With those gently strummed acoustic guitars and that laid-back voice, you might expect Colbie Caillat to treat her career as a day at the beach. After all, most of her second album, Breakthrough, was written on an extended Hawaiian vacation with some of her famous friends. But the 24-year-old Malibu singer whose 2007 debut, Coco, went double-platinum, tells us that in the midst of the bustle it hasn’t exactly been easy trying to maintain a love life, make an album and battle debilitating stage fright.
What made you want to release the ultimate summer album in the fall?
My album Coco came out two years ago in July so by the time getting all the packaging ready and everything this was the earliest we could feasibly get the record out without making any mistakes and having to push back deadlines. I wanted to put it out sooner but it wasn't possible. But it’s OK. It can bring some summer to you when it’s cold.
I’m sure recording in Hawaii influenced the mellow mood.
Yeah, I rented a little house on the beach. I had my songwriter friends come in and out of the place. We would do everyday fun stuff like going swimming and jogging on the beach and having bonfires and barbecues and then we’d go inside and play guitar and piano and write songs. After we wrote our hearts out we came home and went to LA and I recorded the record for the next like four or five months.
You wrote something like 40 songs for Breakthrough. How painful was it getting it down to the final 12?
It was a lot of work. It was a long process of figuring out what I wanted people to hear. I had a listening party where I had all my friends and family come to this restaurant and we had 20 fans of mine come and had everyone help me vote on what songs were their favorites. Combined with their opinions with what I loved and wanted on the record that’s how I chose to put on Breakthrough.
Weren’t you worried that your fans would just say everything sounds great?
No, they want to be honest. No one is going to be lie to me. There’s no point.
Once again, a lot of your songs are about falling in love and breaking up. Are your relationships really that exciting in real life?
I write songs about what I'm going through in life and what other people around me are going through. Like, I was starting to grow feelings for my friend and I wrote "Falling For You" the next day. Other songs I wrote, like "Fearless," I wrote after I broke up with this guy I had been with two years, and I wrote that from his perspective telling me that this was not going to bury him and that he was going to be okay and he’s going to be fearless when it comes to love and future relationships.
So are your friends worried that everything they tell you is going to end up in a song?
No. My friends think it's cool. It’s like therapy for them. No one's complained. They all think it’s really cool they have a song written for them.
Your last album took off on MySpace. What’s it like going around the world and seeing all the people that connected with you through the music?
It’s amazing. Getting to travel the world and play shows for thousands of people in different countries and most of them speaking different languages and being in my own home country and everyone knowing my songs – it's an amazing feeling, especially when it kind of happened for me when I didn’t expect it to. The performing has taken a lot of work for me. It definitely was not my comfort zone. That’s actually why I named the album Breakthrough. I was contemplating quitting because I couldn't handle the pressure. I realized I had to breakthrough my fear of being up onstage and performing and had to allow myself to have fun with it. It took a lot of work. It took me a while. But now I’m having so much fun.
Do you still have a hard time getting up in front of a crowd?
Now I've gotten past it for the most part. I still have some things to work on but it’s getting easier.
Also, doing live TV performances was really scary for me. It was really terrifying for me. Sometimes I would cry before show or performances.
Hearing thousands of people singing your songs back to you can’t be all that bad.
That is what helps. I get nervous when I walk out onstage. The moment the crowd starts singing along and having fun then I start enjoying myself and I don’t want to get off stage. They make or break the show. I have a stage coach that still helps me every day. It takes a lot of practice and work and opening yourself up and getting comfortable.
Have you tried creating an alter ego for when you perform?
Yeah, because I would always go up there as me and be shy and uncomfortable. My stage coach is like, “No, pretend you’re someone else. You’re acting. Go up there and put a mask on and be whoever you want to be up there. Just go up there and put that shield on.” That’s something I’m still trying to work on because I want to be myself still but a different version of it.
That’s probably why Bono wears the sunglasses onstage.
Yeah, I started noticing that with other artists. I love touring. That's why I've had this breakthrough. Now that I've learned all the different sides of my career I need them all at different times in my life. I love being on the beach and writing songs. I love being able to record the songs like I hear in my brain. And I love to play these songs live with my fans and travel the world. It’s a combination of all of this that I’m learning and living