Carly Rae Jepsen On Her Latest Album, New Hairstyle, & How She Likens Social Media to ‘Veep’

Carly Rae Jepsen shows off her new look. Photo: Courtesy

By John Norris

The glittering shark tank that is pop music in 2015 can be an out-of-sight-out-of-mind place: stay away for too long, and you’re in danger of being yesterday’s news. By the time Carly Rae Jepsen took the Studio 8H stage for a comeback performance on Saturday Night Live in April, a ton of young pop women had come and gone—or come and stuck around—since Jepsen ruled the music universe three years earlier, with the maddeningly catchy bolt-from-the-blue song “Call Me Maybe.” The Canadian—who’s long looked and sounded younger than her late-20’s age—had her work cut out for her.

And she delivered. First, with a rendition of “I Really Like You,” and then, for her second song, something completely different in the form of “All That.” It’s a sweet-but-smoky R&B/pop jam, uncharacteristically moody, but just shimmery enough to recall Paisley Park’s glory days—a tune that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on a Janet Jackson album thirty years ago, or more recently, on a playlist next to The Weeknd. Maybe we didn’t know Carly Rae Jepsen quite as well as we thought we did?

As you read this, Jepsen’s third album E•MO•TIONis shaping up to become one of the best-reviewed pop LP’s of the year, and the singer credits the nascent success to the fact that she didn’t rush things. She also worked with writers from across the pop spectrum, Scandinavian Midas-touch men like Shellback and Rami Yacoub, as well as more indie-leaning types, like Blood Orange’s Dev Hynes and the ubiquitous Angeleno Ariel Rechtshaid. Elsewhere on E•MO•TION, from the left wing of pop, comes “Warm Blood,” co-written and produced by Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij (who only last month Yahoo Style discussed with Charli XCX) and the reliable Sia Furler.

Simply put, Jepsen—whose return to pop music some doubted in early 2014, when she spent several months in the title role of Broadway’s Cinderella opposite Fran Drescher—has rebounded with a much more varied record, one that may finally start to put “Call Me Maybe” in the rear view. There have been two videos already, “I Really Like You,” starring a drolly fish-out-of-water Tom Hanks and with a cameo from Jepsen’s pal Justin Bieber; and “Run Away With You,” shot on the fly in various cities around the world. Jepsen’s even changed up her look. While girl-next-door may still be her default style, there’s a new-look Carly Rae Jepsen for 2015, and it’s refreshing to see. Yahoo Style spoke to her only hours before she headed off to Japan, for an appearance at the Summer Sonic festival.

Yahoo Style: Carly, are you in LA?

Carly Rae Jepsen: I am! But I woke up very early because later today I am flying to Osaka.

YS: Well, congratulations. By that time this piece goes up, I am confident that about fifteen more rave reviews of E•MO•TION will have come out.

CRJ: [laughs] You’re so sweet.

YS: Are you sensing it? Because all the advance stuff I’ve seen is that at least critically it’s going to outdo Kiss.

CRJ: It’s definitely a different response, and a really positive one, and it means something more to me than I could have expected. It’s just the length of time we had in putting together this album is not really comparable to what we had with Kiss. That one was a fun challenge to get an album written and recorded in under two or three months, but I knew that with this album I wanted to have the luxury of time on my side, to really weigh things, and to go back and really challenge some that I had already begun work on. So at the end of the day when I kind of held the record in my hand, it felt really right. And then to receive positive reviews on top of that, it feels amazing.

YS: Did you also just feel like you needed a breather? “Call Me Maybe” is a lot to live up to.

CRJ: I think that was definitely true. I definitely felt like I had over-heard myself on the radio, so I could imagine how other people were feeling. [laughs] I also wanted a little bit of a beat because I knew when I did return with my next album that the sound I was going for was a little bit different. More mature. And then it was kind of strange and wonderful timing, because the Broadway offer came down the line, and that was really unexpected.

Carly Rae Jepsen. Photo: Courtesy

YS: Now that you’ve done Broadway, I wonder how you compare the two worlds, theatre versus pop music — some would argue there’s a fair amount of role-playing that goes into pop today.

CRJ: I think it’s probably different for every artist. You have to find your own balance with that. I think the further that I go with this career and the more I learn about myself, the more I get off on that freedom of just being true to myself. Of course there’s moments when you can be more glamorized or more extreme, like on stage you’re always presenting yourself to the max. But when it comes to the theatrical side of it, I’ve always found that that doesn’t sit well with me. So I think yeah, there is a part of me that does crave that token word “authenticity” in my music and my image. I think it’s way easier to be yourself.

YS: We’re also in a time where every word or offhand comment or thing that they do can get blown up exponentially within a matter of seconds. Just look at Ariana Grande and the whole “Donutgate” thing, and also Justin [Bieber] and the year he went through. Technology is capturing every word and deed. So what do you take from that?

CRJ: It’s a great question. It’s making me chuckle because I’ve been watching that show Veeplately. And the woman can’t say a good thing to save her life. I do see the comedy in the fact that things can be blown out of proportion, or things that you’re not even aware of can become a story. And that is kind of a part of it that goes along with all the other good stuff. I mean you’ve just got to, at least for me, you’ve got to take it all with a grain of salt.

YS: On the style front, you’ve been changing up the hair this year.

CRJ: Yeah, I’m like every woman I guess, when it hits me and I spontaneously have a desire to change. It’s funny, cause we did like tons of promo photos for this album, and then right before SNL I had the desire to like chop all my hair off and dye it even brighter red. And everyone was like, “Whoa! We just did all these promo shots! What are you doing?” But I think that’s the power you need to have if you’re going to keep your sanity, is just—I mean I get it, but it’s my hair!

YS: Do you work with a stylist full-time? Or is it more project to project?

CRJ: I’m working with a stylist right now who I really love named Hayley [Atkin] but it has been fun for me to try different people and explain to them what I am going for. It’s a bit more of a conversation than just putting on whatever they arrive with. It’s fun to kind of play dress-up with somebody who’s got an amazing closet. It’s about trying and exploring and being brave—for anyone, male or female—in this business, is getting to play with fashion.

YS: You’ve said that Eighties pop, and specifically Cyndi Lauper, were inspirational to this record.

CRJ: I saw Cyndi Lauper play like two, three years ago, and I don’t know I was just kinda hit by the fact that her songs weren’t just hooky. Every single one of had a story, and the lyrics, and the strength of those melodies, and the production. I can remember hearing “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and thinking I could just release it as is, without changing anything. And when I came back from that trip I just got more into it. I was listening to a lot of Prince, a lot of old school Madonna. I think there’s a lot to kind of gain from that era. That being said, I didn’t set out to make like a period piece album. It was more like, “I just want to incorporate this and this sound,” and use it in a way that’s natural to me, you know?

YS: Were you sensitive that sometimes people would sometimes say about the last album was such a “teeny-bopperish” record for someone in her 20’s”?

CRJ: There was no real consciousness about making a record that was in that young kids’ vein, but I can hear in hindsight that it is youthful and I think that’s probably because it’s pure pop. I think this time there was a choice to break out of that and feel like I could explore more mature even dark areas as well.

YS: No tour plans have been announced yet. Will you be doing that soon?

CRJ: At this point we’re just doing kind of one-off festival shows, like Japan and then New York for Jimmy Fallon, and then the CD release in L.A. right after that. And then I think we’ll probably be planning for a tour like later on in the fall, or even in the new year. I am very excited for the live show. The band boys have been in town for the last two weeks, and we have been doing nothing but rehearsing and getting off on how fun it is to play new stuff. So, we can’t wait!

Carly Rae Jepsen’s E•MO•TION is out Friday, August 21

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