Colbie Caillat  

October 7, 2009

Wednesday 7:00pm

Detail: By age 21, Californian vocalist Colbie Caillat had evolved swiftly from an aspiring R&B/folk singer to a pop sensation with the marketing assistance of a little networking tool called Myspace. She grew up in Malibu and Ventura County and caught the music bug at an early age from her father Ken Caillat, an established audio engineer who helped produce Fleetwood Mac's Rumours and Tusk. Songs were often mixed at the console in her Malibu beach house, filling the corridors with the sounds of Billy Idol, Pat Benatar, and other '80s pop/rock. As a child, Caillat gave piano lessons a try but wasn't inspired until she turned 11 years old and became enthralled watching Lauryn Hill sing in Sister Act 2. Immediately realizing that she wanted to be a singer, and with her parents' encouragement, she started taking vocal lessons. At age 15, in a twist of fate, she met Mikal Blue, a producer who had previously worked with Five for Fighting and Carrie Underwood. He hired her to sing on a few techno songs that were to be used during runway models' shows and they cultivated a professional relationship and began writing together. At 19, she picked up an acoustic guitar and the two recorded the first song she composed.