After releasing 2003's "Hallucinations," singer-songwriter David Usher wanted to keep things simple. So prior to recording "If God Had Curves," his fourth studio album, he moved with his family to New York City.
"My wife and I love the element of risk and not feeling that we're safe," the former Moist frontman says over the phone from London during a stop on his current cross-Canada tour.
"We both had bought a house and we were sort of comfortable, but in that comfort we felt completely uncomfortable and unlike ourselves. So we essentially got rid of everything and moved."
But this is the kind of stuff that happens when you want to go back to the basics of making music.
"I was very isolated in the writing process of 'If God Had Curves.' It was a chance for me to get back to writing music simply with a guitar and a piece of paper."
Free from the pressures of recording in a really big studio, Usher, 39, recorded the album in New York and in Toronto with frequent collaborators Byron Wong and Jeff Pearce.
"I don't feel very free in large studios," he says. "And recording this way allowed me to focus on the lyric and the melody.
"I think the idea of trying to get back to the core of what you want to do and what you want to talk about was central to me when I was making this record," he says.
And the change has made for a very special brand of Radiohead-ish acoustic folk rock that distills all of the singer's electricity into a brooding, introspective musical dish.
While he definitely is singing a happy tune on "Hope (Tell Everyone)," most of the album is about change and the inflexibility of modern-day life, and the soulful grooves that anchor the album's 11 tracks compliment that.
Consider the bouncingly melancholic "Hey Kids." Paired with Tegan Quin, one half of the celebrated Tegan & Sara, it's difficult to resist singing along as Usher sings the dysfunctional lines, "Breathe/ I'm breathing up the air/ It's burning up my lungs/ It's burning through my hair and I never felt/ Hey kids what are you rocking for."
Thanks to Bruce Cockburn's muted guitar, you can hear someone quietly accept the loss that getting older entails on "Long Goodbye." "Guess I'll be trading down for something much more real/ Caught in a terrible wind with a kick in the teeth," Usher utters against the steady drumming heartbeat of Toy Feener's percussion.
"Some people don't like the fact that I'm not still writing rock songs," he says plainly, "but I want to write songs that reflect what I'm thinking about right now and what interests and what frustrates me about the world that surrounds me."
The album's first single, "Love Will Save the Day," is based on the New York Times article "It Was The Porn That Made Them Do It" and features a sample from Gloria Steinem's 1971 "Address to the Women of America."
Then there's the album's title. People are likely to take it to mean, "If God Was A Woman," but it's broader than that.
"After living in America, I've really gotten the sense that there's a growing division between the religious and the secular. People are becoming less and less flexible and less accepting of other people's opinions and diversity."
And in keeping with this newfound introspection, Usher is reining in his onstage antics. It was common to see him dive from the stage during the heady days of Moist, but this time out the focus will be all on the music.
"There's still a big dynamic to the show," he says "but I'm trying to allow myself to live in quieter moments onstage as well.
"I'm trying to make the set more musical," he laughs.
David Usher tour dates:
April 26, 27 -- Mod Club, Toronto, Ont.
April 28 -- Club Soda, Montreal, Que.
April 30 -- Capital Music Hall, Ottawa, Ont.
May 11 -- Sweetwaters, Fredericton, NB
May 12 -- Voodoo, Moncton, NB
May 13 -- Marquee Club, Halifax, NS
May 17 -- Salle Rollan-Brunelle, Joliette, Que.
