{"id":764128,"date":"2026-09-08T16:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T16:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/764128\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T16:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T16:52:11","slug":"carly-rae-jepsen-interview-how-she-became-pops-greatest-innovator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/764128\/","title":{"rendered":"Carly Rae Jepsen Interview: How She Became Pop’s Greatest Innovator"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt\u2019s early afternoon in West Los Angeles and Carly Rae Jepsen<\/a> is a kid again. Dressed in a delicate sheer skirt with bright green socks popping under stiletto heels for her Hollywood Reporter photo shoot, she turns to her stylist to politely verify that she can get her loaned shoes dirty. The millisecond she gets that go-ahead, Jepsen\u2019s jumping into a tree on the deck of The Hollywood Reporter\u2018s headquarters, red hair streaming as she adjusts and mugs for the camera.<\/p>\n

\n\tHer tendency to throw herself into creative endeavors without overthinking has made her the artist she is today, allowing her to sidestep the pitfalls of one-hit-wonderdom. Jepsen shot to fame nearly 15 years ago at the age of 26 when her song \u201cCall Me Maybe\u201d became an early exemplar of modern virality. Living under a rock would hardly have prevented you from hearing the ubiquitous monster hit \u2014 and replaying it in your head ad nauseam. (You\u2019re hearing it now, aren\u2019t you?)<\/p>\n

\n\tNow, 40 years old and just months after the birth of her first child, Jepsen has arrived at a place few might have predicted back then: neither a Taylor Swift-level megastar nor fading into obscurity by limply chasing another pop smash. \u201cWhere I\u2019ve landed now in my career is the sweet spot,\u201d the singer tells THR. \u201cI can live a life, go to the grocery store, have a family, tour music<\/a> that I love and have an audience,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s a very hard-earned, balanced thing that we\u2019ve had to work at.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tInitially released in 2011, \u201cCall Me Maybe\u201d became a global sensation in 2012, earning her two Grammy nominations and a spot atop the Billboard Hot 100. \u201cIn the moment, it was all happening rather fast,\u201d Jepsen says. Her career moves after skyrocketing to success were less strategic than instinctual, she says: \u201cIf I\u2019m being honest, I felt a little voice from inside screaming at me to hold on to why I started.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHer longtime friend and collaborator Tavish Crowe, who co-wrote the breakout song, was there to remind her that \u201cCall Me Maybe\u201d was just a \u201cflavor\u201d of Jepsen\u2019s range as a singer. \u201cI\u2019ve always been blown away by how deep she can go on a song,\u201d he says. \u201cShe\u2019s always pushing the needle of what someone might expect or doing things that feel like they haven\u2019t been done before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWith the hit song came a difficult period of adjustment and self-reflection. \u201cIt was so overnight that I feel like I understand what it must be like for some people who live in that space consistently, and my heart goes out to them,\u201d Jepsen says. Maybe some celebrities feel they\u2019re better at managing sudden success, she muses: \u201cI\u2019m just not very good at it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tFame didn\u2019t just happen to her, it happened to everyone in her orbit. But her main way of processing what happened back then is to simply think back and reflect. \u201cI\u2019m giving shit away, but I don\u2019t care,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOn a future song, that\u2019s coming out after this album\u2026 There\u2019s a song called \u201916 and Rising.\u2019 [It\u2019s] about my coffee shop days and a guy I was dating back then, and what happened as I moved through this,\u201d Jepsen says. \u201c[It\u2019s about] why I couldn\u2019t quite settle for this beautiful life that was ahead of me because I was pining for something that I didn\u2019t quite know what it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGreta Garmel top; The Frankie Shop skirt; vintage shoes.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Mark Griffin Champion<\/p>\n

\n\tSince the release of her breakthrough album, Kiss, Jepsen has kept one foot in the door of mainstream pop success and another in a more avant-garde space. Jepsen\u2019s latest release, Day and Night, is a feat of balance, a double album that reflects the yin-yang equilibrium she\u2019s striven for throughout her post-\u201cMaybe\u201d career. It\u2019s divided thematically into Day, filled with sun-soaked psychedelic pop anthems, and Night, dripping in synth-heavy electropop. Jepsen hadn\u2019t set out to make a bifurcated album; as with many of her most ambitious projects, it grew organically out of a back-and-forth with Crowe. She was heading on a trip to New York and was planning to show him the music she\u2019d been working on. \u201cHe and I share music kind of like brother and sister in a very deep way,\u201d she explains. <\/p>\n

\n\tJepsen presented her friend one song from Day and one song from Night, and he suggested they think of them as contrasting material for a single project rather than two separate albums, as she\u2019d originally imagined. She continued to mull the concept back home in L.A. until one day, driving around the city (once again with Crowe), the idea of Day and Night came to her. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAs we were listening to stuff, it just felt like a song would naturally slot itself into the Night section or the Day section,\u201d Crowe says. \u201cEven before they were fully produced, too, you could still tell.\u201d In the beginning, there were many pushes to divide the songs into two albums, but Jepsen says she \u201cpassionately disagreed\u201d with that idea. \u201cI wanted them together. They felt like two sides of the same thing,\u201d says Jepsen.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe duality of the album mirrored Jepsen\u2019s own upbringing. \u201cI grew up in two different houses because my parents divorced when I was quite young and remarried to incredible stepparents,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\n\tIt was a \u201cvery modern idea of co-parenting,\u201d where she and her brother would switch houses every two days, both within 10 minutes of each other in the town of Mission, British Columbia. Her parents, all four of them, would have monthly meetings to discuss rules for the children. But the houses were very different. Night and day, you might say.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy mom\u2019s a little bit more free spirit, hippie-ish, and my dad\u2019s a little bit more the opposite of that,\u201d she says. \u201cI feel like musically there was a connection. They all love James Taylor, they all love Joni Mitchell, but they also had different flavors in terms of what my stepparents brought to the table with their musical tastes.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tThat duality made its way into Jepsen\u2019s live shows, a mix of hits old and new. She considers it a win that \u201cCall Me Maybe\u201d isn\u2019t the focal point of her concerts anymore, slotted within the set instead of as the closer. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s a place to sit and hold resentment \u2014 what a useless waste of energy,\u201d she says of the obligation to play the song she\u2019s best known for. \u201cIf it\u2019s a calling card that makes a couple of people happy, it\u2019s not really about me anymore.\u201d <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLeft: Vintage bicycle tee; Kimberly Corday skirt; vintage hosiery; Prada shoes. Right: Open24hrs vintage Jean Paul Gaultier top; vintage silk garter belt; Greta Garmel skirt; her own jewelry.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Mark Griffin Champion (2)<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter the whirlwind release of \u201cCall Me Maybe\u201d and Kiss, Jepsen took a break and headed to Broadway. She\u2019d spend her nights doing Rodgers and Hammerstein\u2019s Cinderella, while her days were occupied by her follow-up album, 2015\u2019s Emotion, which would become a critical success. In the clearest indication of her abiding cultural clout, the video for the album\u2019s biggest single, the bouncy earworm \u201cI Really Like You,\u201d featured an ebullient, fully committed Tom Hanks and included a cameo by Justin Bieber. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe album solidified Jepsen as much more than a one-note artist, pushing the boundaries of what mainstream pop could be with risky sonic choices. She didn\u2019t know whether it would be what her legion of fans wanted and, to an extent, didn\u2019t care. In hindsight, she\u2019s thankful for her \u201cobliviousness\u201d to the mechanics of fame and believes she was better off for her relative cluelessness about how to handle it. <\/p>\n

\n\tAmong her most naive assumptions, she says, was that she would continue writing her own material. \u201cAround that time, the idea of you being a pop writer for your own project was sort of like, it was cute,\u201d she explains. \u201cI had to learn how to know who my people were.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tIn another possible sign of her ingenuousness, Jepsen has maintained the same label and team at Interscope for her entire career, something of a rarity in the music industry. She counts herself lucky, gushing about the \u201cincredible relationships\u201d she\u2019s had with her A&R. <\/p>\n

\n\tBut she did make notable changes in her management. \u201cI\u2019ve had some good experiences with people, and I\u2019ve had hard ones too,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s taken a second to figure out the right team for my management, and now I\u2019m happier than I\u2019ve ever been.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tTo anyone who has followed her career, it\u2019s hard not to wonder whether \u201cthe hard ones\u201d is a reference to Scooter Braun, the high-profile former manager and music executive who signed her in the wake of \u201cCall Me Maybe.\u201d There has been plenty of speculation about the circumstances in which they parted ways \u2014 as there has been with several other former Braun clients \u2014 but Jepsen claims to hold no ill will toward him.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Mark Griffin Champion<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI knew that I was on a different journey than he understood,\u201d Jepsen says. \u201cI wanted to do something a little bit less mainstream, and I liked what he had offered, but I didn\u2019t necessarily think it was what I wanted anymore. I felt like it was just going to be a little bit easier to shake hands, walk away and go let my freak flag fly, so to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe singer didn\u2019t leave empty-handed, however. \u201cI took one of his employees with me,\u201d she admits, cheekily. <\/p>\n

\n\tJepsen feels more freedom to explore with her current managers and says Interscope has always done well by her. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say I had complete agency from the beginning, but not because they were trying to take it away,\u201d she explains. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t know how to take it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tThe broad, extensive rollout that Interscope is giving Day and Night is a clear indication that the label trusts Jepsen\u2019s instincts. The album is a collaborative mashup of all her \u201cfavorite people,\u201d as well as newcomers introduced through friends. One of those newcomers is playwright, actor and social butterfly Jeremy O. Harris, who directed the music video for one of the album\u2019s prerelease singles, \u201cDon\u2019t Leave Me on the Dance Floor,\u201d starring Alden Ehrenreich. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Mark Griffin Champion<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShe\u2019s such an artist,\u201d Harris says. \u201cShe understands her audience and her own work incredibly well but is also excited for someone who can show her another lens.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tPeople are lining up to work with Jepsen. Fellow Canadian treasure Jacob Tierney shared<\/a> that he\u2019d been eager to get Jepsen to write an original song for the first season of his hit hockey romance series Heated Rivalry, but it wasn\u2019t in the budget. Jepsen hasn\u2019t heard from him yet about the second season but admits that writing a song for it would be a \u201cdream\u201d for her.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was an incredible show. Ilya is the name of my son. Maybe, not maybe because of that show,\u201d she says, referring to the character played by Connor Storrie. <\/p>\n

\n\tPerhaps the most significant collaboration on Day and Night has little to do with the music. The album was made against the backdrop of one of the most transitional times in Jepsen\u2019s personal life. While making Day and Night, she was falling in love with the man who would become her husband, musician Cole M.G.N., one of her collaborators and a producer on the album. Later in the process, as the album was being mixed, she became pregnant with their son. When it\u2019s suggested in our interview that the album has effectively served as a time capsule for this time in her life, she asks, \u201cCan I steal that?\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t want to say that my album\u2019s only sunshine and rainbows and happiness because if I\u2019ve done my job right, there\u2019s some depth to it,\u201d she says. But she\u2019s not going to lie about how she\u2019s feeling: \u201cI\u2019m the happiest I\u2019ve ever been.\u201d <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Mark Griffin Champion<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story appeared in the Sept. 9 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s early afternoon in West Los Angeles and Carly Rae Jepsen is a kid again. Dressed in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":764129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[219474,6491,96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-764128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-carly-rae-jepsen","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}