David Usher was born in Oxford, England to Thai Buddhist artist Samphan Usher and Queen's University economics professor Dan Usher. 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. He attended high school at Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute at the same time that Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip and Hugh Dillon of the Headstones attended the school.[citation needed] Usher attended Queen's University for one semester before transferring to Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, majoring in political science.
While studying in Vancouver, Usher helped form the band Moist, composed of Usher on vocals, Mark Makoway on guitars, Jeff Pearce on bass, Kevin Young, who, like Usher, had moved to Vancouver from Kingston, on keyboards, and Paul Wilcox on drums. Usher became the principal songwriter for the band.
Moist's debut album Silver was released in 1994 and went on to achieve four-time platinum status, selling 400,000 copies in Canada. Their sophomore album, titled Creature, was released in 1996 and also reached multi-platinum status, selling over 300,000 copies.

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