Whatever happened to Craig David?

Being Craig David —who one suspects doesn’t so much embrace downtime as schedule it — he also launched a club night, TS5, which began life as a series of Sunday-night parties in his own pristine white penthouse (legend has it that red wine and coffee were banned ‘because of the carpets’: he denies this). He has since exported the TS5 concept to Ibiza and London: in June, he’s taking it to Glastonbury. ‘I love people enjoying themselves,’ he says, smiling. ‘I don’t want people to take life too seriously, because I’ve realised that it’s not to be taken seriously.’

Being turned into a puppet will do that to a person. Want to see the funny side of life? Try being lampooned on prime-time TV. One minute, Craig David was a credible 21-year-old pop star who’d sold 13 million albums; the next, he was the butt of the nation’s jokes, a latex caricature complete with distinctive facial topiary and the catchphrase ‘Bo’ Selecta!’ that kids chanted in playgrounds, referring to his platinum-selling hit ‘Re-Rewind’ — and the show’s title. Quite why the comedian Leigh Francis (as Avid Merrion) decided to target David so relentlessly is unclear, but once Francis had made a mockery of him, it must have felt as though the world had followed suit.

Bo’ Selecta ended in 2004: in the years since, David has been furious, hurt, vengeful, amused and nonchalant about it, depending on which interview you read. Now, he’s philosophical, even if his language reeks a little of shrink. ‘Sometimes getting your ego a little dented can be one of the most beautiful things,’ he says. ‘Because it resets you. You reset, you come back…’

You rewind, I interject, unable to help myself.

‘Love the pun — beautiful,’ he says, a little sharply.

Freshly reset and back with a new album, Following My Intuition, out later this year, (following last year’s heavily hyped single ‘When The Bassline Drops’), he seems freakishly zen. ‘I’m actually just going back to the simple basics before I even knew what charts and radio play and playlists were, and I was making music because I loved it. You ask the question, “What makes you happy? What are you doing this for?” Even when people go “spiritual”... if you say you’re spiritual, then you’re not spiritual. Do you see what I’m saying? As soon as you put it in a box, anything in a box is not actually it.’

A ginger-haired man in shorts has appeared, clutching an iPad. ‘Oh! Hey there, my man,’ David says.

‘I’m really sorry to interrupt,’ the man says. ‘I just want to say I really like your music, big time.’

‘Thank you so much. What’s your name?’ asks David.

‘Ben. I couldn’t ask for a quick photo, could I?’ I offer to take a picture of them, arm in awkward arm. ‘I really appreciate it,’ says Ben. ‘You must get this all the time.’

‘It’s all good, my man! There’s absolutely no worries,

it’s absolutely cool,’ says David. Ben retreats, almost genuflecting, telling David how jealous his friends will be.

‘You were very gracious,’ I say.

‘If that starts to become something that you take for granted or you dislike... you know when we were talking about getting lost in the hype?’ he says. ‘That’s when you can tell it’s starting to happen. He’s going to go off now and he can talk about that for the rest of the day. You can make someone’s day just by getting up and doing a picture with them. When it comes to meeting people, you realise that it’s part of [fame] now. You can’t one minute turn it on for the red carpet and it’s cool because the paparazzi are there… this is what you signed up for. Give them the vibe. Let them feel good about themselves!’

That David has been famous for 15 years and is less jaded than Justin “no more photos, ever” Bieber probably tells you all you need to know about his character. ‘When I look at my Instagram there’s 13-year-old kids saying “Have you heard of this guy Craig David?” That’s cool to me. If I’m brand new to you, that’s wonderful. And then you’ve got people who grew up with my music who are like, “oh man, this is giving us the feel of when we were in our 20s going out raving”. So you’ve got this beautiful thing where two generations are connecting.’

Towards the end of last year, he experienced a kind of ‘hipster moment’ — playing at the Vice Christmas party, and being hailed as an icon in the music press. Even Drake is said to be a fan.

He’s enthusiastic about his elder statesman role: ‘It’s almost as if the baton was passed from garage to grime because garage became over-saturated. There was so much stuff going on that the grime scene sort of went underground. Now it’s starting to get more commercial success — just seeing names like Stormzy and Skepta getting recognised by American artists that are coming over; the whole Boy Better Know crew coming through. It’s an exciting time.’

Despite the success of TS5 David isn’t a party animal, admitting he doesn’t often go to bars or restaurants. Although he did grace The Good Earth in Knightsbridge for a Chinese meal on his birthday. ‘I wouldn’t say I was teetotal. If I feel like doing a shot I do, I go for it,’ he says with a straight face. As an overweight child growing up in Southampton, he’s done his time as a yo-yo dieter: reports of his Miami penthouse being scattered with glass bowls full of chocolate suggest the struggle is real. ‘Now, my thing is some weights, maybe some cardio in the evening and eat healthy,’ he says. ‘I try to keep a balance. I’ve experienced both sides. I’ve been overweight... I’ve been super ripped and taking it too serious.’

‘Do you feel like some more muscles are going to give you more self? More credibility? If you’re doing cardio and running like Forrest Gump, and you’re not doing a marathon, then you need to know what you’re doing that for. Just calm yourself and realise that anything you keep continuously doing to the body has its toll.’

So he’ll exercise, say, five days a week, I ask, resisting the urge to add ‘and chill on Sunday’. ‘Five days,’ he confirms. ‘But I don’t look at it as working out. I look at it as brushing my teeth.’ He then explains in detail the ideal body-fat ratio, exhibiting knowledge you’d expect from someone who, three years ago, posted an Instagram photo of himself looking ‘super ripped’, along with the revelation that he has a photo folder called ‘Stay Focused’ to help him achieve his fitness goals.

David wouldn’t be the first formerly overweight person to build a ripped body as a sort of emotional shield, but his current stance seems far more relaxed than of old. I ask whether he cooks, or has a chef. ‘Thankfully in all the hotels they cook it nice.’ He loves salads and ‘things that keep it light.’ His favourite? ‘Maybe a little chicken, some aubergine in that, maybe a little scoop of peanut butter. Peanut butter’s lovely — you can make it into chicken satay. And then… lettuce. Add some cucumber. Just throw some vegetables in that bad boy.’

Before we go, I have to ask him about the thing around his wrist — a singular object which looks like a watch, apart from the fact that it has neither hands nor numerals.

‘It just says “Now”,’ confirms Craig.

So it’s like a piece of… jewellery?

‘It’s more an accessory,’ he corrects. ‘I like it because now is the most important time. I found it online. I’d been reading a book by Eckhart Tolle — The Power of Now, an amazing book. He talks about… just being here. The future is always something you’re projecting to, and if you could actually find it, I’m sure there’d be some kind of explorer and they’d be in the middle of Times Square. Like “it’s here, it’s like a monument, we’ve found it!” You never find it. It’s this kind of opaque phantom that you’re constantly trying to get to.’

Some people spend their lives trying to be in the now, I suggest weakly.

‘It doesn’t mean you have no awareness of time. It just means be more present; see what’s happening here.’

What’s happening here, I say, is that I’m going to be told off for over-running. I switch off my recorder and we walk back to the studio for the photoshoot. As we pass the front desk, the hipster staff are playing an old Craig David track. ‘I feel you, I feel you!’ says David delightedly. He disappears downstairs; the hipsters dissolve into laughter. ‘What are you laughing at?’ I ask. I want to ram their beanie hats down their throats. Craig David has done his time as the butt of jokes. He’s nice, and deserves better.

Craig David’s new single ‘One More Time’ is out now.