And as I started singing, the tears just started flowing. "I realized how much I've held in as a strong mom wanting to be there for my kids. "We did four songs in that first day and Kev said, 'I think we're doing an album,"' Usher recalled.
It was the first time Usher and her family had returned to the secluded 19th century home since Downie died, she said.īeing there ignited old memories and buried emotions, and once "Thunderclap" was recorded the floodgates of creativity were opened. to record her poem "Thunderclap" with the assistance of Drew and engineer Nyles Spencer. Last February, Usher made a long-postponed trip to the Hip's Bathouse recording studio in Bath, Ont. "And even though he'd lost so much, and we were losing so much, we developed a deeper connection than we'd ever had." "Near the end of his life, we got closer than we'd ever been," she said. Having her own experience with cancer, Usher said she knew the importance of supporting him. "Gord and I dropped everything and we came back home to each other," Usher said. But given little time to live, they quickly shifted their priorities back to the family.
The couple separated before Downie was diagnosed with glioblastoma in late 2015. "He had my back that whole time and gave me the space to get better." "He was so incredible for me when I got sick," she said. Only when Downie revealed that her breast cancer diagnosis inspired lyrics on the Hip's 2012 album "Now For Plan A" did she become a part of the conversation. Usher kept almost entirely out of the spotlight in those years. Gord was fiercely protective of the kids and I." "We pulled back and really wanted to give them an organic childhood. They bought a farm on the very tip of Prince Edward County, a quiet community in southern Ontario that Usher describes as "idyllic." "I always knew that my time would come, that I could sing my song for myself," she said. But the couple wanted a "really big family" so they agreed Usher would focus mainly on raising their children while Downie toured. We had our wedding celebration at the Horseshoe (Tavern) where Gord and I performed together."Įarly in their marriage, the Hip's popularity grew, and Downie began spending upwards of a year on the road, Usher said. "But we would always sing and play together when we had people over. "We were young and sweet and everything," she recalled with a smile. when she met a 23-year-old Downie, who was just getting started with the Hip, playing mostly university gigs. Usher was a 20-year-old student at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont. Getting to this point took decades for the Toronto musician, who was born Laura Leigh Usher but now goes by Kaya. Two of their four kids play on the album - 21-year-old son Lou on keyboards and drums and 26-year-old daughter Willo on vocal harmonies - realizing a shared goal she had with Downie of one day starting a family band. On "All This Is," credited to Kaya Usher and the Family Band, the Toronto musician finds her deep interest in meditation crossing paths with devotion to her children. The Tragically Hip frontman died in 2017 at age 53. Then, she witnessed Downie confront a terminal brain cancer diagnosis in 2015. Nearly a decade ago, the now 54-year-old faced breast cancer. Usher is bright and optimistic in a video conversation about the role music has played in her "healing journey" and how her album is about "coming into not only the grief but real strength" after a devastating loss.
"Kevin and I plan on making a lot of music together," she said, musing on potentially working with a symphony or dabbling in experimental electronic music. 17 and its meditatively euphoric single "Heart Clicks" already available on streaming services, she's thinking about what's next with co-producer Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene.
With her debut album "All This Is" set for release Nov. More than four years after her husband Gord Downie's death, singer-songwriter Kaya Usher is in the midst of an artistic awakening.
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