By now we have all heard the newest ear bug “Call Me Maybe” by the Canadian singer/song-writer Carly Rae Jepsen.
She was born on November 20, 1985, in Mission, British Columbia.
Since she was a child, music has been a large part of her life.
“My parents and step-parents could tell I was passionate about music,” says Jepsen. “I sang anything I could mimic.”
Her father would play the guitar and sing songs by James Taylor at night, while her mother would teach her Leonard Cohen songs.
Both of her parents were very supportive of her musical interests.
“Music was the way I connected with everyone and my family encouraged that in me,” says Jepsen.
She received her first guitar at the age of seventeen, and attended Canadian College of Performing Arts in Victoria, British Columbia.
Her parents, being educators as well as music lovers, hoped she would become a music teacher.
Jepsen began to sing and perform for small crowds in pubs in the area, and becoming a music teacher seemed less likely.
Jepsen soon tired of the pub scene and wondered what else to do with her life, when her former drama teacher suggested she audition for Canadian Idol in 2007.
“I wasn’t convinced, but my teacher said, ‘The only way that any of these doors are going to open is if you knock on every single one of them. Don’t decide your path. Let it decide you,’’’ Jepson said. “The day of the audition, I remember thinking, ‘I could have a long bath, or I could just go audition.’”
Jepsen auditioned with a song she wrote, and to her dismay, they took the song well and one even offered to sign her to a record immediately.
By the end of the season she had placed third and released her first album Tug of War independently through Fontana/Maple Music in August 2008.
This album brought with it two golden singles, a Canadian Radio Music Awards for Song of the Year, and two nominations for a Juno Award.
After the release of her first album, Jepsen was excited to show the world who she was through her music.
“I definitely wanted to make a pop album,” Jepsen says. “My love affair with pop music has been growing stronger and stronger each year. I’m a bit of a hippy at heart so it’s kind of like flower-child pop. My intention was to make an album that really felt like me and shows what I have to offer the music world. It’s inspired by Robyn and The Cars and it’s all about matters of the heart.”
Even as Jepsen emerged as an artist in Canada, she was virtually unknown to the U.S. music scene when “Call Me Maybe” hit the charts.
Jepsen credits her American fame to Justin Bieber, who began tweeting about her when he heard a particularly upbeat song came on the radio: “Call Me Maybe.”
After Bieber introduced Jepsen to the United States, he got her to quickly sign with Schoolboy Records and Interscope Records.
In her newest album, KISS, Jepsen features many songs about love and break ups, but the stories are not always her own song became a number one hit in more than thirty-seven countries, including in the U.S. where it spent a total of nine weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100.
“I have a life-long fascination with the subject of love,” Jepsen continues. “When I meet people for the first time and we get past the surface-y conversations, I am always dying to know what their ‘love story’ is. Everyone has one. It’s not always happy, but it’s a story, and I like putting it to music.”
When making this album, she collaborated with many artists and producers including Max Martin, Dallas Austin, LMFAO’s Redfoo, Toby Gad, Marianas Trench singer Josh Ramsay, and Cherrytree/Interscope artist Matthew Koma.
“I knew that I had changed as an artist after being on the road with bands like Marianas Trench and The New Cities,” Jepsen says. “I saw the effect they had on the crowd, how they inspired the audience to get up and dance and that appealed to me. I wanted to create that kind of energy with my music. I was also listening to different things, like Robyn, La Roux, and Dragonette, and I just felt a change in myself. I didn’t know how it was going to be accepted, but I couldn’t deny that it was happening.”
She was very grateful for each of the artists help, she had the opportunity to work with Owl City’s Adam Young on his song “Good Time,” which topped the charts at number three just a few weeks ago.
“I’ve been a big fan of Owl City since ‘Fireflies,’” Jepsen says. “I remember seeing Adam perform live in Vancouver and thinking he was brilliant, so when he asked me to feature on the track I was beyond flattered.”
Jepsen has come a long way from small town girl playing in pubs, but her view has always stayed the same; “I just want people to enjoy it,” she says. “I hope it’s music that makes you feel happy and want to sing or dance along. And maybe it will inspire people to be brave in love.”
