INTERVIEW: Colbie Caillat Reveals Song Meanings For 'The Malibu Sessions' | Track By Track

It's hard to get around fixed routines, full of logistics, meetings and studio sessions when you work in the music industry. That is, unless you throw it all to the wall and give up the demands of a major label. 

With five albums, two Grammy Awards and half a dozen headlining tours under her belt, Colbie Caillat did just that when she decided that she wanted to create the album that had always been on her to-do list. In comes her self-started PlummyLou Records, which brought the release of her sixth studio LP, The Malibu Sessions. If anything, it was a strategy that she mirrored from one of her musical idols, Fleetwood Mac, as mentioned to iHeartRadio in an exclusive interview. 

"[Fleetwood Mac] would record for months and they'd all be in one place together and they'd either be in a house together or in the studio together constantly, and it was just the best thing," she revealed. "There was never clocking in and clocking out. It was always bringing up ideas as they came. I really wanted that and I didn't want to have to be driving to different studios in LA. Being in traffic, it kind of takes you out of that vibe."

With a few trusty collaborators in tow like her fiancé/guitarist Justin Young, longtime songwriting partner Jason Reeves and producer John Shanks, the 31-year-old singer/songwriter went back to her Malibu stomping grounds, rented a house near Zuma Beach and stayed there for two months to record the California-kissed 11-song set. "We recorded thirty-something songs and it made the experience amazing because we'd finish a song and we'd go outside to the beach to take a walk and make smoothies and have a bonfire, and go back in and do another vocal."

Want more on The Malibu Sessions? Take a look below at our latest installment of "Track By Track" with Colbie to read the stories behind each of the cuts.

Colbie on The Recording Process & Meaning Behind Her Song Lyrics

Track 1: "Gypsy Heart"

"This is the first song that I wrote for this album and it was four years ago. It was with Jason Reeves and Mikal Blue, who I first did my first album with. When we wrote this song, it had just a million harmonies on it and it really had this classic '70s vibe to it. Right after we wrote it, I was like 'This is the direction that I 100% want to go for this next album.' That whole next year when I was having writing sessions, that's the vibe that we went. I wanted to make sure that every song would be able to have really beautiful harmonies and really fun instruments. I tapped into Paul Simon's Graceland vibe with how every song was just fun and kind of makes you want to move.

'Gypsy Heart' is the song that really started the record. It's funny, because I was supposed to put a different record out before that, which is why I called my last album 'Gypsy Heart,' and then I saved all these songs to put out once I got off my label and could do it on my own."

Track 2: "Goldmine"

"I don't ever have ideas or songs sent. I don't sing people's songs. I write them in the room with my friends or I start the ideas, so [Taylor Berrett sending this song] was something different. I never even open songs because I'm like 'I'm not going to do this.' It was a really short, really beautiful melody idea and I was like, 'Well, why not? We can finish writing the song right now, and all of us can be writing it together.'. . .I don't know if I'll do that more in the future because I like being in the room, actually creating the song from the beginning, but I'm so happy that [Kara DioGuardi] sent that song and that guy Taylor Berrett came up with the original idea."

Track 3: "Cruisin'"

"Cruisin'" is one of my favorites. I go to the island of Kauai in Hawaii and we go write there all the time. It was Jason Reeves, his wife Danielle and my sister Morgan. We were all on the beach and Jason just had this little baby Martin guitar, and we were looking at all the babies and they were running around naked, and we were like 'It's not fair. It's way more comfortable. They have no tan line.' We were just kind of making this joke about how everything in Hawaii is laid-back and fun and carefree, so we kind of just [started] making a little bit of a joke song, and then we really loved it. We wrote it right there on the beach that day, and I still have the audio recording of it. It's one that I love because it has a million harmonies on it and it talks about my favorite island in the world."

Track 4: "Like Tomorrow Never Comes"

"When we were recording this in the studio, it just has this La Bamba kind of vibe to it, like you just want to move around. We totally went [the] Paul Simon direction. We did all these really unique, weird voices and background vocals with like ooh-ooh-ah-ah-ah. Have you heard Graceland? Have you heard his album? He went to Africa and had all the locals sing what they sang, and they did it all live and they didn't play anything. . . .That's the direction that we went for 'Like Tomorrow Never Comes,' and it's a really long song, like really long. It just jams out for a minute and a half."

Track 5: "Only You"

"'Only You' is about the most passionate love and the lyrics in the song are something to pay attention to. They're just really clever and really fun. It's another happy, beachy, summery love song."

Track 6: "Good Thing"

"We actually wrote this song at the beach house as well. This is one of the songs that I told you I recorded vocals out on the sand. [In] my music video for 'Goldmine, you actually see some of it where we actually have a million extension cords from inside the house [extending] all the way out to the top of the sand dune. We wanted to be able to get some of the ocean waves in the mic and it's only in parts of the song, but we also use those ocean waves to start the album at the beginning of the song 'Gypsy Heart,' and ending it on the song 'Now.'"

Track 7: "Runnin"

"I wrote that song with my fiance, Justin Young. It actually progressed. We wrote it years ago and then we kept writing new choruses for it. I love the song because it talks about the difficulties of being on the road and traveling and how it's really important to have your thing, or your person, or something that can make you feel at home. For me, Justin was that and is that. . . .We had just done a couple demos and we had actually started writing it for the Hunger Games movie years ago. The lyrics were different, more towards that, and then we were like 'No, let's just make this about the road and love.' He produced the song, too, which is really cool."

Track 8: "Never Got Away"

"This one was my favorite. . . .This one is about vulnerability in relationships and we all feel it. I think everyone is always worried that that person isn't going to stay. At some point, they might grow apart or they might fall out of love and there's always that hesitation of wanting to hold onto them. This song is about the one that could never get away."

Track 9: "Don't Wanna Love You

"I started writing [this] in Hawaii with Jason Reeves and Toby Gad. It was a song about someone that you know you shouldn't love or know you shouldn't have feelings for, and I think everyone has felt this before. You just, for some reason, have this connection with them and you wish that it would go away. It just says I don't want to love you but I do.

Toby is the most fun person. He's incredible. He's kind of like a really happy kid, like anything makes him excited, any lyric idea, any melody. He will write all day long. He'll record all day long. I was in Hawaii and he knew we were there [and] he's like, 'I'll fly out tomorrow and we'll write for three days.' That's when we wrote these songs. It's really fun to work with someone who loves it that much because I could be like 'I love songwriting, but in my own time.' It's great to have somebody bring that out of you more often in a really happy way."

Track 10: "In Love Again"

"I wrote [that] about my fiancé. Years ago, we had broken up for awhile and I was so sad about it because I knew it didn't feel right. I was in the session with Kara DioGuardi and Jason Reeves. They were at my house in California. I was just having a therapy session, saying I want to be in love again but with him, and I want to have all of our issues figured out and I don't want to fall in love with someone new. I want it to be him. That's one of my favorite songs on the record because I don't think we ever fell out of love, but we figured it out and fell into place, so that one is a really special song."

Track 11: "Now"

"'Now' is a really mellow song. I really like this song. I really wanted it to end the album because it's about being present, in the moment. I have a tattoo that says 'Be calm. Be still.' It's just a reminder of being where you are, with who you are. If you want to run, or if you're scared of something, or you have a fear, just go for it because you feel so much better and it's so rewarding to get past something that is difficult for you. It's just about being in the now and the song ends with a minute of ocean waves and some background vocals, and then it kind of circles back to the beginning of the record where the ocean waves are again."

Photo: Wendy George for iHeartRadio