Since 2007’s debut album, ‘Coco’ Colbie Caillat 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 in 2020 and now here we are in 2024 with Colbie Caillat solo again and baring her scars and her soul to the world on new album, ‘Along the Way.’
Change, evolution, growth and re-birth are major themes on ‘Along the Way,’ with Caillat now in the third phase of her musical journey. This is an album that celebrates endings and beginnings with nothing but gratitude and hope. It is also an album full of wisdom and acceptance that might well tug at your heartstrings in places but, take note, ‘Along the Way’ is certainly not a misery-fest or pity party by any stretch of the imagination. We did a fascinating deep-dive into ‘Along the Way’ with Colbie last year and you can read that interview right here so when we sat down with Colbie at the recent C2C festival in London we wanted to explore some slightly different themes.
Thank you for your time today Colbie, it’s lovely to have you back on UK soil after all these years. We saw you at the CMA Songwriters show the night before the C2C festival began – what a diverse & eclectic line up of super-talented people that was! What was your impression of the artists you shared the stage with last night?
I’m a fan of all of them in their different ways. I’d already seen Stephen Wilson JR last fall at the Ryman Auditorium and he’s such a powerful performer – I was in awe of him that night and last night again. Lauren (Alaina), I’ve known forever and I love her voice and that was my first time seeing Charlie Worsham but wasn’t he great? I have some new Nashville friends for sure!
I was left with the overwhelming feeling that you and Charlie Worsham should write a song together – the blend of your styles would work well together.
Ok! (laughing) Well, then, I should. Last night at dinner, Charlie, Stephen and I all talked about writing together so watch this space!
Do you like the whole concept of songwriter rounds? Coming from the singer-songwriter world that you first started out in you must have done a fair few over the years? I think the format suits your style?
I like an acoustic performance, for sure. Today my performances will just be me, acoustic with a steel and dobro player, which I love. Songwriter rounds are so cool because you often get a good mix of styles and you get to hear some good stories being told too. Sometimes it can be hard being up on stage for so long and you also don’t want to appear rude if you have to do something to your guitar too! (laughing)
You said at the Songwriters show that you hadn’t been over to the UK in 13 years. Why has it been so long?
I don’t know! (laughing) I don’t know how much my music has been listened to over here in that time and booking shows is something that we’ve wanted to do for a while now. I will be coming back in August for the Long Road festival, though, and some solo shows too. I can’t wait!!
‘Along the Way’ has been out for approaching 6 months now. You’ve had time to reflect on it and the process that saw you put it together. Would you go back and do anything different or are you thrilled with how everything has gone with it? (our review right here)
This album is definitely my favourite album that I have ever recorded. I’m so happy with how everything turned out with it. If anything, I feel like I might like to do acoustic version of it and strip back all the songs as an additional release at some point in the future. I think that would be a good way of honouring the songs and giving them a slightly different angle.
Were you nervous in taking a pivot and coming into the Country music community? It can be notoriously cold and holds artists at arm’s length sometimes.
I wasn’t personally nervous but I understand that the Country community and media can be a little protective of itself at times. I’ve been in Nashville for so long now, though, and I’ve written with Country writers and done collaborations my whole career that I haven’t felt at all that I’m being treated like an outsider.
My music has never been that far away from Country music and I feel like this is a good home for me and a good fit although, obviously, you never know what people are going to think or whether people will be offended.
You cant control what other people think, can you?
Exactly! That’s why I’m, like, ‘the people who are going to enjoy my album will enjoy it and I won’t worry about anyone else.’
Let’s go back in time to the artist who was releasing music on My Space just before the release of ‘Bubbly’ in 2007 and let her have a look at where you are in 2024. What do you think she would say?
Back then, it was such a whirlwind and I was quite nervous throughout the whole process so I didn’t fully get to soak it all up. I think I’d be so grateful to see where I am now – I’m back in the UK playing huge festivals and I’m trying to digest and process everything just a little more now than I did back then. I really just want to be ‘in it’ now.
We spoke in our interview last October about how you were a nervous performer, initially, and how you always thought that you were just going to be a songwriter rather than a performer too. How did you conquer those nerves?
I just had to!! (laughing) Shows were booked and I just had to go out and do them. I did cancel shows at the start of my career through nerves, for sure. Or I would go onstage late because I would have been backstage crying, trying to figure out how to calm down and stop the tears, you know?
I did have a therapist come out on the road with me and employed a stage coach to teach me some techniques too. Once experience began to kick in I began to enjoy the process a little more but it was tough in that first part of my career when everything was such a whirlwind. Sometimes a little whiskey would help, too! (laughing)
‘Along the Way’ had such a strong concept to it and was such a personal record of a time and experience. How will you approach your next project and is it daunting to think about writing again after such a personal album?
I haven’t started to write any new songs as yet! (laughing) At the moment I feel like the album is still so very new and I’ve written about all these thoughts and feelings so what else is there to write about? All artists that have personal projects must feel like this – I’m so excited by Carly Pearce’s new album because her ’29’ album exists in a similar space to ‘Along the Way’. Her new song, ‘My Place’ is just so good and it made me think about my own situation when I heard it, it resonated with me.
Listening to Carly’s new songs has given me some inspirations to maybe think of some different perspectives about the break up and what comes next, whether that’s dating experiences or even falling in love again. I’m looking forward to being in that position where life has given me something else to say – I’ve been taking notes in my phone about ideas I have had but nothing has worked its way up into a song right now.
Are you the kind of songwriter that sets aside periods of specific time to write or is your writing just as and when the song reveals itself?
It’s been a mixture over the years. Usually it happens when the idea comes to me but that can take me a while and so I have had sessions where I write with different people over different days and we see what creative ideas emerge from that approach too. Sometimes that can be just as rewarding because working in a disciplined manner with other writers can help you dig up a song that you didn’t know was waiting to be written.
I’m always a little hesitant in forcing it, though, and people are wanting to book writing sessions with me right now and I don’t have anything to say! (laughing)
If somebody could twist your arm to go into a room in Nashville next week and write with you and it was your choice, which artist or writer would you like that to be?
I do love Morgan Wallen. I think he’s an incredibly talented writer and performer. He has double albums with so many songs on but I listen to them all! On repeat. I know he doesn’t write all his songs but he’s a brilliant writer and it would be interesting to see what we could come up with.
Nashville is signing so many artists from TikTok now – it’s like their own A&R department. You auditioned for American Idol a couple of times and released music on My Space so would you credit yourself as being a forerunner to what is happening with music and social media right now?
I mean, it just happened. Justin Bieber was found on Youtube, wasn’t he, so lots of people were found in lots of different ways. I’m one of those where I was discovered by fans – at ground level. ‘Bubbly’ was popular because people wanted to listen to it, it wasn’t chosen by people in a room trying to manipulate the market or trying to figure out what song was going to work. I actually don’t think ‘Bubbly’ would have been chosen by that process if I had gone in that way.
I think it’s better that fans find songs they like and drive success that way rather than people in rooms deciding for them, right?
You’ve got your own record label in Blue Jean Baby. Are you the next Scott Borchetta or is this label purely to distribute your own music?
(laughing) It’s just to distribute my own music, for sure, I don’t want to get into anything more than that right now!
Your father was a famous producer for the likes of Fleetwood Mac so I was wondering if the technical side of the industry and producing music was something that you were interested in?
It’s not, actually, and I wish that it was. I think because I know so much about it and how hard the industry can be I, personally, don’t think I would have the energy to help another artist be built up from the ground and all the things that come along with it. I want to focus on my own creativity and I think that side of the industry would detract from that.
As an artist, you’re usually co-producing your records, even if it’s not there in writing on the sleeve at the end. You have ideas about what you want your songs to sound like and what instruments you want to use. It’s like cooking a dinner or painting a picture, there’s lots of elements to it on the technical side that the artist is involved with and that’s about as much as I want to do. The producer then steps in with ideas about sounds and creative touches that you, maybe, haven’t thought about and I like that very much.
Colbie Caillat’s album ‘Along The Way’ is out now.
