Craig David Interview

The star is still most famous for his 2000 breakthrough album Born To Do It - which sold over 8 million copies worldwide. Asked why he’s turned to covers Craig told MTV:

 

“I had just come out of a greatest hits and thought I would make an album of songs that influenced me growing up. I thought I would take on a new challenge and pick songs I liked. I had to step out of my comfort zone and step into the big men’s league.”

 

Here he talks us through some key tracks from the album….

 

 

This is the new single and it features a sample from the Four Tops. I approached it as a cover version at first and I ended up re-writing it for a new version. So we took it as a sample for the chorus like I did on Let’s Dance. It’s a nice intro to the album.

 

 

Otis Redding is incredible. It’s something my dad would play when I was growing up. When you’re approaching a song like that its easy to say – I can sing it the same. It’s harder to make people believe you. I didn’t want to turn it into a hip hop song I wanted to find what he as trying to say lyrically.

 

I found an affiliation with Marvin Gaye’s style. Sexual Healing and What’s Going On are amazing songs but thismakes people listen as soon as they hear the start. It’s a song where you have to step up your game.

 

It’s such a poignant lyric. When he hits those high notes. It’s sad to think how many songs he would have written had he not died.

 

 

That was the hardest song when making sure I didn’t disrespect the original (by The Temptations) but I had to make it into a three and a half minute pop song. 

 

That intro was so long that I had to cut to the chase. From a songwriters’ point you view I had to put in a melody and think about how to edit it to make it a faster and bring something new to the table. A lot of people wont expect it.

 

 

This track is one of the originals on the album and samples (Marvin Gaye’s) Stop Look Listen. I love that song but the verses didn’t work for me so I created a new verse and lyric for this song. Overall though I didn’t want to write too much on this record because I’m going up against these legends!