Craig David Shares How Iconic “7 Days” Song & Music Video Was Created | How It Went Down | Billboard
In today’s episode of ‘How It Went Down,’ Craig David reveals what inspired him to create “7 Days,” the core theme of the song, how he was able to collaborate with Mark Hill to create something magical and more!
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00:00 Hi, I'm Craig David and this is how it went down with my song '7 Days.'
00:03 So the inspiration behind the lyrics to '7 Days' for me was a young kid living in his
00:18 two-bedroom flat with my mum in the projects in the UK in a place called Southampton.
00:24 But looking out of this window and just aspiring to live this very magical, whimsical life.
00:31 One of those being how would it be to have a whimsical seven days where you're not necessarily
00:36 living at home with your mum, you're not necessarily even really in the project now.
00:39 And that for me was the starting point, jotting down the first word of 'Monday.'
00:45 And then it just became so simple to then let the verse kind of play out the story,
00:50 but the chorus just to stay simple, just go through the days of the week.
00:54 And the most important, Sunday, chill, relax back.
00:58 Even in this case, let's take the time.
01:00 The song was produced by a guy called Mark Hill, a close friend of mine and actually was the
01:10 producer of the whole album, my first album 'Born To Do It,' which changed his life, my life and
01:15 touched a lot of people's lives along the way.
01:17 His studio was like underground, right by a marina and we'd always go for like
01:22 coffees and have a little drink by the marina, get some fresh air, get some inspiration.
01:26 And then we'd go underground in a small room, old school studio.
01:30 I have to say when we finished the song, I was like super gassed about the guitar and the beat.
01:35 I was like, this just knocks.
01:37 Like this is the R&B that I grew up listening to.
01:40 I think of 'Vano,' 'You Make Me Wanna' from Usher.
01:42 Anything Usher related to be honest, from 'My Way' all the way through to '8701,'
01:46 because it was exactly that same era.
01:48 Destiny's Child were about to drop their 'Say My Name' and they had all these tunes
01:53 that were just hitting these pockets.
01:55 So then when I heard '7 Days,' I was like, the beat and the guitar.
01:58 It's one of those ones that's funny because I say it with chest.
02:00 I didn't need any authority or anyone outside of me to tell me if it was good or not.
02:04 It was like me and Mark were just like, yo, this bangs.
02:06 And he's like, yo, but the melody.
02:08 I'm like, yeah, the melody's thriving.
02:16 So when it came to the video, I had the opportunity of working with an incredible
02:20 partnership or duo called Max and Dania.
02:23 For '7 Days,' they presented this idea of how would it be if you kind of repeated the week,
02:28 you repeated days, that things didn't turn out so well the first time around,
02:32 which I was like, yo, I'm in.
02:34 And then it also reminded me of actually one of my favorite movies,
02:37 which was 'Groundhog Day' with Bill Murray.
02:39 I was like, we really need to nail this though,
02:41 because we've only got three and a half minutes.
02:44 It was absolutely incredible when I saw it playing out.
02:47 The balloon flies off and I grab it from the grandma in the final part.
02:51 For me, the most poignant part of the whole video,
02:54 and I feel that this is almost a metaphor for life, we could do this,
02:57 is that when it gets to the part where I spill the wine on this lovely woman that I've met,
03:02 we're on the date, to be able to pause it, step out of frame, rewind the whole frame back,
03:08 jump back into the frame, press play, and just mind myself from not spilling it again.
03:14 I felt it was still one of the most iconic moments in a video.
03:19 It feels as if that's just what everyone would like to do when that thing happens,
03:23 and you're like, oh, if I could just pause and rewind.
03:25 But in the video, I actually could, so that was amazing to me.
03:28 When I've seen comments about the song and how it just lives, how it's timeless,
03:40 how it still bangs in 2024, it just warms my heart, because at the time,
03:44 I was just a young kid who wanted to experience the world,
03:48 who wanted people to hear my music for the first time.
03:51 And to be all these years later, knowing how much that music has touched people's hearts
03:55 and their lives, and has created core memories for people,
03:58 where they remember who they were with, where they were, what they were doing,
04:01 and they hear that song, I really hope that there's a new entry point for different people
04:05 that not only brings back memories for you, that it may even inspire you to pick up the phone
04:10 and speak to someone that you haven't spoken to for a long time and say,
04:13 you know what, I just saw this Craig, and he did one debut, do you remember?
04:17 And I feel that's wholesome to me.
04:19 If I can bring that back, then it's a win-win for me.
04:22 (upbeat music)
04:25 [BLANK_AUDIO]