{"id":3585,"date":"2011-08-22T00:37:11","date_gmt":"2011-08-22T07:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3585"},"modified":"2011-08-22T00:37:32","modified_gmt":"2011-08-22T07:37:32","slug":"colbie-caillat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/colbie-caillat\/","title":{"rendered":"COLBIE CAILLAT"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

COLBIE CAILLAT<\/h1>\n

Falling in love, making new friends and sharing more of herself than ever<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Colbie Caillat believes in fate.\u00a0In fact, it plays a major role in the songs on her third album, All of You<\/em>. The 26-year-old California singer wrote most of the tunes about her relationship with guitarist Justin Young. Caillat wasn\u2019t looking for a boyfriend, but she had just released an album and hired a band that happened to include Young. A connection was made. Sure, you can call it coincidence, but isn\u2019t fate more romantic? \u201cSometimes if you\u2019re in the right place at the wrong time, or you left your house five minutes later or didn\u2019t stop at that stoplight or didn\u2019t get that cup of coffee or whatever\u2014it all happens for a reason,\u201d says Caillat.<\/p>\n

That would include her early rejection on TV talent show American Idol<\/em>,\u00a0which put Caillat very much in the right place at the right time: Without the Idol<\/em> grind occupying her every waking moment, she recorded her 2007 debut, Coco<\/em>, which promptly sold more than 2 million copies. The follow-up, 2009\u2019s Breakthrough<\/em>, debuted at No. 1 and produced the hit \u201cFallin\u2019 for You.\u201d Caillat remains proud of both records, but wanted to push herself further on All of You<\/em>. She collaborated with noted songwriters Ryan Tedder and Toby Gad, as well as rapper Common\u2014and she focused more than ever before on her vocals. \u201cI\u2019m really learning what my voice can do if I treat it the right way,\u201d she says. Here, she discusses other things that have\u00a0recently gone right.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your writing process like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Each record has been the same in that I write all the songs differently. I\u2019ll write by myself on the guitar, or I\u2019ll have a writing session with a producer or a songwriter or an artist I know. I\u2019ll write with my friend Jason Reeves or with my boyfriend, Justin Young\u2014we went to Hawaii and wrote a few songs together.<\/p>\n

How did Common and Ryan Tedder end up on \u201cFavorite Song\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been friends with Ryan for 10 years, and I met Common a year ago and asked if he\u2019d write with me for this record. So the three of us did a session in Los Angeles, and it went so well it\u00a0surprised us all.<\/p>\n

Where did you meet Common?<\/strong><\/p>\n

On a Grammy panel I did at the House of Blues in L.A. with Nas, Doc Brown Band and Common. We were asked questions about songs we had written, and then we sang them. When Common sang \u201cThe Light,\u201d Nas nudged me and said, \u201cSing the chorus!\u201d It was so crazy: Nas was telling me to sing one of my favorite Common songs with Common. I later told him, \u201cI love your music, I\u2019d love to write with you,\u201d and he said he\u2019d like to write with me, too.<\/p>\n

What surprised you about him?<\/strong><\/p>\n

You never know how a person is going to be when you actually meet them. He always seemed nice and he raps about positive, poetic things. But that\u2019s really the case\u2014he\u2019s the sweetest guy with the most positive, mellow energy. Every lyric that came out of his mouth was positive. Some who don\u2019t know his music have a misunderstanding about him.<\/p>\n

Do you ever find yourself intimidated by your collaborators?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not really, because I\u2019ve written with many people and we make it comfortable with each other. You just say what you feel and express your ideas, and everyone is respectful. But when it comes to singing the tracks, yeah\u2014Toby Gad and Ryan have recorded Natasha Bedingfield and Beyonc\u00e9, so I want to do my vocals as well as I can. They were both so complimentary that it really made me comfortable. We all have different styles, different voice tones, so once I stopped worrying about comparisons it was not a problem.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re co-writing, how do you keep your own sound intact? <\/strong><\/p>\n

By adding my input. When you hear a song on the radio you can tell if Ryan wrote it, but that\u2019s usually a song he\u2019s written by himself or with a different producer, not really with an artist. What I wanted to do with \u201cFavorite Song\u201d was blend Common\u2019s R&B hip-hop style with Ryan Tedder\u2019s rock-pop feel and my soul sound. For example, I wanted to start the song with the chorus, otherwise you start out with the rap part and heavy electric guitar\u2014and I wanted my sound at the start, that summery, acoustic feel.<\/p>\n

Why did you lead off the album with \u201cBrighter Than the Sun\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My manager gets credit for that. I wanted to ease into the record. I wanted to start it with something mellow, but he felt strongly that \u201cBrighter Than the Sun\u201d should lead, and I fell in love with the song after a couple months. I try to listen to people\u2019s input, so I went with my gut and trusted that he was right. You couldn\u2019t go wrong starting with any song, but that one puts people in a good mood right off the bat.<\/p>\n

What else did you do differently?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wanted to show off more vocal range than on the first two records. On Coco<\/em>, I was really young, not as experienced or tapped into what I could do vocally. I just sang and it was all very simple. With Breakthrough<\/em>, I had a sinus infection the whole time, and you can hear that. With this record, I wanted to go beyond what I had done. The older I get and the more I learn about singing, the stronger my voice gets.<\/p>\n

Do you practice? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I definitely practice, and I take lessons once in a while when I\u2019m not on tour. I should take them more often. You have to. It\u2019s like tuning your guitar\u2014it\u2019s an instrument you have to work on. You have to warm up before every single show, otherwise you\u2019re hurting your voice. You can\u2019t run a marathon without training for it.<\/p>\n

How do you make songs personal, but relatable for the listener?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When you write about any experience, someone is going to be able to relate to it, whether it\u2019s falling in love or saying \u201cI love you\u201d for the first time or being in a fight with someone. We wrote \u201cShadow\u201d for my friend Brianna, who was dating this guy who was leading her on. Everyone has gone through the same things, so I just wrote from what I was honestly, genuinely going through. The reason I titled the album All of You<\/em> is because I gave more of myself. With Breakthrough <\/em>and Coco<\/em>, I wrote from a more general point of view. With this record I named situations and moments and he-she stuff. I opened up more, and I think people can tap into that even more when you\u2019re that honest.<\/p>\n

Did Brianna like the song?<\/strong><\/p>\n

She loved it. She actually played it for the guy, which we were a little embarrassed about. Justin and I wrote it for her, and they were still dating at the time and we were hanging out with him. He thought it was funny, but it was awkward with him knowing how we felt about him.<\/p>\n

\u2013Eric R. Danton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COLBIE CAILLAT Falling in love, making new friends and sharing more of herself than ever Colbie Caillat believes in fate.\u00a0In fact, it plays a major role in the songs on her third album, All of You. The 26-year-old California singer wrote most of the tunes about her relationship with guitarist Justin Young. Caillat wasn\u2019t looking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[2476,1636,970],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3585"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3585"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3589,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3585\/revisions\/3589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}