Craig David is the first to acknowledge he has a reputation for taking himself too seriously, but says lately he has been reconnecting with his inner child.
Speaking to The Standard, the singer-songwriter and DJ, 43, said: “I feel like even more than ever before, I’m having the fun that I had as a 12-13-year-old kid in Southampton and really just enjoying life.“The older you get, the more open you are to adventures like you were as a child. You start to remember you know what? Let’s not sweat the small stuff anymore. It’s like you get enough life under your belt, lets just enjoy this life; it’s precious. As long as you’ve got your health, your friends, your family, just enjoy life.”
He also noted: “I think I’m in a really receiving/listening phase in my life, do you know what I mean?”
Incredibly, next year marks the 25th anniversary of the release of his chart-topping debut single Fill Me In. David will mark the milestone with an 11-date UK arena tour featuring special guest Lemar and culminating in a night at the London O2 Arena on February 20.
He recently released latest single In Your Hands and says he is “gassed” for his upcoming ninth studio album.
“I feel like there’s a nice synergy in albums even though they’ve become more playlists for people that you create your own album, I feel that it’s still important, especially for an artist who always created albums as sort of bodies of work,” he said.
He added: “To create a body of work is something that even though it may be different to a younger generation to what an album means but when you get a moment to sit down and listen to songs that blend into each other and have a storyline, you can see this in like incredible albums from Taylor Swift or Billie Eilish and you look at the way they’ve curated it. I’m like yeah, I want to keep that vision and that faith in an album rather than just letting it be singles, singles, singles.”
Over the years, David has amassed 25 UK top 40 singles and two UK Number one albums, plus, he has also received multiple BRIT Award and Grammy nominations, 6 MOBO Awards, as well as becoming a 3x Ivor Novello Award winner.
Earlier this year he also got to perform on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, an experience he described as “unbelievable”.
Reflecting on what he hopes his lasting legacy will be, the Rewind hit-maker said: “I hope in my heart of hearts that I was able to make lasting memories that brought people together. If I can leave that, this whole life would have been worth living.
“I’ve been very blessed to have people tell me that they have listened to one of my songs and that song brought them together or they remember the holiday they were on, how they met friends or they met a partner and then another song was played as the first dance.
“Unbelievable [which] was on my [third] album The Story Goes On is the song comes up a lot as being the song that people play as a first dance. I’m just like wow, and we’ve never met before but somehow, I’m part of your journey and your life. It blows my mind every time I think about it.
“If I can leave a legacy of bringing people together through music and the way that I showed up and presented myself then I’d be very happy.”
