At 19, Craig David went from a music obsessive just trying to pull some money together to buy more vinyl and gear, to a chart-topping global sensation with his GRAMMY-nominated debut single "Fill Me In." The success and fame continued with his massively successful first album, Born to Do It. A lot has happened since that 2000 album, and the British star feels blessed to still be doing what he loves.
In a deeply engaging and personal manner, David details his rapid rise, the challenges of fame, and learning to trust his intuition in his new book, What's Your Vibe?: Tuning into your best life, available in the U.K. Oct. 6. (Its U.S. release will be announced at a later date.)
On Sept. 30, he'll drop his eighth studio album, 22 — a celebration of the 22 years since Born to Do It, and a return to that more innocent creative space, when he was just a teenager writing songs while looking out his bedroom window in Southampton. David also finds deep connection to the meaning of 22 in numerology, which is known as the "master builder" number and is about turning dreams into reality that serve the greater good.
Across its 17 inviting tracks, 22 reflects what David loves and thrives at: singing beautifully about love and life, atop danceable garage rhythms and sexy R&B bops, and collaborating with singer/songwriters and producers. Opener "Teardrops" delivers that classic, smooth garage sound David brought to the world with his early singles, while "Who You Are" featuring 27-year-old U.K. singer/songwriter, producer and remixer MNEK is a perfect marriage of voices. There's also upbeat classic house on "My Heart's Been Waiting For You" with London producer Duvall (of trio Disciples), and anthemic EDM on "DNA" with Swedish DJ/production duo Galantis.
In a deep dive with GRAMMY.com, Craig David discusses his new album, book, and the journey to get here.
22 opens with your classic, smooth garage sound on "Teardrops." Was that an intentional choice, to set the tone for the album?
The whole album ended up coming about throughout lockdown. It kind of hit a certain point where we recognized that we have to surrender to this, it's happening. In that surrender, we had to look at different things that fill our soul with a little bit of joy. And for me, that was being in my studio at home.
And that felt very similar to when I made my first album, Born to Do It. I felt like all of my childhood and joy was made leading up to that [first] album and it was just life. It was going into the studio, it was seeing my friends. It was "I'm gonna write a chorus today and come back to it tomorrow and maybe write a verse."
Working on "Teardrops," gave me the feel of when I was making "Rewind" [in 1999] with the Artful Dodger, and I thought "What a nice way to open the whole thing." It's got the nostalgia of the ehhh, ehhh, yeahhh, and it's got this whole riff from "They Don't Know," the [1998] Jon B. song, which has actually been my alarm clock for the last three or four years.
"Teardrops" wasn't that at first. We'd written it and I started singing it in the morning, over that riff of my alarm clock. I called up the producer Mike Brainchild, and sang him the melody over it. He was getting his hair cut and he told the guy, "It's cool, you don't have to do the fade all crazy. I'll come back." Literally that day, he took that guitar, flipped it on it, revocaled it, and there you have "Teardrops." It's one of my favorites on the album, to be honest. I always feel you got to start on the right foot.
What do you think was the magic sauce that put you back into your 19-year-old self?
The title of Born to Do It came from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, my all-time favorite movie. There's a part at the beginning where the kid runs into the candy shop and he says, "Candy Man, how did you do it?" And the Candy Man says, "Well my dear boy, do you ask a fish how it swims? Do you ask a bird how it flies?" The boy says, "No, sir." "You don't because they were born to do it." I feel it's an intrinsic feeling of almost getting out of the way of the thing that you know that you love and enjoy.
This period of time was reflective. It also made me recognize how grateful and how blessed I am to be in the position that I've been in for 22 years and be at the stage where I've been able to, I hope, bring lots of joy to many people through my music. I'm more conscious about everything I'm saying now, because I'm in a position where it has an effect.
We get some more garage on "Who You Are."What was it like working with MNEK and how did that track come together?
I mean, it was a long time waiting to actually have his vocals on one of my songs. We've had this beautiful kind of weaving as songwriters working together. MNEK was involved with my song called "Change My Love" [from 2016's Following My Intuition] and, more recently [in 2020], one with KSI called "Really Love."
When I'm working with someone, the conversation we have at the start sets the tone for what we're actually gonna sing and talk about. He was talking about just had a huge hit with Joel Corry, "Head & Heart." And he was saying, "You know what, I like my anonymity and a lot of people are pulling at me right now. For my mental health, I'm trying to find balance in all of that." I said to him, "I love how you're wearing your heart on your sleeve. Look how beautiful it is that you can just be you and not feel like you have to act in any way within society. I think we're in a really beautiful, liberating time."
"Who you are" and "wearing your heart on sleeve" became the topic to hopefully be the empowerment song for someone who wants to be able to express who they are. I felt like it really touched a lot of people's hearts. He was the perfect person [to sing it with me].
What was your intention going into working on your eighth studio album? Did that evolve as it started coming together?
I just wanted to have fun, like I did making my first music, not even necessarily the first album. Those [first] songs were me just enjoying being a child and going through being a teenager and looking out my window and aspiring to do this. It was this very magical, whimsical [space]. As an adult, it's important to still find that balance with the inner child that's inside of you, that's always crying out to just have some fun. It's like, "Wow, when did it all become so crazy serious around here?"
The beauty of being so free is that you have these very powerful moments that happen and it creates an album. I could have never told you that my first album was going to go on and sell 7 million copies and have No.1s around the world. I was just like, "I like this song. It feels good, it's giving me vibes. My friends are telling me it's good." I would have been happy with just that. And that was very similar with this [album], I had time to enjoy [it]. I hope it really brings joy to other people. I just want to be of service in that sense.
I love that you open the book checking in with the reader, asking how they're feeling. How do you stay present and grounded in your daily life, especially when things are moving really fast?
On one hand, there's the spiritual practices or rituals — if I start to feel a bit ungrounded or if there's a lot going on in my head, I'll step outside and get some fresh air. Or if there's nowhere to get fresh air, then I just take some deep breaths, and put my hand on my heart and it really does calm everything down. Talking about what we've experienced today, this has got me very much at the moment. The whole book is really "How do you feel?" Not how you're thinking.
We'd like life to be so very organized and in place, but it's messy. It's messy, but in a good way. It's the ice cream melting all over the cone and all over your hand and your nice new outfit. But we had fun, right? That's the premise of the whole thing: Let's get into our bodies, into how we're feeling, and then take it from there. It doesn't mean that life won't present things that can be a bit hard on us. But let's get back to the kid inside of us because that will always find a sweet spot somewhere.
I love that. When you were working on the book, what did it feel like looking back at your life, especially given the timing of being 22 years from Born to Do It?
Yeah, I feel like you can kind of see why things played out the way that they did when you have a little bit of hindsight. In the midst of something, you're trying to process and work out what's happening around you. When everything first blew up for me, it felt like zero to 100. One moment I'd been working at McDonalds, and selling double-glazed windows on the phone, cold-calling people. Ultimately, I was just wanting to put together some money so I could buy some more vinyl or that hi-fi equipment I wanted. I see now that all of those parts got me to this point in my life. That doesn't mean that I've actually now arrived somewhere, because my life is still continuing on.
I wanted to be able to write something that people could relate to… and hopefully find their own story within what I was saying. And maybe what I did to get through something or how I felt about something might be something someone else is experiencing and they can use some of those tools I used. Same for the album. If I can give you a little something with the book and if my music can lift you out of whatever's going on in your world for three and a half minutes of a song, then my work is done.
And the number 22, funnily enough, has a very deep symbolic, spiritual meaning. It's about recognizing that what you may have thought was the thing you were doing is actually setting you up for the real work. So the music thing was like, "We got to try and get the No. 1, we got to sell records." Now, it's about creating vibrational, energetic moments that connect me on stage when I sing and there's that euphoric moment and life is good.
I'm happy that I realized that this is actually what it is about. It's not about getting number ones or how Spotify plays you got today or how many interviews did you do today? I'd like to say, how many people did you actually connect with today when you did interviews?
What did that success of "Fill Me In" feel like to you at that time? I can't imagine being 19, putting out your first solo single and everyone is listening to it.
It really was euphoric. It's funny because yesterday I actually watched about seven of those [early music] videos, including "Fill Me In." That shot where it starts off in the barber's getting my hair done, it would have only been weeks before that I was at my barber's having those conversations, it was so real. It would then jump from zero to 100, from walking up the high street in Southampton where I grew up, to people running up and asking for my autograph.
It was the start of a new beginning and the end of sort of the innocence and the child phase for me. I had to process this fame and rise. And I'm seeing the whole world, traveling to countries and places I've never been before.
"Fill Me In" was released the same week as Destiny's Child's "Say My Name" in the U.K.— I had Destiny's Child posters on my wall. I got the call saying I was No. 1and I could not get my head around it. It wasn't so much the number, I was just like, "No way Destiny's Child can be No. 2." It felt so surreal. It's like Charlie getting the golden ticket and walking into the chocolate factory. That was pretty much the first few years, I was thrown into this magical world of pure imagination. At the same time, it was a lot of process.
Now I look back, as I talk about in the book, I had moments of imposter syndrome.I I started to feel the pull of I'm still a local guy in Southampton, but you're not, your album just sold 7 million copies and you're performing on "The Letterman Show." You're not that anymore, but you are. That was a strange moment.
How did your beginnings as a radio and club DJ, as well as making mixtapes in your bedroom, influence your sound and your approach to music?
I loved it. With the mixtapes, you had to have a very good read of who you were selling them to. The choice of songs was important, which goes back to album—that was setting me up to figure out where do the songs fit. When I was supposed to be college studying in the library, I was in there using the printer to make mixtape CDs covers. I had a little laminating machine, the whole thing.
All of those things set me up for more than 22 years where I can jump on and create covers and send them to the design team. And the mixtape period was a really good time. Those are the moments behind the scenes that set you up for when you are doing the thing.
If you could go back and give your 19-year-old self advice or guidance, what would you tell him?
Go out there, do exactly as you're about to do. Because every single thing you're going to do is going to land you in the places that you need to be.
And even though this might sound a little far-fetched for you right now — because you're only 19 and you're a little bit excited because you've just released your first album and it's all going beautifully — but there will be some moments that will be quite hard. Have the faith that there'll be light at the end of the tunnel. Do the right thing. Follow your intuition. That's what will get you through this whole thing. I'll see you when you're my age and you'll see what I mean.
What is your response to seeing artists like Beyoncé and Drake tap into house music and bring it into pop?
I'm all for people being creative and expressive, and showing whatever they're feeling at any point in time in their life. I can only see the positives in putting out music that you love. And if it shines light on a genre of music because of the position that you're in, the more the merrier. All I know is, "Break My Soul," sheeesh, that tune hit.
I have a song called "Heartline," and I do a version where I play that instrumental and then drop the acapella of "Break My Soul" over the top. Ohh, the vibe! "Heartline" is kind of an Afrobeat tune, the tempo sits so nicely — but what Beyoncé is saying! "New foundation, got that motivation, I'm on a new vibration." I'm all for it. Go out there and just do what you want to express, because that’s the inner child in you.
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