The Boy David

It's not all that difficult to figure out why Craig David is seen as the new golden boy of British R&B. With a voice as smooth as honey, looks to die for and youth on his side, he could well become the biggest black UK star since Seal broke through a decade ago.

He first came to prominence as the voice behind Artful Dodger's club/radio smash 'Re-Re-Wind', but it was his recent solo success with the No 1 single 'Fill Me In' which catapulted him to the limelight (prompting a brace of female fans at the recent T In The Park festival to hold up signs reading 'Craig - Fill Me In'!) His debut album, Born To Do It, has just been released, along with a follow-up single, the smoothly grooving '7 Days'. At just 19, the impeccably mannered Southampton-born David is already something of a veteran of the UK garage/hip-hop scene.
"I was always well clued-up on my music," he says. "My mum was a big fan of Terence Trent D Arby, my dad was into lovers rock and I took flamenco classical guitar lessons when I was quite young. I started off DJing when I was 14 so I was understanding and learning the business and I was able to pick up music on promo before most people heard it.
While Southampton is better known as a Navy port than a hotbed of R&B, David reckons it was an advantage being able to develop his talents away from the spotlight
"Being away from London, having time and space to nurture my vocals was a big advantage," he offers. "London is so massive that the radio stations dominate everything, setting trends that everyone follows. It's harder for an unknown act to break through."
David started performing at local community centres and when he was 15 his mother persuaded him to enter a competition which required him to write a song on the back of an instrumental the group Damage had put together. His composition, 'I'm Ready', won outright and ended up as the B-side on Damage's version of Eric Clapton's 'Wonderful Tonight', hitting number 3 in the UK charts.
"Winning the competition gave me the motivation to go on," he says. "Even though I had a number 3 chart single, I was new to the industry, doing the rounds, doing performances in Southampton and I was able to build an audience."
Unlike most DJ's/producers who turn their hands to making records, David places much emphasis on the quality of the songs rather than the beats
"I see myself as a songwriter," he says. "The melody in a song is so much more important than the production or the rhythm. Being a DJ I'm obviously into beats and it's important to show your roots, but you also need to express yourself. I think it's good to be able to play an instrument and having had guitar lessons meant I was able to come up with riffs in the studio and find a melodic loop to run them through."
His heroes include Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson both early starters in the business like Craig but he also admires Britney Spears and R. Kelly and, perhaps more surprisingly, mainstream rock acts like Travis and Coldplay.
"I've been listening to their albums recently and I like them a lot," he offers. There shouldn't be any rules to music. I'd love to collaborate with Britney or R. Kelly but my music isn't strictly R&B, there are rock guitar and bass-lines in there as well. The album shows all the different sides to Craig David. It's a young album and there's a lot of continuity on it. If I'm going to move anywhere, it'll be a natural progression I won't change the style to suit the market."
With high hopes for his own album, David sees the British scene as wide open for a breakthrough.
"The UK has got its own twist on things," he offers. "Two-step garage, for example, blew up from the people. We need to nurture British music and export it rather than importing stuff from America. The whole R&B scene here is starting to go towards pop, which is good. But trying to take R&B back to America will be the challenge. Fingers crossed, I'll be able to do it."
Born To Do It is out now on Wildstar Records