Northern Dial Artist Profile

Moist

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Moist emerged from Vancouver in the early 1990s and quickly became one of the bands that defined Canada's alternative-rock boom. Fronted by David Usher, with Mark Makoway, Jeff Pearce, Kevin Young and Paul Wilcox in the group's best-known early lineup, Moist broke nationally with the 1994 album Silver. Songs such as "Push," the title track and "Believe Me" turned the band into a MuchMusic and rock-radio fixture, while its dramatic, atmospheric sound helped distinguish Vancouver's contribution to a decade often dominated in the Canadian imagination by Toronto and Kingston rock scenes.

The band's second album, Creature, expanded that reach with a darker, more polished sound and earned an Album of the Year nomination at the 1998 JUNO Awards. Moist also received JUNO recognition across the decade, including a Best New Group nomination in 1995, Group of the Year recognition and a Rock Album nomination for 1999's Mercedes Five and Dime. By then, Usher's increasingly visible solo career was running alongside the band, and Moist eventually went inactive in the early 2000s.

The group reunited in the 2010s and released Glory Under Dangerous Skies in 2014, followed by End of the Ocean in 2022. Those later records did not attempt to recreate the 1990s moment so much as extend a catalogue that already occupies an important place in Canadian alternative-rock history. Moist belongs to the generation that turned domestic radio, MuchMusic exposure and national touring into a sustainable Canadian rock ecosystem, and its reunion-era work has kept that history active rather than purely nostalgic.