Earlier this year, Craig David went back to where it all began. As part of a Shelter campaign to encourage the Government to invest in social housing, the UK garage star went back to his childhood home in Southampton, a council flat on the Holyrood Estate that has a special place in pop folklore: it was there that David wrote all those game-changing hits – “7 Days,” “Fill Me In,” “Walking Away” – when he was just 16.
It was emotional. “It was one of the most incredible experiences,” he says. “These walls, they’ve seen it all. They’ve seen the movie, the pen and paper, and not being able to get the right lyric. And then to come back as a grown man, it was wild. It takes you back to that sense of innocence and wonderment.” He was moved by the single mother living there with her three kids; David, too, was brought up by his single mother, Tina, who would listen from the next room as the teenage David wrote future classics. “The mum was like, ‘Oh my God, can you speak to our kids just to inspire them?’ What an incredible full-circle moment.”
David was still living there when he became the first new British superstar of the 21st century. After planting his flag as UK garage standard bearer with his 1999 Artful Dodger collaboration “Re-Rewind,” his 2000 debut album Born to Do It sold an incredible seven million copies as it became the fastest-selling debut album by a British male solo artist. At 18, David – mature beyond his years, cool and slick, with a fabulously honeyed voice and rapid flow – not only took garage to the mainstream but embedded it in the culture. Take “7 Days” – “Any topic that involves someone saying the days of the week, somehow I’m in the middle,” he smiles. “Like [when you] say, ‘Hello’ and you instantly think of Lionel Richie.”
After 25 years in the game, David continues to thrive. He’s about to release his ninth album, Commitment, his fourth since the most heartening of career comebacks. “It solidifies everything for me,” he says. “But you can’t just level off because you’ve had a few hits under your belt. It keeps me on my toes.”
You can understand why David wouldn’t be resting on his laurels. Now 44, he’s attained something of a national treasure status, in part, due to the eternal goodwill towards his songs – he says he gets anecdotes from people about when and where they first fell for his music all the time – but also in recognition that he’s a good guy who suffered a very unjust and horrible public humiliation at the hands of Leigh Francis and his caricature of David on Bo’ Selecta. It doesn’t seem to have embittered him; if anything, on video call from his home studio, his upbeat energy is endearingly infectious through the screen. But it means he can sometimes answer questions in vague positive-speak and generalised metaphors – he’s at once highly likeable and slightly unknowable.
You can’t blame him for having developed some defence mechanisms. As detailed in 2022’s self-help-cum-memoir What’s Your Vibe? Tuning Into Your Best Life, he’s dealt with a lot: bullying, depression, failure, heartbreak, physical pain, imposter syndrome. “It was really cathartic,” he says of the book. “All the elephants in the room, I can see them all. I think I got that off my chest.”
But the music industry hardly helped: consensus even said that 2002’s second album Slicker Than Your Average was a flop, despite selling 3.5 million copies. “I thought 3.5 was good, but then the record label was like, ‘Ah, we expected 10 million,’” he says, pulling a disappointed face. He started to feel pressure to sell records. “And that was when you bite that pill. Unfortunately, I started to play that game.”
At the same time, Bo’ Selecta derailed his career cruelly. Francis did eventually apologise during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, but seemed to row back in an interview this year where he said he didn’t regret anything he did on Bo’ Selecta – though he would “probably” change things were he to do the show now. I ask David what he thinks about that comment. “I mean, it is what it is, right? I think it speaks volumes.” He goes on to say: “Sometimes I give too much air time to something that, for me, I’ve put to bed.”
With his albums producing diminishing returns, David fled the UK for Miami. “I felt like I needed to go away to feel the space between the notes.” It wasn’t all plain sailing: he took to the gym to an excessive extent, working out until his body looked skeletally toned with just 4.5 per cent body fat (he’s since talked about his body dysmorphia). But he lived a very popstar-in-sunny-exile existence: he rented a swanky apartment, enjoyed the sun and the views and the sushi, and took to partying in a big way, throwing house parties that became must-go-to events.
It was what developed into the hugely popular TS5 sets he takes to Ibiza every summer, where he DJs and MCs over garage and R’n’B tunes: “I wouldn’t say iconic, but it was a vibe. For a couple of seasons people were like, ‘We need to go check TS5, because something’s going on over there.’”
But, ultimately, Miami was “this artificial moment of home”. He got an intuitive feeling to return to the UK in 2015, he says, which coincided with the prominence of a new generation of artists who’d grown up listening to him.
His comeback started in earnest in September 2015, when he appeared on Radio 1 Xtra as part of Kurupt FM’s Sixty Minute Takeover. At one point, David freestyled “Fill Me In”, ad-libbing about his musical journey, over an instrumental version of “Where Are U Now” by Justin Bieber, Skrillex and Diplo. The atmosphere in the studio was electric; you could see the reverence towards David, from Big Narstie especially. “It was the biggest hug I could ask for. It was special.”
The internet, including Bieber, went wild – “I didn’t really know what going viral was” – and David was reborn. “I felt like there was a dimly lit candle inside me, and after that moment, it felt like a roaring flame.” His 2016 album Follow My Intuition – helped by the ridiculously catchy, classically David, Big Narstie-featuring top 10 hit “When The Bassline Drops” – went gold on its way to number one. David has enjoyed two top 10 albums since; in 2021 he was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours List.
Which brings us to Commitment, a milestone of sorts coming 25 years after Born To Do It. Featuring an array of talent (Toddla T, Wretch 32, Jojo, Tiwa Savage) it has something of the young David in both its creation – the north London studio was like an amusement park of late-night sessions, ice cream and chocolate – and its spirit. It’s a joyful, vibrant and varied record, from the vintage UK garage of “Wake Up” to the calypso pop of “SOS” and the Ibiza-inflected dance of “Leave The Light”.
“I feel like I’ve always just wanted tunes that you can enjoy,” he says. But there are reflective moments too, not least on the Afrobeat ballad title track, a duet with Tiwa Savage. “Commitment” has several meanings, he says: the first is his duty to the fans; the second is pledging to his creative essence, which is not so much a sound as a mood – he says he’s often asked by other artists to recreate his different sounds (R’n’B, garage, dance, pop). “They’re trying to articulate that you want that feeling. And I just tried my best on this album just to make it about delivering that feeling that people were going for.”
But does “commitment” mean to a relationship? For decades, David has kept his cards close to his chest – he’s never been publicly known to have a partner – and last year revealed to Louis Theroux he’d been celibate for two years. But reading between the lines, songs like “Commitment” and “In It With You” suggest he’s (re)kindled a relationship?
“Reading between the lines is the perfect thing, because it’s so subjective, right?” he says, giving a textbook David answer. He goes on to talk about the concept of commitment, before saying, “To be honest, when you’re talking about commitment, I feel like my thing was having a very closed-down, arm’s length situation, and it just wasn’t serving me well.” He says he’s “pulled back all these fragmented parts that I gave away to so many different people or to authorities or belief systems.” Now, he says, “I’m open to: when we’re in, let’s give it a proper go.”
It’s not the only life outlook he’s changed: he says he’s learned to not be so serious, be present in the moment. “For real,” he says. “And when you live life like that, you start to appreciate the wins and not sweat the small stuff.”
‘Commitment’ is out on 8 August