popera

"POPERA" IN THE HOUSE OF USHER

Author: Mike Ross
Source: JAM Showbiz/Edmonton Sun
URL: www.canoe.ca/JamMusic/feb28_usher-sun.html
Date: February 28, 2002

With apologies to Mad magazine, welcome to the Two Question Interview, starring David Usher.

Like so many lead singers before him, the lead singer of Moist has "gone solo."

He and his new band - which includes two members of Moist - play Red's Saturday night. You may have heard Black Black Heart on the radio. It's a great song - or is it? If you love it because of the opera sample within - Dome Epais le Jasmin from Lakme by Leo Delbes, the famous "Flower Duet" - you may not be alone. The haunting, 100-year-old aria forms the very heart of Black Black. Usher has done some interesting things with the song, but without the opera sample it would be a Moist B-side in more ways than one.

Which leads us to our first question:

* WHAT'S OPERA, ROCK? Usher recalls the moment of inspiration on the tour bus. He was writing the chorus to the song while bassist Jeff Pearce was "fiddling" with the Lakme sample, trying to get it to fit into 4/4 time, which is rock 'n' roll time. They put their heads together and before you could say Pavarotti, they had popera.

"You experiment in all sorts of different ways, and sometimes they work and sometime they don't," Usher says. "This one just worked. The song fell together from there. The fact that I can get an opera sample played on radio I find pretty hilarious."

The song, his second solo album Morning Orbit and the tour are all doing swell. Usher's still working with Pearce and keyboardist Kevin Young from Moist, along with Kim Bingham to help sing the opera bits. There seems little point in bringing Moist back at all, since the band has essentially been renamed the David Usher Experience. So ...

* WHITHER MOIST? "We're not talking about working again right now. We're on hiatus, which means we're all doing other things. We're going to wait till this tour's over and figure out what to do next."

The man, whose incredible "hunkamola" status among the ladies often causes one to overlook his true talent, will keep making solo records, for one thing. There are obvious advantages - you get to express yourself however you want and you get to call all the shots.

Usher's going to keep doing just that. For now. And Jeff and Kevin are still with him. For now.

"We've been fortunate that we're a band that's been together nine years and we're still a really tight group of friends and we want to keep working together. I hope after nine years we wouldn't just stop."

Besides, the more time that goes by, the more excitement there'll be for the inevitable comeback.

Usher laughs. "Is two years enough to qualify for a comeback?"

Sorry, that's three questions.

No plans to use opera samples in future recordings, either. It worked once.

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