Entertainment Bay

Colbie Caillat practiced a little bit of reverse psychology as she waited for the numbers to come in for her sophomore album, “Breakthrough” — which is No. 1 on this week’s Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 106,000.

“You always hope for the best, but you never actually think it’s going to happen,” Caillat told Billboard.com from England, where she’s currently touring. “I never want to get my hopes up. Everyone kept saying, ‘I think it’s gonna be No. 1. It’s gonna be No. 1. It looks like it,’ and I just kept trying to ignore it ’cause I didn’t want it to not happen.

“And now that it is happening, I can’t believe it. I’m so excited. I’m so thankful. I’ve grown up a lot over the past two years and I…just knew exactly what I wanted for the record and I was able to express that to my producers and the people I wrote songs with. To be able to do it the way I wanted and it actually turned out the way I wanted feels like such an accomplishment.”

Caillat’s 2007 debut, “Coco,” peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and has been certified double-platinum. “Breakthrough’s” first single, “Fallin’ For You,” has reached No. 12 on the Hot 100, and two tracks — “Begin Again” and “You Got Me” — are under consideration for the follow-up, with “Fearless” Caillat’s personal choice for a third single.

Colbie Caillat said she hopes to show even more of that growth when she hits the road in North American with Howie Day to support “Breakthrough,” starting Sept. 17 at the House of Blues in Anaheim, Calif. “I know I was very timid on the last tour,” she acknowledged. “I wasn’t a performer yet. I didn’t know how to do it. I was very shy on stage…But I’ve really learned a lot. That’s actually why I named my album ‘Breakthrough;’ I broke through my fear of performing and having stage fright. So now I’m being me and laughing and dancing with my band and telling the crowd about my songs.”

During her brief break between tours Caillat is planning to record a pair of Christmas songs, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and “Merry Christmas, Baby.” One will be used for a Special Olympics compilation, while the other will be held because “something may just come up this year for Christmas songs or radio and I’m going to be on tour, so I won’t have time to record it. I may as well do it now and be ahead of the game.” She and collaborator Stacy Blue, who co-wrote Caillat’s 2007 holiday single “Misteltoe,” are also planning to write some new Christmas songs.

Colbie Caillat’s breakthrough arrived before Breakthrough, when her debut Coco turned into a breezy surprise hit. Breakthrough isn’t meant to catapult Caillat into a mainstream that already knows her, but to consolidate her success, so it’s not entirely a surprise that the album bears evidence of her showbiz kid roots, a record that relies just a bit more on the studio than the song. It’s a creation that’s slicker and sleeker than the debut, but fortunately, it’s not quite at the expense of Caillat’s simple charms. The high-buff sheen on Breakthrough can mean that the songs glide down a little too smoothly, sliding down like a velvety Piña Colada which is perhaps a bit too sophisticated after the everyday charms of Coco, and perhaps a little bit too polished for Colbie in general. Underneath all that gloss, Caillat remains a simple girl singing songs of love as light and crisp as a sugar cookie. Too many of these in a row can cause a toothache — and that’s particularly true in the deluxe edition that runs a very lengthy 17 tracks — but having a handful at a time is a sweet ordinary treat.

About Colbie Caillat
Last time around, Colbie Caillat was feeling “Bubbly,” and the entire pop world seemed to want a sip. But this time, effervescence flirts with explosiveness. For her sophomore album, Breakthrough, Colbie has shaken up her sound, bringing in a wider array of producers and players, and significantly picking up the tempo at times from her debut effort’s signature ballads. So keep an eye on those carbonation levels: champagne corks may fly.

You’d be hard-pressed to consider an album as accomplished and successful as Coco an accident, yet that’s almost what Caillat’s 2007 freshman release was. The sudden mania it created at radio and retail “was a surprise for me,” Caillat says, “because I hadn’t really been in this business yet. I hadn’t been doing shows. I wasn’t trying to get signed. I just was this girl who wrote songs and put them up on MySpace.” By the time Coco
was released to stores, “Bubbly” was already enough of an airplay sensation that the album debuted at No. 5. The massive success of a second single, “Realize,” helped push the album to over 2 million shipments, in addition to almost 6 million individual digital tracks that were sold. “It all just happened naturally,” says Caillat–”and now I have to keep up with it.”

The making of Breakthrough was far more purposeful than the ramshackle sessions that became Caillat’s first album. Whatever might have been lost in the way of charming naiveté is more than made up for with greater experience and heightened maturity. “When I found out I had six months to make this album it was so exciting, because my favorite part is being in the studio and having a chance to get it right. ”

“We tried different versions of a lot of the songs–some raw and acoustic; some with lots of harmonies and others with 20 more instruments than needed to be there–just to see which version sounded best. We ended up having a lot of variety.” But for all this diversification, there’s at least one carry-over and constant: the front-and-center intimacy of Caillat’s vocals, which fans already relate to coming through their ear buds like the voice of a warm and trusted friend.

Production credits for Breakthrough were split between two new helmers. One is hitmaker John Shanks, who’s particularly known for his work with strong female artists like Kelly Clarkson, Sheryl Crow, Melissa Etheridge, Alanis Morissette, and the Wreckers. The other new guy behind the boards is Ken Caillat, most renowned for his work on one of the top-selling albums of all time, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours… and also, not insignificantly, for being Colbie’s father. Bringing things full circle, the new album was recorded at Village Recorders in West L.A., where Ken Caillat met his future wife and Colbie’s mother-to-be when they were both working there during the making of Tusk.

Both John Shanks and Ken Caillat recorded basic tracks with a band playing live in the studio while Colbie sang along in the vocal booth. Beyond that similar approach to the early sessions, though, their approaches diverged. “My dad’s recording is very organic and reveals the rawness and vulnerability in a song,” she says. “And John Shanks is a great pop producer. His songs are perfect for radio.”

“On this record, Caillat continues, “I was able to contribute a lot more of my production ideas into the recording. I had a better sense of how I know the songs should sound and feel, and what instruments should be added or taken away from them. Because I didn’t get to do that on Coco, to really be able to make these songs completely my own was a special experience for me.”

No one wanted to fix what wasn’t broken about Coco, of course. At this time in music-business age where new stars aren’t even being added to the firmament anymore, Caillat’s success was as close to overnight as it gets. Two years after its July 2007 release, the debut is still in the top 100, and stands as the 12th biggest selling digital album of all time. “Bubbly” is the 21st best selling digital track ever, with sales of more than 2.8 million, and was a No. 1 smash at Hot AC radio for 19 weeks and AC for 17. The music videos for the first album’s songs were streamed over 22 million times. “Bubbly” was named song of the year at the last BMI Awards, and Colbie tied for artist of the year, for that song and “Realize.” She was named the winner of Billboard’s Rising Star award, too, on top of nominations for the American Music Awards and Teen Choice Awards. If the bubble ain’t broke, don’t pop it, right?

Coming off such rare and covetable success, expanding the sonic palette beyond the mostly acoustic base of Coco for the new album wasn’t undertaken lightly. “I didn’t want to stray too far too fast from what my fans are used to from me,” she says. “But I did want to grow and experiment and work with different people. I searched for the right balance.”

Caillat expanded her circle of co-writers as well as producers, sitting down to work with hitcrafter-turned-Idolmaker Kara DioGuardia (who helped write three tracks, including “Begin Again”) and Rick Nowels, who says, “I’ve worked with some really good writers–Madonna, Dido, Nelly Furtado, Jewel–and I’m just really impressed with Colbie’s songwriting. She’s got her own voice and lyrical and melodic point of view; she’s what I call a natural. And she’s a proper singer-songwriter, which is a breath of fresh air today. I think everybody responds to strong songs sung emotionally, and everybody responds to real.”

On Breakthrough, the emotional highs are higher, and the lows arguably lower. “All the songs are definitely about the roller coaster of being in a relationship–happy, sad, breaking up, falling in love, just the whole cycle of it,” she says. At the crest of this coaster, there’s the first single, “Falling for You,” which might be described as wearing its heart on its sleeve, if the tune’s upbeat feel didn’t conjure a kind of summer sleevelessness. “I had gone out on this `friends’ date, and I realized I started liking him more than I thought I did,” Caillat explains. “I was on cloud nine over this guy, thinking I was falling for him, so I wrote about everything we did hanging out the day before.” Think “Bubbly” squared and gone to the beach.

But, in keeping with that coaster analogy, the album doesn’t lack for romantic free-falls. “A lot of the songs from both Coco and the new album are about the same poor guy that I keep torturing in some way,” she laughs. Knowing that he was more invested in the relationship than she was, she’s written a number of songs from this boyfriend’s point of view–including the hopeful “Realize” on the last album and the resigned but brave “Fearless” on this one. “The song `Fearless’ is sung by someone who’s having their heart broken–but I really haven’t been broken-hearted yet, so that song was me kind of switching it around from his perspective. I wrote it as him saying to me that he’s fearless and this won’t damage him for future relationships. The opening lines are, `It that’s the way you love? You’ve got to learn so much.’ And I really do have a lot to learn about love.

“All the songs have a different twist,” Caillat continues. “It may not be exactly what happened to me, but it’s happened in a situation that I’ve learned from or been watching. I wrote `Breaking At the Cracks’ about one of my parents’ friends who I’ve known my entire life. Everything in her life came crashing down on her at the same time: her mother died, her dogs died, then her father died, and finally her husband left her. I was on tour and my heart was hurting for her. So I started playing my guitar and crying while I was singing, imagining what it would take to get yourself out of that depression and get your life back together. That was another song that had nothing to do with me, but I was expressing someone else’s emotions, like I was sending a message to the world for them.”

Having just been a fan herself until recently, Caillat thinks about how her most emotional songs will click with her own followers. “Because I know a Coldplay song like `Fix You,’ when I’m having a bad day, I can put it on and just pour my heart out–and then five minutes later, I’m ready for a smile again. So I want to have the perfect mixture of having those kinds of songs that you can cry to when you’ve had a horrible day, and these upbeat, fun songs you can listen to at the beach or when you’re driving.”

Breakthrough’s title track is another ruminative song about a friend’s experience–in this case, that of Colbie’s best pal, who has long been estranged from her father and continues to desperately desire a breakthrough in her relationship with him. But when Caillat applied the title to the album, it took on a different, more celebrative, strictly personal meaning.

“I’m 24, and I’m still trying to grow up as a woman and find out who I am and be comfortable in my own skin,” she says. “I had gone through this very hard time where I was really down on myself, and I just kind of wanted to take the easy route and drop everything hard that was getting in my way. And I realized I had to step up and get past that. It took me a while, but I did finally break through my fears and insecurities. And that’s why I felt that that would be a great album title, especially for my younger fans.”

A newly minted star who’s still discovering her boundaries, Caillat tries t to stay open and even vulnerable. “You keep your guard up with some of the people that you meet. But I also think that fans should know who you are, and why be afraid of it? It’s like that feeling you get when you see someone on YouTube with no makeup on or acting silly–whatever it is that you normally do–and it’s like `Oh, they’re doing it too, and it’s okay, we can be who we are.’ You just have to remind yourself not to hide what you do and who you are, because people like seeing that.”

That’s something Caillat clearly hasn’t forgotten with this bigger, better, and even more intimate album. Finding out that increased amplitude and heightened transparency aren’t mutually exclusive after all–that’s the stuff that true bust outs are made of.

Check Out Breakthrough, Bubbly , Coco on Amazon.com

Los Angeles based R&B vocalist Colbie Caillat is a singer songwriter with songs based on a humble approach sounding like sweet honey flowing over rocks. Although her music is acoustic based, the arrangements go much deeper, culling from classical folk, jazz & pop, with her distinguished breathy vocals and dynamic melodies commanding the audience of the listeners she’s gained.

Colbie Caillat, born in California grew up in Malibu and Ventura County. Growing up surrounded by music with her father, Ken Caillat, who was most notably remembered for Co-Production and Engineer credits on Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours among several others. Every sound of Colbie’s soulful style unfolds a story of her many travels through life.

Colbie started her singing debut at an early age [eleven] with special performances around her house. Within weeks she ventured out into talent shows and school performances. Her parents citing her as the “little bird” would wake up at the crack of dawn to her singing her heart out waking the house. With the help of her parents she was charmed into the idea and the truth that she had potential and put herself into vocal coaching.

At the age of fifteen something happened to Colbie that would change her life completely. She met Michael Blue, a producer and engineer located in Westlake Village, Ca. Michael, having worked with artists such as Augustana, Five for Fighting, and Carrie Underwood among others, at the time was working on Runway music for St. John Knit’s seasonal clothing lines. To cut a long story short Michael took Colbie under his wing and began to use her voice on the tracks he was producing. Within the first season he knew she was something amazing and starting producing and collaborating additional songs with Colbie. Then at the age of 19 Colbie wrote her first song on the guitar, and has never stopped since.

Colbie has since then expanded her knowledge by working and collaborating with some of Los Angeles’s best singer songwriters. Working with and learning from Jason Reeves, a brilliant artist who has co-written many of Colbie’s songs and has a sound definitely worth checking out.

Ever since her mom gave birth to her in their Malibu home overlooking the ocean, Colbie Caillat has been the quintessential California girl. Her idea of a good time is hanging out with her friends at a beach bonfire or hopping in the car, tunes at the ready, and driving up the Pacific Coast Highway.

On “Coco,” her Universal Republic debut, the songs mirror Caillat’s low-key, refreshing style. Armed with her acoustic guitar and her dusky vocals, she evokes the same gentle, yet spirited style of her musical influences John Mayer, Bob Marley, Lauryn Hill and The Weepies

As befits the organic style of her music, Caillat’s fan base has grown by word of mouth, one person at a time. Last year, she began posting her songs on her myspace.com; tunes like “Bubbly,” a delightful confection about romance, and “Tailor Made,” Caillat’s joyful message to her sister over seeing her sibling find the perfect mate.

With no marketing push and only the power of the music behind her, Caillat became a sensation on the social networking site. Last October when she had 6,240 friends, Rolling Stone highlighted her as one of the top female artists on myspace. Ultimately, Caillat became the #l unsigned artist for over four months and her number of friends swelled to more than 100,000. Her profile has been visited over 3 million times, and she has more than l0 million plays.

As her online popularity grows, so does the recognition factor. “I’m not even famous yet and every time I go shopping, the young girls who work in the stores, they know who I am. They’ll ask, ‘Are you Colbie from myspace?’” she recounts with delight. Grateful for the recognition, the laid-back, natural beauty lamented, “Great, now I’m going to have to put on make up every time I leave the house!” But she quickly reconsidered. “I’m kidding. But I am hoping that I can show my fans that it’s okay to be yourself.” Indeed, even the album’s title reflects her desire to remain true to herself: Her parents nicknamed her Coco while she was still an infant and it’s a tag that has stuck.

Caillat started singing around home as a small girl, but a pivotal moment came when she was 11. “I heard Lauryn Hill sing ‘Killing Me Softly.’ I think her voice is absolutely beautiful and it made me want to start singing, so I sang one of her songs at a talent show in sixth grade.”

Her household was filled with music. Her father, Ken Caillat, co-produced Fleetwood Mac’s legendary “Rumours” and “Tusk” albums and later ran his own record label. “My dad was always producing and mixing and he has the console in our house. A few years ago, he remixed ‘Tusk’ so I’ve always been around music.” She recalls Mick Fleetwood and John McVie hanging around: “All of my dad’s friends are in the business, so I’ve learned from them.

Now that I’m in it, I can go to them and they have advice for me, so it’s really cool.” Her dad even suggested that the renowned drummer play on “Coco,” but Caillat knew she needed to go her own way.

But she still relied heavily on dad’s words of wisdom. “I just wanted to be a singer and he said if you write songs, you get respect from people; you’re having them relate to a part of you that you’re sharing with them.”

So the singer turned into a singer/songwriter and discovered an innate talent for observing and capturing nuanced, yet significant moments, such as that first blush of love or passage into adulthood. She also found two great collaborators in the process. Mikal Blue, whom she met when she was 15, hired her to sing the tunes he wrote for the St. John Knits’ fashion shows. Their professional partnership led to writing together and his producing her album. She also connected with singer/songwriter Jason Reeves. Together, they crafted the songs on “Coco.”

Writing happens organically for Caillat after a small gestation period. “I just let stuff build up inside of me and I’ll write three songs in a weekend. It’s a release,” she says. “I don’t pick something to write about. When I’m playing guitar, a melody comes out and whatever words come out, I go along with that.”

And at some point, she instinctively heads toward water, but of a different sort than one might expect. “I always go write songs in the bathroom because it sounds so good in there,” she says. “It’s like you’re in a cathedral! It makes it sound a lot better, which gives you more confidence. I think melodies come out easier.”

Inspiration comes from different places: conversations with family and friends or reflections on her own life. For example, her love of Hawaiian music is reflected on “Tied Down”: “I’ve been going to Hawaii twice a year since I was 12. At one point, I moved there for two months with friends and got a job and got a Rent-a-Wreck, went longboarding, it was lots of fun. I’ve always wanted to have a ukulele on a song. I just love that laid-back sound. Hawaii is a huge part of me.” Or the frustrations of trying to conquer a fear in “One Fine Wire”: I took an improv class at junior college because I’m really shy in front of people up on stage. I ended up dropping the class because I had a scene I had to do. My parents were so mad at me because I just quit something I was trying to overcome. So I went upstairs into my room bawling and wrote ‘One Fine Wire’.”

Luckily for Caillat, just as she continues to evolve as a writer, she is growing as a live performer. “I’m getting used to it. I have my band now, I just love these guys. I interact with them on stage. It’s so much fun.”

On a more serious note, the 21-year old realizes young girls will look up to her. “I think it will be cool,” she says. Indeed, who better than a young woman admired by her peers for her talent and work ethic, instead of for hanging out at nightclubs. A young woman who constantly wants to improve—she’s starting piano lessons as well as continuing guitar because she thinks it can open up another dimension to her songwriting.

“In the past few months I’ve been preparing myself for this crazy adventure. I know many challenges and frustrations lie ahead, and I am going to learn a lot. But if I can come home with some great new songs, amazing experiences, and new friends,” says Caillat, “it will all be worth it.”

Want to know more about Colbie Caillat read Colbie Caillat book Colbie Caillat Coco (Play It Like It Is Guitar)