It should go without saying that Colbie Caillat is one of the artists playing Country 2 Country (C2C) Festival that most people are excited to see.

Many of Colbie’s fans have been following her career from the start. Her album Coco (2007) has a lot of meaning to many, with the song Bubbly in particular, being the soundtrack of their youth and that first experience of love.

Caillat’s music takes the form in its own genre – she has always had her own unique stamp and that’s what makes it so easy for her to flow into country music so naturally.

Last year, Colbie released her album Along The Way which is cited as her debut in country music. However, as any fan of Caillat will tell you, her music has always had a tinge of country even if just within her storytelling lyrics. Colbie also formed the country-pop group Gone West in 2018 where they released their debut and only album Canyons in 2020.

Colbie also collaborated with Taylor Swift on Swift’ second album Fearless on the song Breathe in which they co-wrote.

We caught up with Colbie to discuss C2C Festival, her album Along The Way, The Long Road Festival and more!

Enjoy!

Hi Colbie – How are you?

I am good thank you!

How has your week been? Are you in Nashville right now?

I am, I am packing for this trip! (C2C) It’s raining!

Yep here too but hopefully that will stop when you are over? Are you all ready for C2C Festival?

I am so excited, I have really been looking forward to these shows! I have never been to C2C and I haven’t been back over there (UK) for like ten years or so. I am excited!

It’s a great event and you must have friends who have told you about it?

Yes!!! I have a lot of friends that are performing there too which is what is so cool about Nashville and the Country community – everyone knows each other.

Yes it’s even smaller here in the UK so we all pretty much know each other as fans too. It took us a long time to find like minded fans.

Let’s talk about ‘Along The Way’ which is cited as your debut country album! I feel though that you were always headed this way?

Yeah, it’s been a natural progression. My music that I have always written especially with my first album is all very acoustic and organic. When I started coming to Nashville at the beginning of my career, I would write with writers out here and I would get asked to do a lot of country clubs. I moved to Nashville about 8 years ago and I started a country band called ‘Gone West’ and now four years ago I started writing for this record and it just felt like my home. The music fit my style and how I write and the production that I love! I love the steel guitar and I love the dobro. I just thought that it was a good fit!

Oh definitely, and like you said, it was a natural progression. My first hint of you in country music, as well as your own music was of course your collaboration with Taylor Swift for the song ‘Breathe’ on her ‘Fearless’ Album! How did that come about?

Yeah! She was living in Nashville and she wanted to write with me. Her first album had just come out and so I flew to Nashville, we wrote together and we wrote the song. She was amazing and then I got to sing on ‘Fearless’ with her. She won a Grammy for that record so I have a Grammy for that song and I got to work with Trace Adkins and Jerrod Neimann, Ashley Cooke and all these country artists.

Another collaboration that I really love of yours, albeit not country is ‘Lucky’ with Jason Mraz. He is a good friend of yours I believe?

Yes!! We have been singing that song together for so many years now. I remember when my first album came out and he wanted to write with me and he had that idea started. We actually wrote the song by sending ideas back and forth over email. It was the two of us and my guitar player Tim Fagan. So the three of us would send ideas back and forth and he was recording his album in London so that’s where we recorded the song. Then when we shot the music video he was over in the UK or Europe and I was in Hawaii so we shot our parts in separate places. We won a Grammy for that song too!

Again on the subject of collaborations, and the new album, you have a wonderful song out with Sheryl Crow called ‘I’ll Be Here’ which is amazing!

She is the best, she is so sweet and such a great mentor, woman, artist, everything! She lives down the street from me. She had me tour with her many years ago so we have stayed friends, stayed in touch and we recorded it at her house in Nashville and it was pretty cool. I am still like “Wow! I know Sheryl Crow!”

The whole album is wonderful and again, so glad to have you officially in the country world. Was there any song in particular on the album that was a challenge to write or did the album flow really well?

Yeah, so the whole album took me longer to write. Most other records you book a bunch of sessions and you try to write as many songs as possible and I didn’t want to do that for this one so it took me like 8 months to write my first song, I wasn’t in the head space. Then life kept unfolding and I felt ready and I was like “oh I have this song” I think the first one that I started was ‘Blue’? I wrote that one by myself and then the next one was ‘Worth It’. After that I think I would write one every couple of months so it was a very slow process.

In a way though, that’s probably better is it not? Take your time and really enjoy the process behind it and just make the record that you really want to make?

That’s what I needed to do for sure! I was in love with this record and it’s my favourite one I’ve written and recorded. I took my time, I can’t always do that but I was glad I allowed myself time. It was during the pandemic, there was a whole shift in life and in my life, relationships, the band I was in, so I was allowed the time to figure out exactly what I wanted to do with no pressure.

I think it shows because each song is stand out. There’s not a skippable song on there!

Thank you!

Tell us about the bookends of the album – how did you put them together for this album? Is it important to you what goes first and what goes last?

Absolutely because there are people that listen to the album in full and put the record on even if they’re streaming it and let it run through. My parents taught me that with albums and vinyl and you want it to be a whole listening experience. I wanted it to be just like this sonic flow. Sonically and lyrically how I wrote these songs and how my thought process and my journey of healing with these songs. I wanted to start with ‘Wide Open’, that’s really how I have been wanting to live my life and being ok with what is and if something works out then great and if not, then that is ok too. I wanted to end it with ‘The Other Side’ because it’s so positive and I feel like a lot of people can relate to it with any kind of change in life and I thought it would flow nicely if it was on repeat (The Album) it would go right back to ‘Wide Open’.

That is exactly what has happened to me with this album and it does flow beautifully! It didn’t go unnoticed to me that when it ended, it flew beautifully back to ‘Wide Open’ and I remember thinking “Oh wow!”.

Oh cool.

It’s nice to be able to tell when the thought process behind an albums track listing has been really thought through.

We haven’t even got to C2C Festival weekend yet but you have also been announced as part of The Long Road Festival line up.

Yes! In August! I’m excited about that, it’s just been put on the calendar so I get to come back at the end of summer.

You will love The Long Road, an outdoor festival in the UK – let’s pray for good weather haha!

How do you prepare for a performance? Do you have any traditions?

I do vocal warm ups I try to like stretch and go through the set list and think about what I want to say to the audience. I had a stage coach when I first started because I had such bad stage fright and she would tell me to talk positively to myself, so I try to do that if I have nerves and to remind myself “It’s ok, you’re going to have fun, everyone out there is really nice and they’re here to hear the songs and they relate to it so just enjoy it”.

Well please don’t feel that way when you are here. I think you’re one of the artists that most people are excited to see.

Oh well thank you for saying that!

I can’t wait myself. I have never seen you live so I am very excited about that!

What song of yours is your families favourite?

Oh erm, I should go ask my mum right now haha! You know, I think they love ‘Try’ and I think they love ‘Bubbly’ because it’s something that is “so me” and is something that I wrote really quickly at the age that started my career so I feel like they would say that one.

That’s lovely!

Thank you so much for today and I can’t wait to see you at C2C.

Thank you, I hope you come and say “Hi!”

I will!