A business graduate turntablist, a songwriter with quirky lyrics, several cardboard cutouts of celebrities and a blender for making smoothies — that's what the live set-up for Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker (or USS for short) looks like.

They're a Toronto-based duo who “use the Chuck D/Flavor Flav model” as singer/guitarist Ash Boo-Schultz put it, speaking on the phone from a car on the 401. “When you laugh, you become more open and trusting. So when [turntablist/hypeman] Human Kebab is running around acting like a jackass, it unconsciously makes the audience more open to new ideas and experiences.”

It seems to be working. Their original brand of two step/drum and bass rock, which they've dubbed “the campfire after party,” has blessed USS with two Canadian Artists Selected By You awards, a headlining gig at the World Electronic Music Festival and a campus tour that took them to Forwell Hall at Fanshawe College on Friday September 25. Most importantly, however, USS's success has given them the opportunity to make careers of music.

“We both still work because that's what I did. I never got paid for music, ever. I used to say to my sister ‘Aw, I just want to be a musician!' and she'd say, ‘You ARE a musician!'”

Despite financial restrictions, the dedication to music never wavered for Boo-Schultz, who recently moved from decrepit living arrangements in Parkdale, a west-Toronto neighbourhood known for its rough edges.

“I was so broke and living in a bedbug-infested apartment,” he reminisced of times not-so-long past.

“Cockroaches!” the sound of a young woman's voice resounded from the background of the phone, reminding him of the apartment pleasures he forgot.

Boo-Schultz continued, “Cockroaches too. I lived the Albert Einstein life of a single room with a bed and a desk and a chair and bedbugs to do whatever it took.”

But living in Toronto was never the plan for USS, who, until fate struck them, were divided between Texas and Alberta. Only when local rock radio station 102.1 the Edge started playing a song of theirs, did the duo realize it was time to act. That song became their first hit single, Hollow Point Sniper Hyperbole - a catchy tune, with an uplifting story behind it.

“I went to bed one night and I sat with my eyes closed in my bed and I said ‘Tomorrow I'm going to write the greatest song I have ever written' and no word of a lie I woke up and started playing Hollow Point and I knew as soon as I started singing that melody that [it] was the key for us. That was going to unlock my wildest dreams. That was going to be the catalyst. And lo and behold!”

It was the effort of two Edge DJs, Barry Taylor and the late Martin Streek that ensured Hollow Point Sniper Hyperbole was placed into heavy rotation. And perhaps a testament to the USS's luck or fate, it was not long after Hollow Point's success that both Taylor and Streek were let go from the station.

“I was recently taking to Adam [Ricard] who works at the Edge and he told me the story of the morning when Martin and Barry both came in with a copy of our CD and what that morning was like. It wasn't just this corporate radio ‘they get a playlist and this is what they play.' Those guys sat in there and got us on the radio.”

USS is also a success story for their remarkable independence. They write, pay for and own all of their music. It's a trend Ash thinks will continue with other bands.

“Internet technology and social media has [taken] something that very few people could successfully do and make it much more of a realistic possibility. Like, you could actually incorporate yourself!”

And, he said, “when the cheques come in, we're getting a far greater percentage as the owners of the business rather than being employees of a record company.”

Still, when Hollow Point Sniper Hyperbole broke, and the major record labels came calling, it was a difficult opportunity to pass up.

“It took some inner strength to have faith and to know the kind of patience it would take to build something like that, opposed to just being a fly by night, flash in the pan,” Boo-Schultz said. “But I think when you're talking about that business model, we're starting to see that it's not gonna be about five or 10 bands selling a trillion albums, it's about thousands of bands earning an honest living doing what they're the best at.”

USS's new income stream has been able to relocate the duo from Parkdale to the posh Toronto neighbourhood of High Park, where Boo-Schultz is much more content.

“Opposed to crackheads walking around my neighbourhood is now young families and senior citizens strolling around.” Of course, he laughed, “I'm the loudest part of my neighbourhood!”