New Episode of Spotify: Mic Check: British Singer-Songwriter Craig David

Ever since The Beatles hit our shores in 1964, waves of musicians from the UK have fascinated American music lovers. From Elton John to Dua Lipa, Adele to Kate Bush, artists from "over the pond" have been influential in the American music scene.

That why it's exciting that Spotify released the newest episode of its original podcast series, Spotify: Mic Check, with this week’s episode featuring British Singer-Songwriter Craig David. 

 

You can listen to the full episode here.

Craig David has been one of the biggest names in the British music scene ever since his breakthrough performance on Artful Dodger’s 1999 track, “Re-Rewind.” With hits including “7 Days,” “Fill Me In,” and “Walking Away,” the R&B singer-songwriter has released eight studio albums and collaborated with a wide variety of artists including Sting, Tinchy Stryder, Big Narstie, Kano, and Jay Sean.

Now, more than two decades after he was first introduced to listeners, Craig David sat down with Spotify: Mic Check for a candid interview where he recalls being bullied into leaving the UK before returning to the music scene on his own terms. He also shares why 2022 was the right time to release his memoir, “What’s Your Vibe: Tuning into your best life,” currently available as an audiobook on Spotify. 

For even more – you can go to this link to watch a video version of the episode, with a bonus story about how Craig’s big breakthrough almost didn’t happen. 

 
Available to stream for free exclusively on Spotify, please see below for interview highlights in the episode:

• Craig David on hearing his “Re-Rewind” out in the wild for the first time at Notting Hill Carnival
• “All of a sudden I'm hearing this like this tune and I'm like, This ain't. [SINGS TUNE] No, no, no, no. They can't be playing the tune, yeah? And I'm just there by myself, yeah? in the middle of so many people, that sound system is so loud listening to this tune playing. I’m like they’re playing “Rewind.” And it's going off and the people around me are like, going crazy for this. And I mentioned my name in the middle of the song, so I'm looking around and people singing out the name, and I'm thinking, this is mad. And then the deejay reloads it up, and he goes, ‘Yeah, come again, Craig David and that was Artful Dodger’. Plays the tune. Must’ve played it five times, and I'm standing in the middle of this thing like, as if I'm a ghost because nobody knows who I am… I'm just there, witnessing this euphoric moment of “Rewind” actually being played and being part of it. And I think I never got that opportunity to experience that again. After I then released my music and people started to recognize who I was. And so it was just like this moment that will always live with me forever. I said, Wow.”
  
  
• Craig David on the inspiration for his debut album “Born to Do It”
• “One of my favorite movies is Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which I've professed so many times to the whole world. It's just like, okay, we get it, we get it. You like Willy. But no, you don't understand how much I feel like Charlie, and you know how much I love chocolate, but the the the name of “Born to Do It” came from that from the movie, the opening scene the kid runs into the candy shop is how does he do it? And the candyman says, Well, my dear boy, you ask a fish how it swims. He says, No. You ask a bird how it flies. He says, No, there's no sirree, you don't. They do it because they were born to do it. I was like, Yes, that's my album.”
  
  
• Craig David on being bullied into leaving the UK after becoming the target of the satirical comedy show, “Bo’ Selecta”
  
  
• “It was very reminiscent of days at my school when I was growing up. I've been bullied. Not for long periods of time, but just the experience of bullying. And I think once you've experienced it, it's like a trauma that sticks with you… And I felt that all over again with this. It was being ridiculed and bullied on national TV. And the fact that he was wearing a black rubber mask, I mean, that throws open the whole thing of him black facing and everything, which just wouldn't be acceptable now. Um. So and it was unfortunate that it became so popular, but it is what it is. And I think at that time I felt like I needed to find escape. So a lot of people didn't know that actually moving to Miami was actually a form of escape, was like, I can't really walk down the road without this thing kind of now, not just being on TV, but also kind of following me around. So I went to Miami for my escape and it and it really was a healing that I needed. And thankfully years went past and the same feeling that the rest of the world had of I don't know what this show was about, what are you talking about.”
  
  
• Craig David on writing his book “What’s Your Vibe: Tuning into your best life” and narrating the audiobook version
• “It's funny because like I've been asked for many years to write an autobiography and I just felt it just never really felt like the right time. I just felt I didn't have enough life under my belt. And I was feeling this kind of something percolating of how can I, if I do a book, and would it help people rather than just be able to read up about how I wrote this song or where I was like, can we talk about more things that are pressing subjects for everyone with mental health and depression and physical pain and lack of boundaries and imposter syndrome and saying yes when you mean no and things that we can all relate to. And because I had enough of those stories and anecdotes of what I had experienced, having firsthand, experienced depression, firsthand, experiencing debilitating pain and having empathy. And because I felt like I had enough of that, I was like, This is a book worth writing.”
• “I've always resonated with audiobooks over books, and especially if the author is actually narrating it, because I can really feel the words and they're reliving whatever they went through, and I just feel like I believe them. So when it came to doing the audiobook, it was a whole new experience for me, very different from recording a song. So in a song, couple takes in your verses down chorus, Boom, Boom with the audiobook. Once I did the first chapter maybe four or five times and listened back to be like, Do I really believe the things I'm saying that or am I just reading this off? And then I found a tone that comes with audiobooks that I didn't know. I don't know about these things my first time. And then as soon as I found that tone where I could actually learn the words, articulate the words in the way that I wanted them to, to sound, and for it to feel, feel and know its true. I felt like I was on a roll, and then I could do like one, take stuff and not really come in and refill things because I always believe the performance is more important. Even if I stumble a word, I'd rather the performance than to try and do a little edit because you can hear the edit, right? And it's I'm really proud of it. I listen back to and I thought, Wow, I'm living these stories.”

  

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