With 13 million album sales worldwide and still only 26 years old, Craig David has earned a reputation as one of the UK’s foremost talents, as well as one of the nation’s most successful musical exports. He’s now  returned with a new album ‘Trust Me’ on already being heralded as his finest since the 2000 debut set ‘Born To Do It’.

Since becoming a global phenomenon with ‘Born To Do It’ , Craig David has become a huge UK superstar with two 1 singles (‘Fill Me In’ and ‘7 Days’) and a further ten appearances in the Top 10

Pyroradio.com caught up with Craig David recently to talk about his new single 6 and 1 Thing, his album ‘Trust Me, his thoughts on Bassline and the underground scene, working with Danja, Usher and Ne-Yo and a number of other things check it out, big up Craig David very safe guy too!!!(Video of interview up soon!!)

Pyroradio.com: Yes mate with your new single ‘6 and 1 Thing’ it seems like you had a lot fun making that how did that come together?

Craig David: Basically I was in the studio was thinking what would be the right way of trying to get across never really quite understanding how a woman works and thinks cos as a guy we are always trying to understand it, but it can be six and one thing and half a dozen of another and that’s how the phrase came about. And I wanted to make this album a bit more up tempo as well so this track was one of my favorites to make cos it kinda has Hip Hop flow to it but I was able to add a little bit of a reggae influence as well but still keeping it raw and chatting singing rather than it being a soft nice simple melody. It was fun making it

Pyroradio.com: It definitely has the Latin elements as well with the horns and that, was that something you done while recording in Havana?

Craig David: We were recording some horns over here but a lot of it was synthetic stuff, but thankfully I got the opportunity to go over to Cuba and do some stuff and record with some musicians over there so I thought yeah this would be great, Fidel Castro’s still alive, even just culturally to take things in and I knew they had some sick musicians, so to get some of the original members of the Buena Vista Social Club I ended up recording my vocals over their again cos I can’t be sitting on the sofa and watch these guys do there thing and not get involved and then when we started recording it was almost like jamming but capturing the performance over perfection cos I can be a bit of a perfectionist sometimes but it was getting it to the level people could believe it.

Pyroradio.com: So how important was it having total control over this album?

Craig David: For me it was key because I felt like to be on my fourth album and to sell a lot of records over the years and to be afforded the respect by the record company to make the album I wanted to make and the way I wanted to make it that’s why I was like trust me I’ll make the record I wanna make and if I do my bit and hopefully you do your bit it will sell a lot of records and they were down with that, and I respect them for that cos it’s very easy to say can you make us another hit like ‘Walking Away’ or another ‘Rise and Fall’ cos I can’t make another one of those because that is that but I can try and make a new version of that.

Pyroradio.com: Is that why the title of your album was ‘Trust Me’?

Craig David: Yeah, ‘Trust Me’ was to say guys just trust me I know what I’m doing here and this is my forte, and when I’m in this play ground I know how to play.

Pyroradio.com: The album sounds very diverse you’ve got the acoustic stuff, the soulful stuff is that all purposely done to keep it diverse?

Craig David: Yeah to be honest I love being diverse cos I love my Reggae music, Dancehall, Hip Hop, R’n’B, Pop music so I tried to make an album that wasn’t all over the place but had elements of those cos tracks like ‘She’s On Fire’ which is one of my favorites on there has a real Reggae influence but then ‘Officially Yours’ is like a straight Pop/R’n’B record so I definitely try and mix it up a little.

Pyroradio.com: So what goals have you still got left cos your only 26, you’ve sold a load of records, worked with the likes of Sting, toured the world what keeps you driving?

Craig David: I just wanna make consistently good music, I wanna be around for 10, 20, 30 years time, I’ve seen so many people who started with me or before me fall of, but for me I can’t understand that if your consistently putting out good music, I can never be one of them people that sits on my laurels and be like yeah this is always gonna work for me because every album I put out I’m gonna have the anxiety if it’s gonna work or not because we’re in a ever changing time where people want things instantly and they want it to be good so if your making album fillers we’ll just pick the ones we like, it’s a different time now, so I have to keep my game up there. But I’m thankful to be on my fourth album and people are enjoying it.

Pyroradio.com: So when you first came out the underground UK Garage scene was big but it seemed like it died down until now. What are your thoughts on Bassline and the new types of Uk street music?

Craig David: Yeah like you said the scenes come around but to be honest in time I knew it would because the underground scene thought it lost ownership of it because there was a lot of manufactured pop garage acts coming through that didn’t represent what was going on and then the underground scene got a little bit darker and it turned into the grime scene and it was cool cos it emerged new artists like your Wiley’s, Dizzee Rascal’s, Kano’s, Sway’s but then what I think happened was there was enough time gone for people to think maybe we should make it more melodic and get some vocals involved. Cos I always thought with the two step garage scene we found something that could work and the fact that it’s come around with tracks being successful like T2 ‘Heartbroken’ and H Two O’s track it’s a good look because hopefully it will get a lot more things coming through

Pyroradio.com: I know you’ve got a world tour starting in May what can people expect from that?

Craig David: It’s gonna be the fourth world tour for me, but it’s gonna be exciting because I’m trying to concentrate this tour on the ‘Trust Me’ album in it’s entirety rather than me doing a load of songs but we got a good package, we are releasing the album just after April in America so it’s all tying together with the release over there so it should be a good look.

Pyroradio.com: What else have you got instore for 2008?

Craig David: While I was in Miami I was working with a guy called Danja he’s the guy behind all those big Timbaland tracks so that’s a good look we’re building a good relationship so I can go over there and do some stuff with him, I’m gonna get finished with some duets and collaborations I was gonna do with Usher and Ne-Yo so I’m excited about that and I’m thinking about new records and new sounds but it’s funny cos I’m only on the second single but I’m always trying to stay ahead of the game

Pyroradio.com: Thanks for your time bruv also your first album was my record for serenading the ladies man so I wanna thank you for that ‘Booty Man’ and those tracks!

Craig David: (Laughs) It’s a pleasure man it’s a caring and sharing community (Laughs). That’s wicked I appreciate that.

Pyroradio.com: Have you got any last words or shout outs?

Craig David: To be honest thanks for the support and the people who where with me from the Artful Dodger days when I was doing Pa’s at Coliseum and Camden Palace, Twice As Nice Nights, all the way through to getting here on my fourth album  thank you to all those people, hope you like the album!

Craig David’s single ‘6 and 1 Thing’ and album ‘Trust Me’ is out now!!!

http://craigdavid.com/ for more info

Words: Matthew Power

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