The Basics
David Usher was born on April 24, 1966, in Oxford, England. His family travelled extensively, before settling in Kingston, Ontario when he was three. He attended KCVI in Kingston, the same highschool as Gord Downie. He (much) later received a degree in political science from Simon Fraser University, in Vancouver. He currently lives in Montreal.
David was married to his girlfriend Sabrina in 1997, and they have a daughter named Coco, born in 2003.
Music
In the 1980s, David was part of a little know rap band called "True Hype Crue". In 1992 he formed the well known Canadian alternative band Moist with friends Kevin Young and Mark Makowy. Moist released three albums before going on hiatus. David is currently pursuing a solo career, and has released three albums: Little Songs, Morning Orbit, and Hallucinations.
David's lyrics often have political undertones, and don't pull any punches. His music is often dark, but the lyrics are always well written and usually meaningful.
Interestingly, the songs for this album were written while Moist was touring through Canada, the United States, and Thailand. The album features ten songs, and was recorded in the kitchen of Usher's Montreal apartment. This largely acoustic album includes what is perhaps the artist's most famous and often covered song, Forest Fire. Every member of Moist ended up contributing to the album musically in some way, but since all of the writing was done by David, the album is under his name as opposed to that of Moist, and the difference is quite evident, as tracks by the band tend more towards melodrama and harder rock than do the tracks on Little Songs.
David recorded his second solo album after Moist had gone on hiatus (or broken up, depending on who tells it), although some members of Moist were involved with the performances for this album. The most well know track from the disc is Black Black Heart, which had a radio mix that was a little heavier than the album version, and got some decent airplay for a time. It was, however, never released in the US. Black Black Heart features a vocal sample from a performance of The Flower Duet, from the opera Lakmé, by Léo Delibes. On the whole, the album has a more upbeat feel, closer to mainstream pop than his previous work (which is not to say that it is pop).
Usher's most recent album, Hallucinations is essentially borderline pop, which is occasionally at odds with his still very serious lyrics. He attempts to examine methaphorically the question "How can two people really understand each other"? The disc has its highlights, and lowlights. Although most of the songs aren't as memorable as his earlier work, they can still stand on their own feet musically. The album features a cover of The Manic Street Preachers's If you tolerate this your children will be next. There was also a limited edition release of the CD, which included a second mini-disc, which had some live performances of various songs.
http://www.moistonline.com/davidbio.html
http://members.shaw.ca/brycon/bio.html
http://www.canoe.ca/JamAlbumsU/usher_david_stevenson.html
http://members.shaw.ca/brycon/articles/goodtrip.html