Carly Rae Jepsen will be performing for the first time on Saturday Night Live this weekend with host Michael Keaton. Most recently, she dropped the Tom Hanks and Justin Bieber-featuring video for her single "I Really Like You" with a new album on the way. In a new interview with Radio.com, she talks about what it was like having her hit "Call Me Maybe" become ubiquitous, among other topics.
"Even I was sick of hearing myself on the radio. It was just too big at that point," she said, explaining her decision to head to Broadway and off the airwaves. "So, I said, 'Let's just go out and be Cinderella for a while."
She explained that the role was a childhood dream for hers, but that she is now ready to be a pop star again. However, she took two years to write this upcoming record.
"I just kind of took some time to take some time with it," she said. "I'd rather come back with quality not quantity. I didn't want to push new songs out just to push them out."
Her vision with this album is to become this generation's Cyndi Lauper, for whom she opened up at Japan's annual Supersonic Festival in 2013.
"She had an oxygen tank and someone holding an umbrella and putting 70 cold cloths on her and she was a rock star," Jepsen recalled of one hot day in Osaka. "These melodies, her voice, the way it cut through all of the pop of today in my head, I was like, 'I need to latch onto this, there's something here that needs to come back in a big way.' Just seeing how these songs stood the test of time....I would release 'Girls Just Want To Have Fun' today! I don't even think I'd change the production."
That '80s style influenced her new record, but she hopes that her sound becomes timeless as well.
"I want to make, music that does stand the test of time," she says. "I'm not making a purely '80s album, I'm making something new with it."
She said that she teamed up with a long list of producers and songwriters to tap into her new sound, including Jack Antonoff, Tegan and Sara, Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij, Ariel Rechstaid, Dev Hynes, Greg Kurstin, The Cardigan's Peter Svensson and more.
Jepsen said she wrote 250 songs for the album but has already cut it down to 22 possible album tracks with an end goal of 11 songs.
She's been hosting listening parties at her home to help her narrow down the best tracks.
"I seduced them with food wine and would be like, 'Here's a ballot, we're going to listen to some stuff, you cannot put your name down and just tell me what you love and what you hate, feel free to be candid,'" she said. "I find that to be the most helpful."
The as-yet-untitled album will follow up 2012's Kiss.
Check out her SNL promo below, and look out for her performance on Saturday.
