"selfish"

DAVID USHER "SELFISHLY" ENJOYS TOURING

Author: Silas Polkinghome
Source: Carillon
URL: www.carillon.uregina.ca
Date: September 2001

He has been the lead singer of one of the foremost bands in Canadian rock for a decade, but heading out on a cross-Canada tour still has him extremely excited.

In fact, heıs probably not enjoying very much sleep. But, then again, if your name is David Usher, you probably never get much rest.

David Usher is an insomniac­a morning person, too. In fact, his latest solo effort is entitled Morning Orbit. He explains that the name is reflective of his personality.

"Itıs basically the idea of where you're still connected to your subconscious, and where you can access ideas that you might not be able to at a different time of day.

"When your mind is sort of blank, and ideas sort of float in from different places and in different ways than they do at other times when you're dealing with other things."

Usher, whose first solo album, Little Songs, was released in 1998, admits that songwriting is rarely speedy, and never easy.

"It helps you make more music....Some people make music just for themselves and they don't have a desire to have other people hear it. But I really like it when other people are digging the songs and are getting something from them....for me, part of the definition of what I'm doing is trying to make a connection with other people....If nobody hears it, then in a way, for myself, thatıs a failure."

His current tour, Usher's first club tour in about five years, stopped by the U of R on September 11.

"Playing live is a kick all on its own, just for selfish reasons," he says. "It's an amazing experience....just being on a bus with a group of friends traveling across the country or flying to different countries and exploring.... It's a great way to live. You go through all kinds of excitement and drama, and all kinds of craziness.

"I havenıt played club shows in a long time....it's a completely different thing [than playing larger venues]. I'd forgotten what it's like, just because I hadn't done it for five years or something. But it's amazing. The communication is so much more immediate. You can look at people and basically just talk to them.

"Moist has been touring for a long long time and we've always had the same lineup, and we're very very good friends, but it becomes very similar. And you know a lot about what's gonna happen, because you've done it so much. There's a great synergy, but at the same time you pretty much know how everything's gonna run. And doing new songs with new people, well, mostly new people, cause Kevin and Jeff (from Moist) are out with me...it brings in an element of risk that I really like, that you don't really know whatıs gonna happen all the time, and they're new songs, so everyone's energized. And the crowd doesn;t know what to expect. You don't know how they're gonna react to things."

In addition to being embraced by Canada, Usher and Moist have also been acknowledged in his mother's native Thailand.

"We just love the country, and love Bangkok," he says. "Itıs fun for my mom that I've had a lot of success there.

"The band has gotten big there....I was surprised by how recognizable I was, even in little villages on the border of Thailand and Burma. It was quite strange."

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