Hit the ground running
CRAIG DAVID TALKS ABOUT HIS UPCOMING ALBUM, TS5 AND WHY THIS TIME AROUND IT FEELS LIKE HE’S HERE TO STAY
Craig David is in a good mood. And why wouldn’t he be? Barely a year since the release of his No 1 album Following My Intuition, he’s preparing to release a followup: The Time Is Now, in January 2018. His club night TS5 is now a juggernaut of an event, and there’s a unanimous sense that he’s reinstated himself back into the mainstream.
“The last year has been amazing,” he says. “Some of the things going on, and then to think that the last album only came out a year ago.
“I think it was because I was in a really creative place. I still am. Off the back of the album dropping, the arena tour… I hit the ground running and didn’t stop. I was in the studio and carried on throughout Christmas, New Year’s, and all of a sudden I had all these songs. I thought, ‘You know what, we could actually release another album with this.’ Times have changed from people waiting for a certain period of time, and if you’ve got it, and you’re not rushing it, then go for it.”
On Following My Intuition there were plenty of nods to the oldschool garage music that David helped to pioneer with his debut Born To Do It in 2000. On The
Time Is Now there’s a clear progression of his
sound that maintains the best elements of garage and brings in UK R&B, electronic and grime music with a smorgasbord of guest features, from AJ Tracey to Goldlink, Bastille to Kaytranada.
Making another album after Following My Intuition felt “really organic,” he says, and would have happened regardless of whether he’d made it to No 1 in the album charts. And the features on this record happened almost in spite of that.
While David probably had his pick of artists wanting to feature on The Time Is Now, he chose to work with artists who are still growing — who still have a buzz around them. “I feel like a lot of these artists on the album are already stars in their own right, just give them time, and I’m so grateful to be a part of what they’re doing,” he says.
“It’s so easy to go established with collaborations, but I love this because I just think in a couple of years where AJ Tracey blows up and Kaytranada becomes like the new Pharrell… And it was also to make sure the songs stand up on their own. Sometimes
I’ve heard collaborations where on paper it sounds alright, and I’ve bought into the hype, but if you stripped it back and thought, ‘If this was a brand new artist would you be that into this song?’”
So David will become one of a few artists who are championing an album of collaborations with exciting new stars, rather than those who are already established, placing The Time Is
Now alongside records such as Mura Masa‘s self-titled debut, Kaytranada’s 99.9%, and Calvin Harris’s Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1.
“On this latest record, Calvin could have done a fall-the-floor EDM record,” David nods.
“But he was like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna do Slide.’ Frank Ocean. Completely curveball and still smash it. That’s someone who lives this, it’s not a hobby for him. And I think that’s kind of the way I live this music. From Rewind to all the way now.”
He’s touched at the thought that he’s reestablished himself as a credible artist following one or two bumps in the road – no mean feat in an industry that’s forgotten the “next big thing” by the middle of next week.
“Your career is a bit like you jumped on a bicycle, and both the wheels are in sync,” David says. ”Then there’s a point where the wheels can start to go out of sync. Some people might jump off. But if you stay on the bike, there’s a moment they’ll start to go back in sync again.”
David’s TS5 sets are thrilling to attend. At London’s Shapes club in 2015, when the music industry and his fans were suddenly buzzing at hints of a comeback, he played his classic tracks, hinted at new ones and re-worked hits by other artists to an at-capacity venue, with an understanding of his audience’s craving for nostalgia and the new.
“I played Rewind so many times in the club, to see which parts were working, see how the crowd reacted to it. And the younger and the older generation are loving it. That’s what
TS5 allows me to do, gauge what is actually happening. Not what’s playing on the radio, what’s playing on here. Seeing someone’s face light up, or if they’re not really into it. You need that because otherwise, you’re out of touch with what people are feeling.”