Since 2007 and Colbie Caillat’s debut album, ‘Coco’ this talented singer-songwriter has pushed musical boundaries and not been afraid of growth, change and evolution. Hit singles, Grammys and collaborations with the likes of Taylor Swift and Jason Mraz led to the formation of four piece band Gone West who released the terrific ‘Canyons’ album and now here we are in 2023 with Colbie Caillat solo again and ready to bare her soul to the world on new album, ‘Along the Way.’ (Out today, 6th October) We reviewed the album right here and were thrilled to grab some time to talk to Colbie all about it.
Thank you for speaking to us today, we appreciate your time in such a busy release week!
Oh my gosh, I’m so excited to have the album out in the world now. I started writing this album three years ago, recorded it two years ago so it’s taken a while to be ready but also I wasn’t ready. Last year, when I was thinking about releasing it things were still too fresh and the songs were too sensitive for me. I feel really healed through the process now, though.
Your debut album ‘Coco’ came out in 2007 and you’ve recorded music in lots of different guises since. What changes have you seen in the industry since you broke through all those years ago?
I think it’s great that the genres have all blurred now and you don’t have to be defined by just one style or genre anymore. As a writer you can write all different styles of music and it really depends on how you produce it as to what genre it finishes up as. I would love to release different albums in different genres.
When I first released music it was during the height of when the music industry was kind of cruel. I suffered from stage fright, which didn’t help, but I feel like I was extra terrified to be a woman in the music industry at times back then. You had to look a certain way and act in a certain way too. If you watch the last two years of a show like American Idol, the judges are a lot more kind now and they give critiques, now, in a much more positive way. The industry and shows like that used to be about picking people apart but that has changed now.
I think you might be the last generation of musicians to earn money through recorded music. Is that fair?
You know, it is shifting and you never know how cyclical some things are. Things could ultimately shift to just streaming and no-one buying music anymore but there are a lot of people out there, me included, that still love to own music. Streaming is amazing, though, because you do find out just who is listening to your music and where about they are. When someone bought an album in the past, sure, you got the proceeds of it but you never knew just how much they listened to it, which I think is important to know.
Given the nature of your father’s job (he was a music producer who produced Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’ album amongst many other things) were you always destined for a life in the music industry or did you ever think about doing something else?
It’s always been something I’ve had an interest in, I just didn’t know where I wanted to take it. I always loved singing and then I loved writing songs but I never really wanted to be an entertainer. With my parents’ help I had guitar lessons and vocal lessons and they were the ones that taught me about song structure and helped me get a band together and get a manager. I probably wouldn’t be able to have this career without their help. I did always love photography and interior design, though too, but luckily my music career happened so early that that was the direction in which I went.
Over the years you’ve worked and written with some terrific artists. Which ones stand out in your mind that you respect the most?
Oh gosh. Taylor Swift was incredible. She’s a brilliant writer and so warm with everyone she knows. She’s such a talented artist. Jason Mraz is one of my closest friends and we still see and work together regularly and I just got to work with Sheryl Crow. It’s cool that I got to open for her ten years ago and now we have the song, ‘I’ll Be Here’ together. Sometimes I can’t believe I’ve had these incredible experiences, it’s quite surreal!
Turning that on it’s head: Is there a writer or artist you haven’t worked with yet that you’d love to get in a room with?
Yes! Post Malone! (laughing) Post Malone and also Coldplay, I love those two artists so much it would be so cool to work with either of them.
It was lovely to see you move into that Eagles / Fleetwood Mac style space with Gone West on the ‘Canyons’ album. Is the new album ‘Along the Way’ a continuation of that or a bit more diverse and representative of all your influences?
I think it’s a little bit of everything. With Gone West we wanted to have that classic rock, Eagles, Fleetwood Mac sound which was what we were raised on. We also wanted to add in that Country sound too with the steel guitar, which my ex Justin brought with him, being from Hawaii, that instrument originated over there.
‘Along the Way’ is a blend of that and my previous work with a little bit of maturity added into the mix too! (laughing) We recorded it in a very organic way in a studio in Nashville over a couple of weeks and everything was very intentional yet relaxed. It’s the album that I’m most proud of so far. Normally when you are putting an album together you write, like, 50 or 60 songs and you narrow it down but on this album I only wrote when I had something to say, so it was a lot more focused.
Would it be fair to say that ‘Along the Way’ isn’t a concept album but it’s an album with a strong concept?
Absolutely, yes! It was an album that I wrote very gradually about the ending of a relationship that I loved and cherished. It was also about being independent again and dating and forging new relationships too. That’s where the album title comes from, those experiences that you have in life, on the journey, ‘Along the Way.’
Rather than taking shots and exploring the anger of a relationship coming to an end, the songs are full of acceptance and gratitude.
That’s exactly what this album is. There are songs for those kind of breakups and sometimes you need those songs to channel your frustration but this album and this break up was not that. I wanted people to have an album for that type of relationship, one that you look back on with love and gratitude.
Tell me about the guiding hand of Liz Rose on this album. (Rose was co-writer on 7 songs)
Oh gosh, that woman, I love her so much! I wrote a big part of the album with her and AJ Pruis. They are both prolific songwriters. The sessions were like therapy in that you go in and get to share what you are feeling and then come out again at the end with the weight of the world lifted off your shoulders! My favourite song that I wrote with them was ‘Meant For Me.’ I was sitting here in this house thinking about how people might not be meant for you long term but they are meant to be in your life for a while but couldn’t work out how to say that in a song and then Liz Rose came up with the idea that they are meant for you to lose. What a twist and what a way to express such a powerful sentiment!
Getting to write this album with them was amazing. Every time I had a thought or idea I would just go to them! After the end of Gone West and the end of my relationship it took me about seven months to write again. I knew that I had a lot to say and I approached Liz directly and asked her if she could work with me to get my feelings about everything down on paper. The first song we wrote together was ‘Worth It’ and they got, completely, what it was I was trying to say.
My favourite songs are ‘Still Gonna Miss You’ which, to me, has a Taylor Swift meets Little Big Town vibe and ‘The Other Side’, which is a brilliant way to close down the album and this part of your journey. Was that your intention?
I’m so glad that that’s how you hear it because, yes, that was my intention. I spent a lot of time with the running order of the album. I really wanted to open it with ‘Wide Open’ because that sets the tone of how I feel abut life now and then ending with ‘The Other Side’ because we all need reminding that everything is temporary, the good times might be so but the hard times are too. Sometimes, when you’re in it you don’t feel like you are going to get to ‘the other side’ but you will. It’s a hopeful feeling.
‘Still Gonna Miss You’ was a fun one to write. It’s a little bit of a ‘jabby’ song, I guess, but it also acknowledges the things you didn’t like about the person or the relationship whilst at the same time saying that you miss them and the way things were.
You wrote ‘Still Gonna Miss You’ with Jason Reeves, ex band mate and long time collaborator of yours. Was it odd working with him again after Gone West or have the two of you just got too much history together?
We wrote that song a couple of years ago now. I wrote the majority of the song, here, on my piano and I had all these ideas for it. I texted him and asked if he would finish it with me, like we did back in the day. We swapped ideas back and forth and then he came here and we wrote the bridge together. I just felt like I knew that I had to write this song with him.
‘Buying Time’ has a kind of John Mayer vibe to it and ‘For Someone’ feels like it could have been lifted from your ‘Breakthrough’ album. There’s lots of different styles and influences in the melting pot on this album.
I think so! It’s interesting that when you are a writer you just write a song and it comes out in a certain way but it also needs to cohesive with the whole record. ‘Buying Time’ does have a John Mayer feel to it but he was probably my biggest influence growing up so there’s no surprise there!
If you and Jason Mraz and artists like Counting Crows were launching your careers now do you feel like the Country music space would take you in in a way that it wouldn’t have done 25 years ago?
Absolutely. I feel like if my first album came out now it would be marketed in the Country genre. My song ‘Realise’ sounds very much like a Country song and even when ‘Bubbly’ first came out, CMT played it. I think that’s the cool part of where music is now, is that it can all blend in together and cross genres in a way that it wasn’t allowed to a when I first started out. There’s a freedom around the industry that I really enjoy right now.
You’re also guesting on another song that’s out today too! It’s great to hear you singing with Drake White on his re-vamped version of ‘Power of a Woman’. How did the two of you come to work together?
I’ve known Drake and his wife, Alex, for a few years now. During the pandemic they hosted a series of live jam nights which was amazing and I became great friends with them. That song is one I loved when he released it last year so that when he asked me to be on the stripped down version of it, I was honoured. He’s an incredible person who lifts people up and I love him for that.
Whats the plan for the rest of the year and into 2024 in order to get this new music to as many people as possible?
I want to get out and play as many shows as possible and do more collaborations with other artists. We’re trying to book a tour for next year right now. I love being in the studio and creating these songs but I will say that I have grown to love performing too. It’s so special to see the fans and meet people who appreciate my music and talk about what it means to them. I’m aiming to get to Europe on an acoustic tour early next year so keep your eyes open!
Check out Colbie Caillat’s ‘Along the Way’ album which is out everywhere now!
