What she’s been writing most recently has been all over the map. She’s been working for other artists, experimenting for herself. She mentions being really into Leon Bridges and old Motown records, a pop-country song that came out of nowhere despite her not liking the genre very much, understated disco in the vein of Feist and the Bee Gees. She’s been listening to new albums from the 1975 and Christine And The Queens, reading Carly Simon’s biography. There was a day-long session in Nashville with PC Music’s Danny L Harle, whose in-studio enthusiasm apparently only rivaled her own. (Jepsen on the burgeoning UK collective: “It’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard, and how often can you say that nowadays about music?”) She touts the titles of two specific songs, both written with Crowe: “Tenderly,” a jazz-inspired one, and “Sails,” a decidedly not love-themed song about the journey of being on the road.
She’s enjoying the process of discovery without the pressure of an album looming. It also seems like she’s applying the lessons she learned from E•MO•TION in taking her next steps: “I wish I had gone about it this way with all of my albums. Really taking time and allowing myself to have no boundaries of who I work with or what songs I make until I find what really feels right.” The idea of a boundary-free existence comes up a few different times, the temptation of creativity without restriction. “Having the insanity of ‘Call Me Maybe’ and that lifestyle and what that was for two years of my life versus what this is … I’m much more comfortable in this, and much more joyful, and I feel much more like myself.”
Now, it’s all about figuring out what’s next, and Jepsen is excited by the possibilities. “I called my A&R guy and asked if it it would be cool if I went away for three years and came back with a 45-song deluxe edition. And he was like that’s super weird — you can’t do that. I fought for it for a while before I had enough people tell me, yeah, this won’t ever happen so you need to let it go.”
Even after giving up the dream of disappearing from the spotlight, Jepsen seems eager to get back to work. Following a few dates in Japan, she’s now on a six-week Canadian tour opening for native radio-rockers Hedley, an indicator of the still uneasy position Jepsen occupies within the world of pop. Then, after a quick hop back to Japan, it’s straight to Sweden to begin working on her next album.
“I don’t want to wait three years like I did after Kiss,” she explains. “I feel inspired. I think why I took so long last time was that I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I’m not sitting here saying this is the plan, but I feel really ready to find it now and I don’t feel like I need a hiatus. I feel fired up. My dream would be to hopefully get something out at the top of 2017 that I felt right about. But if it didn’t feel right, then I would wait. That’s the one thing … I don’t want to rush.”
On some level, it feels like Jepsen’s telling me what she knows I want to hear. She acknowledges where the rollout for E•MO•TION may have gone wrong, but is happy with how it turned out. She wants to go away for three years and return with some ambitious project, but also doesn’t want to disappear altogether. She feels inspired and fired up and ready to go, but also doesn’t want to rush. Jepsen is covering all sides of the equation, playing every angle. Being pragmatic. None of these are properly conflicting ideas, but they do speak to a mind that’s never completely made up, to someone who is still trying to balance her desires with what everyone else is asking from her. The many contradictions of Carly Rae Jepsen.
So, looking back, how do you think it all went? “It went better than I could have imagined.”
sis it was an amazing album but don't play yourself, the era went pretty badly
if you can even call it an era
Highest selling foreign song of 2015 in Japan + over 100k (physical only) copies sold of the album in Japan alone + over 200m streams on Spotify -Japan doesn't use it- for I Really Like You + 400k of IRLY sold in the UK + several certifications = pretty good honestly.
It could have gone better? Yes. But it didn't do bad. She simply has different markets if compared to most of western pop stars.
That’s part of Carly Rae Jepsen’s appeal, the reason why it’s so easy to get lost in her songs. We can see ourselves reflected in her utterly benign, everyday romantic anxieties, and actually believe the singer on the other end is experiencing them too. When her public persona lets her down and the promotional machine behind her sputters, Jepsen has the music to fall back on. And the tracks on E•MO•TION are undeniable genius, propulsive and sparkling with nuance and vitality, and they build a narrative around Jepsen better than anything that could be constructed.
“To be really honest, I was gunning more for ‘Run Away With Me,” Jepsen admits. “But I was unanimously across the board getting told ‘I Really Like You’ was it, and I was like … Alright, as long as we do “Run Away” second.
“I called my A&R guy and asked if it it would be cool if I went away for three years and came back with a 45-song deluxe edition. And he was like that’s super weird — you can’t do that. I fought for it for a while before I had enough people tell me, yeah, this won’t ever happen so you need to let it go.”
