By David DeRocco

In a culture of personal politics fueled by self-validation, where owning a keyboard somehow convinces people they have the right to comment on issues far beyond their scope of understanding, it seems odd that those same people are often the first to complain about entertainers who dare offer their thoughts about trending topics and important issues.  True, there are entertainers (are you listening Gwyneth Paltrow) who would do a great service to humanity by keeping their views to themselves. DAVID USHER, however, is not someone whose opinions you should ignore.

You see, David Usher is more than a successful musician  – and after selling 1.4 million albums (as frontman for MOIST and as a solo artist), earning four Junos and 10 nominations, and scoring  #1 hits in  English, French and Thai languages, he is a VERY successful musician. David Usher is also a best-selling author and entrepreneur, the founder of Art and Icons (a creative studio focused on developing artificial intelligence platforms) and the founder of the Human Impact Lab (which is reshaping the way we address climate change). He’s an Oxford born intellectual who holds a political science degree from Simon Fraser University. He’s a father, a super-talented vocalist and one of the most approachable multi-platinum artists Canada has ever produced.

And so, for the purpose of this interview to promote David’s November 24^th concert at the Scotiabank Convention Centre, GoBeWeekly asked David to step into the role of benevolent leader – KING DAVID, absolute leader of the Dominion of Canada – and offer up his answers to questions as if he had full autonomy to actually change things – everything from artist funding to ticket scalping. Here’s the world if David Usher were your King!

Go/Be: We’ve got SOCAN, FACTOR, the CRTC – a lot of organizations working on behalf of Canadian artists. But outside of additional funding, what would you do to foster an environment that makes it easier for artists to have sustainable careers in Canada?

DAVID: It’s difficult for musicians right now. The model has fundamentally changed. I was probably one of the last artists to live through the old music business where there were still record deals and those kind of things.  A lot of what record companies provided back then was bridge money. So smaller bands could bridge tours and albums going from smaller venues to larger  venues, smaller tours to larger tours. Now most of the business that was the music business is now the tech business. Music is really a loss leader for tech now. So much of what artists have to do now is doing it for themselves; you have to do it because you love the music, you write the music you were destined to put out there. What you should really do is, you have to take control of all the things that are now available for you to take control of. Back in the day, because it was much more expensive to make records, you couldn’t control the production process, you couldn’t control the distribution process. Now you can control all those things. The difficulty, though, is trying to bridge from being a small band into becoming a big band or big artist. That is still difficult.

Go/Be: In keeping with the governance of the music industry, what would you do about CanCon (Canadian content) regulations. Are they still necessary?

DAVID:  CanCon definitely helps to develop artists. We’re a small country next to a really large dominant country. And I think it’s much easier for radio and for labels just to push U.S. content because the content usually has much bigger budgets and has much bigger reach already. And it’s much easier for them to push it across the border. So I think it’s still necessary to foster a local music business here and to help local artists. There is a wealth of talent here, but it might be very easy for it to get rolled over.

Go/Be:  Here’s an easier question. Which format would you choose as the preferred method of releasing music,  CD or vinyl?

DAVID: Well I certainly wouldn’t issue it on CD. I think the CD is done. I don’t think people are buying CDs anymore and my kids have never bought a CD. It’s all streaming. Vinyl is a whole other thing. My daughter who is 14 is totally into vinyl. Vinyl is a niche thing, it’s really cool and has a great sound. Vinyl is really fun because it’s tactile. There’s still an artifact to vinyl. With a CD there are no real artifacts. The difference between a CD and a streaming service is very minimal. The difference between an album and a streaming services is big. That’s why the artifacts still mean something.

Go/Be: In the context of your Arts and Icons creative studio you’re working with artificial intelligence (AI). Given our propensity to apply good technology to bad use – and the Japanese obsession with perfecting sex robots – what limitations would you put on the use of A.I. or, more important, where do you see its best application?

David: A.I. is leading us to so many different territories. Right now I’ m working with a company like Google Brain, and we’re doing stuff in the music field right ow. The trouble with A.I. is there’s a very limited knowledge of the potential. And also a very limited knowledge of what’s going on in the box, in the A.I. itself. There’s very little understanding as to how A.I. comes to its decisions, and that leaves a lot of room for either misuse or just mishap. As an artist my job is to explore new territories, so A.I is a really fun blank slate. It’s a crazy frontier where all kinds of crazy things can happen and that’s why I like to play there. There’s a big risk of danger when you have so many players and so many layers of possibility. It’s an area fraught with danger. You’ve got the base level of bias in data sets. You’ve got the second level of the distance between the researchers and their intentions, outlook and objectives. And then the actual integration in business. There’s such a vast difference there, and so much of a possibility of a disconnect. Then things could go off the rails.

Go/Be: At any time working with A.I. are you fearful that the many depictions of a dystopian future could come true?

David:  Yes, I have a very strong view on this. Every time you’re at a tech A.I. conference generally the talk is about the two possible outcomes. On one side you have the dystopian ‘terminator Skynet turns on’ and the whole world turns to shit. And on the other end you’ve got the Utopian singularity, where there’s universal basic income and everyone’s happy and everyone’s an artist and a poet because no one has to work.  But the reality is, that the A.I. that’s being developed right now or in the next five years is enough to interrupt how we live and work in most industries. We don’t need artificial general intelligence or A.G.I. in order to have big disruptions with work. Very narrow bands of A.I. can have a big impact on all industry. If you consider self-driving cars for example, the A.I. in a self-driving car is really stupid, but it’s really good at what it does. And that’s enough to disrupt the entire transportation business.  

Go/Be: Let’s get back to some simple decisions you might make if you were King. Cell phones allowed at concerts, yes or no?

David: (laughing)  I don’t care. I mean, it is a bit weird when you’re on stage and you’re looking at the audience and they’re looking back at you through their phones. I don’t really have an opinion on that. I’m a pretty big tech geek as well. It would be hard to ban me from my phone. I’ll let them do what they want.

Go/Be: Your work with the Human Impact Lab is attempting to change the dialogue and the storyline around climate change. What measures would you take to curb impact on the planet?

David: There are some basics things, right? We would move to vegetarianism because most people don’t realize that meat is like 25 percent of the climate picture. As much as I like meat it doesn’t serve us in terms of saving the planet. Slowly we’re going electric but we would move out of using coal, which is what America is not doing for some crazy reason. We all know why.  The green energy market it going to be such a huge economic boom for somebody, whichever country gets there first and invests in it first and is able to really harness and build the technology. That’s where I would move and move fast. Those are the major things. And the simplest things.

Go/Be: You’ve got a degree in political science; given the cynicism toward both parties and the displays of blatant hypocrisy shown by both parties when they get in power, how would you work to bring leadership to the office if you were king?

David: It’s really hard, just really difficult. There’s so much going on and so many pressures and forces. You especially see it in the American system where there’s so much lobbying that it makes politics almost impossible. Even here it’s becoming difficult. I’ve been asked to run occasionally and it’s a hard gig. I couldn’t do it myself.

Go/Be:  You’re a smart, good looking rock star so you know what it’s like to hold sway over others or be in a position of power. Given the current climate – I won’t call it a witch-hunt because there are real issues at play – where people are being shamed for all kinds of past misdeeds, what advice would you give men and women to prepare them to maneuver the turbulent waters of social interaction in future?

David: It’s really about consent right? And these days more than ever you  have to make sure that the consent is fully understood. I’ve got two daughters and I really worry about them in the world you know. 

Go/Be:  Ticket scalping is a hot-button issue; some say it’s supply and demand, others say use of bots that mine ticket sites are unfair, others say artists are complicit. What are your thoughts, and what’s the most you’ve ever paid for a ticket.

David: Honestly, I  haven’t paid for a concert ticket for 30 years, so probably about $7 for Ozzy Osbourne back in the day. I really don’t an opinion on scalping.

Go/Be: Of all your albums, both solo and with Moist, which do you feel didn’t get its proper due or exposure that you’d command people to go back and give another listen to?

David: There’s two albums. Little Songs is one of my favourite albums. It’s my first solo album and for me it was just such a moment in time. There’s a purity to that record that still makes it special for me. And then the newest record Let It Play  which had a #1 single in French. That’s a record where I remade the music of all these French artists, musicians who are my friends in Quebec. I rewrote all their songs and did them in English. And so that’s probably an album that didn’t gets it due.

Go/Be: Here’s one question I need an answer on and a decision made. Why, at major concert venues, do they take away your plastic cap when buying a bottle of water? Are artists that fearful of being hit by bottles of water that we can’t keep our caps? I know I’m not throwing away my $5 water.

David: (laughing) I didn’t actually know that. That happens? No one likes to get  hit with something on stage, that always sucks. Normally when I’m on stage I’m not really thinking about that.

Go/Be:  Speaking of being on stage, here’s  your final question. For those fans who have never seen David Usher, what can they expect on November 24^th at ScotiaBank Centre?

David: It’s going to be a show that has stuff from basically my whole career, lots of the songs from Moist and all the solo stuff and lots of stuff in between. It’s a really diverse show and it’s really fun.