The soothing sound of Colbie Caillat

For someone whose profile has garnered over 14 million plays in a matter of four months in the social networking site MySpace, thus earning her title No. 1 Unsigned Artist for over four months, Colbie Caillat remains refreshingly grounded.

The voice behind the hit singles Bubbly and Realize and the chart-topping Coco album still goes out of her  house the way girls next door do: Sans makeup and dressed as casually as ever.

“I just want to be comfortable,” she says over the phone from Taiwan, where the 22-year-old artist stayed before going to Manila for the Colbie Caillat ‘Bubbly’ Tour Live at the Ayala Malls which started yesterday and continues today.

Comfort and honesty best describe this girl who looks at the beach as a second home. Camera-bearing fans just pop up and ask for photos, and Colbie would oblige, with or without make-up, elegantly dressed or not.

“I’m not going to change myself for anyone,” she says. In fact, the best message she can give fans is “It’s okay to be yourself.” Being yourself, for Colbie, means pouring her feelings about romance in Bubbly, showing how happy she is at seeing her sister find the perfect mate in Tailor Made, overcoming her fears in One Fine Wire (her favorite track on the album) and paying homage to Hawaiian music in Tied Down.

And then again, being yourself also means admitting you’re not perfect (who is?). You need to improve.  This much Colbie admits.

Still, it’s great to be No. 1. It has brought Colbie on tour (with her band) to eight different countries with different cultures and climes. She gets her fair share of autograph signings (the first 200 buyers of Coco can go up on stage to meet Colbie and have her sign autographs after she wraps up her show which is set at 6 tonight at the Trinoma Activity Center).

Colbie is no longer just another pretty face in her native America. People in stores  ask her, “Are you Colbie from MySpace?”

It’s not a bed of roses, though. Being No. 1 also means being open to criticism from all fronts. While she respects her producer Mikel Blue’s opinions the most, Colbie is humble enough to keep her eyes and ears open to critics.

She also watches her idol John Mayer, to learn techniques from him as a singer and performer.

“I actually like criticism,” she says. “It makes you keep on striving to improve yourself. It keeps your feet on the ground.”

Being a role model for other young women also keeps Colbie on her toes. Yes, she admits, she does feel some pressure. But she has never been one to frequent nightclubs and create scandals in the first place.

Just give Colbie a pen and piece of paper and she’ll pour her heart out in a new song rather than wreak havoc all over the place just because she feels terrible.

That’s how One Fine Wire, a track from Coco, was born. It happened during her junior year in college.

“I took an improve class because I’m really shy in front of people up on stage. I ended up dropping the class because I had a scene I had to do. My parents were so mad at me because I just quit something I was trying to overcome. I went upstairs to my room bawling and wrote One Fine Wire,” she recalls.

That’s the farthest she got to rocking the boat at home.

And so, while others seek professional help to fight stress, Colbie just needs the soothing sound of her guitar and the music on her mind to get by.

For instance, while in London and pining for her family and dogs, Colbie took out pen and paper and wrote Out of My Mind. She will render the song, recorded but still unreleased in her Trinoma show tonight with MCA Music artist Julianne as front act.

The warm weather in Manila comes as a boon for this artist, who would rather be a singer first than anything else. Warm weather, she explains, is good for her voice (cold weather is not).

She has also heard many nice things about Philippine beaches from a girl friend who has been to the country years back.

“I’d love to go to the beach in the Philippines if I have time,” says the water-loving Colbie (she was born in Malibu, which overlooks the ocean).

Beach or no beach however, Colbie has a promise to Filipino followers: “We will have a wonderful show! You can relax, let your hair down, unwind.”

That, plus Colbie’s pretty face and sunny smile could just be what harried Manila folk need to chase the mid-week blues away.