David Usher
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David Usher (born on April 24, 1966) is a British-born rock singer-songwriter who currently lives in Montreal. Formerly the frontman for the Canadian band Moist (1992–2000), he embarked on a solo career in the late 1990s.
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[edit] Personal life
David Usher was born in Oxford, England to a Thai Buddhist, artist Samphan Usher, and a Jewish Montrealer, Dan Usher, who is a professor of economics at Queen's University.[1] He has lived in various places such as Malaysia, New York City, California and Thailand since early childhood, before his family settled in Kingston, ON. He attended high school at Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute. David attended Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, majoring in political science. His degree would later influence his music career. David is a humanist, and has been involved in such causes as War Child Canada, White Ribbon Campaign and Amnesty International. David is featured in the acclaimed 2001 MuchMusic special "Musicians In The WarZone", a humanitarian documentary produced by War Child Canada, directed by filmmaker Liz Marshall. In it David journeys to the northern border of Thailand to visit a large Burmese refugee community.
David married Sabrina Reeves, photographer and co-artistic director for the Bluemouth Inc. performance theatre company, in 1997 and their daughter Coco was born on January 10, 2003.
[edit] Musical Career
[edit] Moist
David Usher met his Moist bandmates in 1992 while in university and their 1994 debut release, Silver, went quadruple platinum in Canada. Moist went on to release their multi-platinum follow-up, Creature, in 1996, Mercedes 5 and Dime in 1999 and Machine Punch Through, a collection of singles, in 2001.
[edit] Solo career
Recorded in David's kitchen in three, 10-day stretches, Little Songs, David's debut solo album, shines in its acoustic simplicty. Little Songs was released in April of 1998 during Moist's hiatus following the release of Creature.
Following Moist's Mercedes 5 and Dime, David revived his solo career and released the highly successful Morning Orbit in the summer of 2001. It contains the hit singles "Alone in the Universe", as well as "Black Black Heart" which was co-produced by Jeff Martin, former frontman for the Canadian rock group The Tea Party. Other "special guests" on Morning Orbit include rapper Snow, Jagori Tanna and Bruce Gordon from I Mother Earth as well as Gord Sinclair from The Tragically Hip.
In 2003, he released another solo album entitled Hallucinations, which features a cover track by Manic Street Preachers entitled "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next", as well as a bonus disc which includes live tracks and one remixed track.
After Hallucinations, David left EMI in favour of a smaller record company MapleMusic, moved his family to New York, and released the predominantly acoustic If God Had Curves in 2005. This effort featured a collaboration with Tegan Quin, on the track "Hey Kids", as well as a guest guitar performance by Bruce Cockburn on the track "Long Goodbye". That same year David released a DVD entitled "Walk.Don't.Run", which gives us a look into the making of If God Had Curves.
David's fifth solo album, released in March of 2007, is titled Strange Birds. David is currently on tour in support of Strange Birds.
He will be in studios starting in January of 2008 recording his new album that will be released during the fall.[2]
[edit] Discography
[edit] Moist
- Silver (1994)
- Creature (1996)
- Mercedes 5 and Dime (2000)
- Machine Punch Through (2001)
[edit] Solo
[edit] Albums
- Little Songs, 1998 contains the singles Forestfire, Jesus Was My Girl, and St. Lawrence River
- Morning Orbit, 2001 contains the singles Alone In The Universe, Black Black Heart, A Day In The Life, and My Way Out
- Hallucinations, 2003 contains the singles Time Of Our Lives and Surfacing
- If God Had Curves, 2005 contains the singles Love Will Save The Day, See You Fall, and Long Goodbye
- Strange Birds, 2007 contains the singles The Music, Ugly Is Beautiful, Some People Say, and So Far Down
[edit] Videography
- Appears in Building a Mystery from Sarah Mclachlan's Surfacing (1997)
- Forestfire from Little Songs (1998)
- Jesus Was My Girl from Little Songs (1998)
- St. Lawrence River from Little Songs (1998)
- Alone In The Universe from Morning Orbit (2001)
- Black Black Heart V 1.0-2.0 from Morning Orbit (2001)
- A Day In The Life from Morning Orbit (2002)
- My Way Out from Morning Orbit (2002)
- Time of Our Lives from Hallucinations (2003)
- Surfacing from Hallucinations (2003)
- Love Will Save The Day from If God Had Curves (May 2005)
- The Music from Strange Birds (2007)
- Ugly is Beautiful from Strange Birds (July 2007)
[edit] Notes
- ^ Krewen, Nick. "Usher on path to self-discovery", Kitchener-Waterloo Record. Retrieved on 2007-06-20.
- ^ David Usher Tour Schedule. http://www.davidusher.com/tour/, accessed feb27/08.
[edit] External links
- Official Website and Blog
- Myspace page
- The Playdoh Mask - fan website
- Interview with David Usher which originally appeared in the Queen's Journal
- Video interview and performance recorded March 2007
- Building A Mystery (1997)
- Forestfire (1998)
- St.Lawrence River (1998)
- Alone In The Universe (2001)
- A Day In The Life (2002)
- My Way Out (2002)
- Time Of Our Lives (2003)
- Surfacing (2003)
- Love Will Save The Day (2005)
- The Music (2007)
- Ugly Is Beautiful (2007)
