Basically, I've got a year of touring ahead of me on this record and we'll see where we are after that.

"I think there will (be a new Moist record), but a year's a long time, so I don't know."

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