NEW YORK - When Colbie Caillat is asked to name some of the more unusual places she's heard her song "Bubbly" blasting from the sp
eakers, she smiles, then says shyly: "I haven't heard it that many times."
She's definitely in the minority. The dreamy acoustic guitar groove that started off as a sleeper hit has become a fixture on the airwaves, holding fast in the Top 10 after five months on the Billboard pop chart.
"Bubbly" is Caillat's first hit, but not her first taste of fame. Months after a friend started a page for her on MySpace, she had more than 100,000 friends on the networking site — and the ear of labels. By the time her debut album, "Coco," was released on Universal Records, buzz was already strong.
Caillat opened for the Goo Goo Dolls earlier this summer, but now she's headlining shows of her own. Before a recent performance in New York, the statuesque 22-year-old talked with The Associated Press about her newfound fame, her MySpace success, and why, despite strumming on stage, she doesn't consider herself a guitarist.
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AP: Before you got your page on MySpace, were you sending your music around to labels?
Caillat: I never sent anything to the record labels. I had just started out songwriting and performing, so I would write new songs every month with my friend Jason Reeves and each time we'd get a new song, we'd go in the studio and record it, so we never finished a demo CD. I would update my site with all my songs, the new ones that we wrote, and I would ask my fans their opinion on the songs, if they liked it or not.
AP: Did you ever get negative criticism?
Caillat: I actually encouraged that — I was like, 'OK, tell me if it's good or if it's bad, or what you don't like about it,' and everyone would. They ranked my songs — like what ones they liked the most, and what ones they would want played at their wedding ... So, that's what made my decision on what songs to put on the album.
AP: You eventually wanted a record deal, right?
Caillat: I've been singing since I was 11, so I always wanted to be a singer, and I was always telling my parents, 'I want to be a singer someday.' And then they told me, 'If you want to have a career out of this, you have to learn how to play an instrument and write your own songs.' So over time I finally got that in my head, and when I was 19 I got my first guitar, and I wrote my first song after my first guitar lesson. So, once I kind of got that way of going about it, that's when I realized that I wanted a career in this, but I wasn't really pushing it.
AP: Why not?
Caillat: I'm really shy, so it was hard for me to push my music, or even call venues and be like, 'I want to play a show.' My friends usually did it for me. And that's why my friend put my songs on MySpace for me, so they really helped a lot, because when I'm shy, I don't know — I get really nervous around people.
AP: Have you broken out of that with the success?
Caillat: I have a a little bit — I've gotten better. Like, I used to not even sing in front of people and now I'm playing these huge songs, so it's definitely helped but I'm really nervous when I'm up there.
AP: How hard was it to learn the guitar?
Caillat: For me, it's difficult; it's still difficult, I'm learning it, but I realize that I can play very simple songs and play four to five chords in a song and write that way, so for me, I'm more of a singer, and the guitar is to just to help accompany me. I wouldn't call myself a guitar player, but I want to learn it more, I want to get better at it.
AP: Your father, Ken Caillat, is a music producer (Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumors' was one of his projects). Was he involved in this record?
Caillat: My father did get involved in this record. I wanted him to and he wanted to; it's always been my dream because he's a producer, so I always said, I want you to produce my album someday. My producer is actually Mikal Blue but my dad was in the studio with us every day, and giving ideas and things we would have never thought of for the album, so he really helped a lot.
AP: What was your insight on the industry growing up the daughter of a successful producer?
Caillat: Well, he taught me a lot about it and he had a record label, so I would see how it was when they signed bands and if bands would get dropped and just how their career had to progress ... just knowing a little bit about it made me feel more comfortable about it, because I can talk to people and maybe relate to them a little bit more in the business and maybe strike up a conversation. But I'm learning the most about it now. I've learned so much in the past five to six months.
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On the Net:
http://www.colbiecaillatmusic.com/
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