Maui Beat

Living in ‘the now’

Singer Colbie Caillat, playing at the MACC on Friday, spreads peace and positivity through her music

Two very gifted female artists will perform this weekend, Colbie Caillat on Friday at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center in Kahului and Heather Nova on Sunday at Seabury Hall in Makawao.

Reviewing Caillat's latest album, a USA Today critic enthused: "If there were a Grammy Award for Happiest Album of the Year, 'The Malibu Sessions' would win hands-down."

An effervescent, uplifting tone permeates Caillat's whole album. It's a positive perspective that she has tended to emphasize in many of her songs, and most evidently on "Now," which closes "The Malibu Sessions."

"You gotta live in the now," she sings. "'Cause you can't go back to yesterday. You gotta live in the now, 'Cause tomorrow is too far away."

"It's my favorite song on the album," Caillat says. "We all get stressed by everyday life and that song reminds me to find peace in the moment. We all go through good times and difficult times, and when I write about difficult times I like to turn the song around with an uplifting, positive message."

With so many catchy songs on the album, Caillat says she focuses on emphasizing melodies. "Good melodies make you feel good. When I'm writing, we know when the melody makes you feel good singing it."

Now releasing music on her own label, she relishes the freedom it allows. "I used to have creative control, but it started feeling more pressured as the years went on," she explains. "Not being on a huge label you don't have as much exposure, but this is what I've been wanting for years."

A two-time Grammy winner who has sold more than 20 million singles worldwide, Caillat studied piano as a child and took up guitar at 19. Her father, Ken Caillat, engineered Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" and "Tusk" albums (and "Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band, Vol. 1").

"My parents raised me on classic rock," she says. "Simon and Garfunkel; Crosby, Stills & Nash; Fleetwood Mac; and Steve Miller, all those greats. I loved the acoustic guitar, sunshine sound. It's what I wanted to recreate with the ("Malibu Sessions") album."

She rose to fame through the MySpace website, after posting several songs including the breezy "Bubbly," which ended up with 22 million plays. Snapped up by Universal Republic Records, she released her debut album in 2007, "Coco," which included the hit singles "Bubbly" and "Realize," and sold more than 2 million copies.

"I had no preparation (for success)," she reveals. "I was just writing songs. We recorded really quick and put demos on MySpace, and I got offered a record deal and went on tour. I didn't have to do any of the stuff you normally have to do. But I had the worst stage fright and especially didn't like being on TV performances. I would just clam up every time and dread it. I had to deal with it and work through the fear."

Among those praising Caillat's debut was country star Taylor Swift, who reported, "I fell in love with the way that she makes music." Swift reached out and suggested they collaborate on a song, which was later nominated for a Grammy.

"She asked if I would go to Nashville and write with her," says Caillat. "I helped build the structure and get 'Breathe' together. It was a great experience."

Another collaboration, with Jason Mraz on "Lucky," won her a Grammy Award. "I was a fan of Jason Mraz so I was honored he wanted to work with me," she says.

Making her Maui concert debut on Friday, Caillat has a connection to the islands that includes her fiance, musician Justin Young, who was born in Kailua. "We have a house on Kauai and we go to Oahu all the time to visit his family and friends, and my parents have a place on Maui," she explains. "Half of my songs were written on Kauai."

* Colbie Caillat and her band will perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the Maui Arts & Cultural Center's Castle Theater. Justin Young will open the show. Tickets are $45, $55, $85 and $125 (plus applicable fees) and are available at the box office, by calling 242-7469 or online at www.mauiarts.org.

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Heather Nova is also making her Maui debut. While her brother, reggae artist Mishka, has lived here for seven years, his sister has never visited Hawaii before.

"It's about time," she says during an interview in Paia. "I do full band shows and I do acoustic shows with Arnulf Lindner, who is classically trained at Austria's Royal Academy of Music. He was KT Tunstall's bass player, and he plays the cello and piano and electric guitar and is completely versatile. He can play anything. So the show is varied as we mix it up a lot switching instruments. I feel that something very special happens live."

"It's a really dynamic, captivating show for just two people on stage," says Mishka, who will sing some duets with his sister.

Raised in Bermuda, Nova spent 16 years in the Caribbean on a sail boat with her family before heading to London, "with my guitar and my demo tape. I got a record deal and stayed for 15 years. It was the right place at the right time."

As her brother developed as a reggae artist, she became an alt rock favorite. "My influences growing up were more the folk singers of the '60s and '70s, and then I got into the music of Patti Smith, Kate Bush and David Bowie in high school," she explains. "I also got very excited about electric guitars, and I loved how Patti Smith mixed poetry with rock 'n' roll. My first band had a cello in it. I was one of the first to have a cello in a rock band in 1990."

Gaining popularity in the early 1990s, her second album, "Oyster," topped music charts in Europe and America. The dramatic acoustic rocker "Walk This World" from "Oyster," was included in PopMatters 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '90s.

" 'Oyster' broke through," she notes. "It took me to America and I signed a big recording deal with Sony and toured a lot. I was part of the movement of women in rock in the '90s."

She followed up with "Siren," which established her firmly in the world of alternative rock, with singles charting worldwide, and invitations to play major festivals in continental Europe, the U.K. and U.S.

Reviewing her 2001 album, "South," Slant Magazine praised: "Her voice is distinctive, her songs hook-laden, her lyrics profound yet accessible and, well, she's hot." And American Songwriter hailed her most recent album, "The Way It Feels," as her best yet.

Continuing to release acclaimed recordings, her songs are often distinguished by an emotionally intense quality, both lyrically and musically.

"I think of song writing as distilling moments in time," she says. "And it's my way of processing whatever life throws at me, diving deep into the emotional world and trying to make pearls of the chaos."

Primarily focusing on her own songs, she occasionally includes a cover in concert. They range from Bruce Springsteen's "I'm on Fire" and the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood," to Neil Young's "Like a Hurricane." "It's fun to throw in as an encore," she says. "I like to take something very different and make it into an atmospheric, acoustic song. My cover of 'Staying Alive' is one of my favorites."

After playing Maui, Nova will head out on the East Coast for some duo dates with her brother, and they're working on composing together. "We just started playing together and it feels really natural," she says. "We're playing both of our songs. I'll back him and he will back me."

"Where she went rock I went reggae, and we meet in the middle," adds Mishka, who has also been singing with Maui's Freeradicals Projekt.

* Heather Nova will perform at 6 p.m. Sunday at Seabury Hall's 'A'ali'ikuhonua Creative Arts Center in Makawao. She will be accompanied by cellist/multi-instrumentalist Arnulf Lindner, with a special guest appearance by Mishka. Tickets are $45 for general admission, and $100 for VIP, which includes merchandise and backstage pass. Tickets are available through www.eventbrite.com.

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Henry Kapono will pay tribute to his celebrated days with Cecilio Rodriguez with a special "Songs of C&K" concert in the MACC's Castle Theater at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Joining him will be Waikiki entertainer Johnny Valentine (uncle to Bruno Mars), Alx Kawakami of Manoa DNA, and 2016 Most Promising Artist Na Hoku-winner Blayne Asing.

Listen to the stories and hear the classics, including "We're All Alone," "Lifetime Party," "Sailin,' " "Gotta Get Away," "Sunshine Love," "Highway in the Sun" and many more.

* Tickets are $15, $35, $45 and $55 (plus applicable fees) and are available at the box office, by calling 242-7469 or online at www.mauiarts.org.