Pop star Carly Rae Jepsen first hit it big thanks to the infectious "Call Me Maybe," but very soon branched off into other projects, including a 2014 run in a Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. Now she's back to music. Her stellar, synth-pop-leaning new album, Emotion—which features producers like Shellback, Dev Hynes and Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij—is a glorious, faithful homage to ’80s Top 40.
Of all the collaborators you worked with on Emotion, which one stretched you the most as a musician or songwriter? I don't feel like there was anyone who wasn't aware of the vision and thoughts I had about how I wanted this album to turn out. Each of them brought with them their own way of going at music, and it was lovely. But I wouldn't say there was one person who really stood out among them. I was really fortunate to work with a whole ton of people who were really getting it. I did a lot of discovering in order to find these people for the album. I worked with a lot of people who weren't necessarily the right match, and then when I found the people that were my friends, and also creatively on the same space as me, and go about writing the same way that I do, that’s when the album really started to click.
What made you click with the collaborators with whom you did work? There had to be a joint, shared love of the ’80s, because I did want to have an ’80s influence on the album. I write a lot of songs before I come into session, and I'll share ideas that maybe are missing a bridge or I'm like, "Everything feels right, but what do you think about this?" or, "Can we try a new production on this, because I had it produced a couple years ago and it doesn't feel right yet?" If they had a vision for that idea, and could take it to a place I wasn't able to, I was always really impressed by that. I also feel like I got to work with some like-minded writers, especially in Sweden, who really go at starting a song, and then stepping away from it and coming back and reworking it. Maybe that takes two or three visits to the song, but they're not afraid to put in that extra work. I am a very much perfectionist with wanting songs to feel completely right, so I bonded with that type of thinking. I ended up finding there were a few different people who went at music the same way I went at music, and that was what bonded us together and made it feel like the right collaboration.
When you have a good back and forth, you can make the music better. Yeah, I think there needs to be [an agreement] that both of you are in this to get the best possible song. It's not about ego; it's not about it needing to be your idea or their idea. It becomes a shared greater good, whatever ends up working. I learned a lot by writing with different people who go at it in different ways. I think the Swedes especially go at melodies first, and I'm generally one that comes from a place of natural inspiration, and then I go in and I like to dig at it and chip away and try and make it better. A lot of these people were offering great challenges by being like, "What if you tried this? What if you tried that?" At first I'd really rebel at the idea, and then I would give it a go, and try, and sometimes that got me to a place I wasn't expecting to, and I was grateful to them for that.
You mention the ’80s—in addition to sonic similarities, Emotion feels very much like a throwback to that decade's Top 40, in that the album is geared to all age groups, from teens to adults. The ’80s Top 40 appealed to everyone. When you were making the record, how conscious were you of creating something that did have multi-generational appeal? That was definitely a goal in mind that I wanted to have a pop album of maturity, and that I wanted to be able to have the songs I really like, to use an example of a younger, triter concept. But I wanted it to still be knowing and fun. It was important to me that these songs did have a hint of the ’80s, mostly because I was attracted to the sounds I was hearing from the ’80s. I'm a big lover of pop music, undeniably so, and there was some quality to that era of songwriting and production that I wanted to experiment with myself.
They have such timeless characteristics, too. You can hear a song, and it might be 30, 35 years old, and it still sounds fresh, even though you've heard it hundreds of times. I think that's exactly the epiphany I had. When I was in Japan, I saw Cyndi Lauper play. I was side stage for her entire concert. What struck me was that songs of hers—"Girls Just Want to Have Fun," "Time After Time"—these are songs I would put out as-is, and I wouldn't even change the production. For pop especially, it's really hard to find many songs that stand the test of time, where you're blown away by the fact that nothing really needs to be changed.
Did you get to meet Cyndi Lauper? I'd cry if I met her, I think. (Laughs.) You're with me then. She's the icon of all icons for me, and a great example of an incredible, long career. Longevity in this business is something to be admired. I did meet her that day, she waved at me and talked to me backstage, but when we really got to meet each other was a couple months down the line, actually just this last year she was honored into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and I got to inaugurate her into that. I got to perform "Time After Time" in front of her and give the speech to welcome her onstage. I think in my career when people are like, "What do you think is the best moment you have?" I'm like, "Well, it's not really to do with me, but I met Cyndi Lauper, and I got to give her this great honor, and that's probably No. 1 for me." (Laughs.)
"Time After Time" is her iconic song. I'd be so nervous I'd be throwing up. Talk about intimidating—singing that song anyways, it's almost untouchable. There's a couple songs like that in the world, that's definitely one of them. [And] then doing it in front of her. But she was so kind and so sweet, exactly the type of person you imagine her to be.
Did being on Broadway and living in New York affect the way you approached your music afterwards? I would say, in hindsight, yes. The goal for me was to get out of my world and bubble that I had been in in LA and ever since "Call Me Maybe" had hit. There was this touring motion I wanted to take a break from. I had been writing continuously since I turned [2012's] Kiss in, but I hadn't found it yet; I didn't know what I wanted to do. The one stubborn stand I was taking against everybody was that I wasn't going to put anything out until it felt right. I kept working at it, but nothing was working yet for me.
When I moved to New York and took this hiatus to take on a different project, it inspired something. All of a sudden I couldn't stop writing. I was writing in between shows; I was writing in the mornings and then going to do Cinderella at night, and sometimes booking a late-night session afterwards to go and try a harmony on it or something. Letting go of that pressure of a timeline and also getting to live in a different reality for a while was really, really helpful.
You're going to play Frenchy in Grease Live in the new year. How have you been prepping for that role? I have my script on the road, and I've met the group involved, the director and the cast, and they all seem really incredible. It'll be two months straight of committing to, almost like Cinderella was, a completely different project for a while. I'm really looking forward to it—she has so much sass and comedy to that character, I think it'll be really new and fun for me.
Since you're playing Vegas to ring in 2016, do you have any New Year's resolutions? I always have the same resolution—that I'm going to start yoga—and I never do. (Laughs.) I hear good things—that it helps you meditate, great for your body, all that good stuff. I don't have the patience for it. I sit in one position for more than 20 seconds, and I want to get up and go do something else.
One of these years, you'll say it and it'll actually happen. You'll make it so. I have a New Year's resolution to not lie about my resolution to do yoga. (Laughs.)
Do you have any special plans for the Vegas show? Covers? Anything festive? Other than go on as glittery as possible—I feel like it's the one place you really can—my sister and her man are coming down, I've got a whole bunch of friends coming down to it. We're looking to putting on a great show, getting the back-up singers there, too, and all of us are good friends. And getting to party as well. It'll be a wonderful thing.
Anything else you want to add? I recommend that everyone just come and embrace the '80s for a night. I'm going to be going full glitter, so no outfit is too crazy. If you're an '80s baby or if you're just a fan of it, I would encourage you to come dressed to match, and we'll make a night of it.
Carly Rae Jepsen December 31, 10 p.m.; January 2, 8 p.m.; $56-$150. Venetian, 702-414-9000.
