Background
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.
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.
He attended high school at Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute. Usher attended Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, majoring in political science.
He is the frontman of the alternative rock band Moist. He has lived in various places such as Malaysia, New York City, California and Thailand since early childhood, before his family settled in Kingston, Ontario. Usher has been involved in such causes as War Child Canada, White Ribbon Campaign and Amnesty International.
Usher is featured in the 2001 MuchMusic special Musicians in the WarZone, a humanitarian documentary directed by filmmaker Liz Marshall.
In it Usher journeys to the northern border of Thailand to visit a large Burmese refugee community. As a musician he has sold more than 1.4 million albums and performed all over the world.
He has had #1 singles singing in English, French and Thai. When Usher is not making music, he is equally passionate about using technology to build new and interesting businesses.
His company, Cloudid Creativity Labs brings together artists, designers and programmers to work on a vast range of innovative projects, from building engagement platforms to creative consulting.
Usher is on the advisory board of McGill University’s Institute for the Public Life of Art and Ideas and is the founding director of Amnesty International’s Artists for Amnesty. Usher writes about the impact of exponentiality and the second machine age on business and society at his site Human Metrics. His new book on creativity and the creative process, Let the Elephants Run is out now.
Appears in Building a Mystery from Sarah McLachlan"s Surfacing (1997) Forestfire from Little Songs (1998) Jesus Was My Girl from Little Songs (1998) Saint 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) Kill the Lights from Wake Up and Say Goodbye (November 2008) Je repars from "The Mile End Sessions" (August 2010) Rice Paper from "Songs from the Last Day on Earth" (October 2012) Partir ailleurs from "Songs from the Last Day on Earth" (October 2012).
