For Ashley Buchholz of eccentric Toronto duo USS, today is a good day.

“I get up in the morning, and it’s a choice between living out my wildest dreams or my worst nightmare,” the singer and guitarist tells the Straight on the line from a Calgary tour stop. “So I’ve just left the YMCA, which I visit in every city I go to. That’s the backbone of radiant living for me—getting my heart rate up, and getting my blood pumping. Statistically, when I go to the YMCA as soon as I wake up, chances are that the day will favour my wildest dreams.”

To the casual USS listener, however, Buchholz’s struggles with anxiety remain invisible. Famed for its high-energy live shows and back catalogue of infectiously upbeat hits, USS—or Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker, to the initiated—is indicative of Buchholz’s choice to challenge his demons by spreading joy and laughter, a philosophy he’s held since the group’s inception. Keen to start a band ideal for winter pre-drinks and summer keggers, the USS frontman first ran into his bandmate, Jason Parsons, in a location that was particularly appropriate.

“A beer fridge brought us together,” Buchholz recalls. “I had just dropped out of college, Jason had graduated from university, and we both needed jobs. We found work at the local golf course, and kept hearing through the grapevine that our match made in weirdo heaven was on the other side of the green. My sister was getting married, and she needed someone to play music at her wedding. I’d already heard that Jason was a good DJ. When we rub the genie lamp of life, we tend to get what we ask for—so the next day, they told me to unload the beer fridge, and lo and behold, he was the guy standing there when I walked in. I asked him if he’d DJ at my sister’s event, and here we are.”

Combining Parsons’s sunny optimism and Buchholz’s faculty for writing music based on intuition—a talent that stems, apparently, from his grandmother’s psychic abilities—the pair embarked on an experimental journey to amalgamate diverse genres.

“In my imagination, I just wanted to hear music that I’d never heard before,” Buchholz says with a laugh. “I wanted to listen to Nirvana Unplugged at a rave, with drum ’n’ bass and jungle and progressive house, and no one was making it. Those types of music all happened at the same time, and while a couple of acts sort of hinted at it, I don’t think anyone really got it. I don’t think that we’ve nailed it either, but I’m still trying to do it. Every album is just me trying to hear this music that I can’t listen to unless I make it.”

Five LPs later, Buchholz and Parsons are closer than ever to achieving their goal. Releasing New World Alphabet in January, the pair have pushed their sound in new directions after exploring fresh recording locations.

“The number one difference on this album was that we decided to go to California,” Buchholz says. “We put our comfort zones in a hockey bag, loaded them onto the plane with us, and said, ‘We’re gonna take you so far outside of yourself.’ Personally, I’m not very impressed with the narrator of the story of my life. So I figured, ‘How about I hire a new narrator, and let’s see what happens?’

“When we got to California,” he continues, “we were in the mountains, and we were by the ocean, and we were in the desert, and that spaciousness just really informed the music. It let the story be told, the tale of this new world alphabet. It’s 12 years into mine and Jason’s working relationship, and it was like our honeymoon. We applied an Olympic discipline and willpower in the process of this recording, and I think you can really hear the liberation that it brought—that freedom and lightness in the music.”

Buchholz is right—in part. Although tracks like “Work Shoes”, “Who’s With Me”, and “Domino” sound like vintage Smash Mouth buoyed by jungle and big-room EDM, the album is not without sadness in both its lyrics and chords. Balancing darkness with energy and humour, New World Alphabet seems to appeal to the singer’s idea that searching for happiness is the most important part of life.

“I like to refer to this place as Earth School,” Buchholz says. “That’s where we live right now. And at Earth School, the fastest way to trust someone is to laugh. Your heart opens up when you laugh. And the most important way to transform yourself is through joyfulness. You can’t change anything without an open heart and an open mind. Your heart opens first, and then your mind opens up, because you have to trust something before you’ll believe it. This album is about examining the anger and sadness in the depths of my own personal ocean, and taking a submarine to go down and take a look in there. And also remembering to laugh.”

USS plays the Commodore Ballroom on Friday (February 10).