back in morning orbit

DAVID USHER BACK IN MORNING ORBIT

Author: Ben Rayner
Source: The Toronto Star
URL: www.thestar.com
Date: March 22, 2002

The list of rock frontmen who've managed to wave off the band and go it alone successfully is considerably shorter than the list of those who haven't.

No one really expected photogenic Moist singer David Usher, then, to succeed where Mick Jagger, Chris Cornell, Ian Brown and countless others have failed, let alone David Usher himself. But months after its release last summer, Usher's second solo outing, Morning Orbit, seems, if anything, to be gathering momentum.Record sales stand at 90,000 units, just shy of platinum in Canada. The better-than-Moist single and video Black Black Heart has followed its predecessor, Alone In The Universe, into every nook and cranny of the domestic airwaves. And Usher and his band are on a perpetual tour, returning to Toronto last night for a four-night stand that will keep them at Lee's Palace with opener Jordy Birch through Sunday.

"It was sort of my idea," says a slightly frazzled Usher, calling amidst a long bus odyssey across Northern Ontario, of his mini-residency at Lee's. "It was sort of my idea. It was either play the Kool Haus or play four nights at a place like Lee's, and I thought Lee's would be a bit more interesting ... We're going to change things up on the different nights. I'm assuming that some dedicated people will come to more than one show. In fact, I know some people are coming to more than one."

Morning Orbit, like 1998's surprisingly low-key Little Songs, a record composed of demos Usher recorded in dribs and drabs with friends in his kitchen in Montreal, makes a concerted effort to avoid the arena-ready melodrama that's won Moist as many detractors as fans. The more recent album, whose title can be traced to its author's fondness for writing in the early hours of the day, is slighly less intimate and lo-fi, but maintains an airy, freewheeling pop vibe coloured by Beatlesque psychedelia and scattered electronic loops that suggests Usher's desire to experiment outside the Moist box is quite genuine.

"With every record, I'm just trying to set up a structure for improv, setting certain boundaries to work within," says Usher, who did the bulk of Morning Orbit in his own Montreal studio.

"I always try to do them outside of big studios because I don't like your big-studio pressure on creativity. You get a chance to do everything once and that's it, that's the record."

After nearly a year spent focussing on his solo work, Usher is used to fielding questions about Moist's uncertain future. The group, he says, is indefinitely "on hold" while everyone takes a crack at other projects, although Moist-mates Jeff Pearce, Mark Makoway, Kevin Young and Paul Wilcox all contributed in varying degrees to the music on Morning Orbit.

Although Usher says he's writing "a lot," he confesses a desire to perhaps do some recording with his touring band, with whom he'll jet back to Europe and Asia once his present run of Canadian roadwork wraps up to support the album's release overseas. As long as the solo things steams ahead, it seems unlikely Moist will reunite anytime soon.

"A lot of records these days aren't doing very well, so I'm pleased," says Usher. "It seems like it's growing naturally, for me. I've really noticed that from the tour, at the shows - just the enthusiasm for the songs, people knowing the words, has increased. It's really nice."

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