Carly Rae Jepsen on Glastonbury: I'll get lost like a child

Carly Rae Jepsen is hastily repacking her bag for Glastonbury.

Not unreasonably, she'd initially opted for wet weather gear, having heard about the festival's reputation for floods, mud pits and sunken tents.

But she's just been informed the UK's been in the middle of a heatwave, despite some torrential downpours.

"Oh really? Well, I'm packing all my sundresses now," she laughs down the phone from her home in Los Angeles.

"I'm so excited for the festival. I've heard so many iconic, wonderful things. So I want to come prepared."

This will be the pop star's first Glastonbury, and she's coming armed with new music - a single, called Shy Boy, which will be released on Friday, hours before her early evening set on The Other Stage.

It's a perfect summer anthem, full of sly synths and infectious pop hooks, as Jepsen sings about seducing a wallflower who's the only person not dancing at her party.

"I've always been attracted to the quieter person in the room," she says.

"The one who has all the secrets that are hidden behind closed doors and, as you get to know them, they become more fascinating. Unlike, say, the loudest person at the party."

Casual fans might be intrigued to hear that Jepsen is still making music, let alone playing one of Glastonbury's biggest stages.

Most people remember her as the singer of Call Me Maybe, the best-selling single of 2012, which Billboard magazine once named as having the "greatest chorus of the 21st Century".

If you use the charts as your measuring stick, she's never lived up to that song's success. But her subsequent albums - Emotion, Dedicated and The Loneliest Time - have gained a cult following, particularly among the LGBTQ community.

Those records are rapturous, widescreen explorations of longing and lust, dusted with shimmering 80s synths and big, unguarded emotions.

A self-confessed people watcher, Jepsen is fascinated by the infinite complexities of relationships, whether she's singing about unrequited love (Your Type), late-night trysts (Want You In My Room) or dating app horror stories (Beach House).

Her songs are often situated in the moment where desire is about to explode into action. "Take me! To the feeling!" she declares on one of her most beloved songs, the saxophone-powered Run Away With Me.

Shy Boy exists in the same sweet spot as those earlier songs.

"There's this coquettish kind of bravery I discovered in my teens, a thrill at being the first person to engage a romance," she explains.

"And this is a song about encouraging someone to meet you downtown, out of the blue, and go and have a night of discovery. It's as sweet and as simple as that."

So how does she, the pop star Carly Rae Jepsen, feel about making the first move? Is that something she's done before?

"I think there's something really cool about being confident enough to put yourself out there," she says.

"If the connection happens, that becomes its own beautiful thing - but just saying you're interested is a cool step to take.

"The world needs more of that because, as I've written about extensively, a lot of people are very lonely.

"And if we get comfortable with rejection, and put ourselves out there, and let it fly and see what happens, then there's more fun and adventures to be had."

The single arrives just eight months after her last album, The Loneliest Time - a more introspective record that dwelt on the isolation of lockdown, the death of her grandmother and the end of a relationship ("Go find yourself, or whatever," she snaps with uncharacteristic acidity on one track).

Fans will know that she's a workaholic who writes hundreds of songs for each album, so the speed of the new arrival is no surprise.

What is unusual, however, is that Shy Boy has taken more than a decade to complete.

"Confidentially - well, I guess not confidentially, since this is an interview - but it's a song I've had for a very long time in different forms.

"Honestly, before I wrote Call Me Maybe, I had the little hook whispering around my head. So it's been around since my teenage years. It's kind of crazy, it's been following me for half a lifetime!"

With such a prodigious work rate, Jepsen has taken to releasing "companion" albums that accompany her headline releases, featuring leftovers and offcuts from her recording sessions.

The material often equals the parent album, showcasing her range as a songwriter, with more outré tracks like Fake Mona Lisa given space to shine.

The B Side collections also offer a peek into her writing process.

On 2020's Dedicated Side B, two consecutive songs (Felt This Way and Stay Away) share the same lyric about two friends trying, and failing, to resist their attraction to one another.

But by changing the arrangement, the melody and her vocal delivery, Jepsen gives two completely different readings of the situation.

On Felt This Way, she's vulnerable and hesitant, whispering her confessions under a blanket of muted synths. Stay Away is more forthright, as Jepsen marches in and takes control of the situation. In the only significant lyrical alteration, she demands: "Touch, touch, touch me."

Last year's Loneliest Time album was more focused, with "only" 65 tracks left over when the recording sessions ended. She recently told fans there wouldn't be a Side B album, promising instead "a companion project" further down the line.

Asked if Shy Boy is the start of a new musical era, she replies: "Oh, I always feel like it's the beginning of something new! I'm constantly writing. That's how I exist. Even when I release a song, I'm calling the label with the next idea.

"Where I am in the [album] cycle is a little bit foggy right now, but there's definitely more things on the horizon."

Before she can do any of that, however, there is the small matter of her Glastonbury debut.

"I've heard it's one of those bucket list, lifetime experiences," she says, barely containing her excitement. "If you are a lover of festivals at all, this is in the elite class."

But Jepsen won't get to hang around the festival for too long, as the star has a six-date tour of Japan starting on Wednesday.

"I'm kinda heartbroken because I'm in and out," she says.

"I heard Cat Stevens is playing on Sunday and he's someone I grew up listening to. So if I was allowed to stay, you'd catch me backstage, jumping on with him and trying to do the backing vocals to Moonshadow."

But she will stick around for a couple of hours after her set to soak up the atmosphere before the tour bus beckons.

"My bandmates and I are like, 'All right, let's just pack in everything we can.' Chvrches are coming on after we play, so we'll check them out, then go and explore."

The prospect is already giving her tour manager nightmares.

"I'm such a people watcher, so I feel like, if anything, I'm going to have to have a friend holding my hand, otherwise I'll get lost like a child.

"I'll be distracted by bubbles and then gone forever."

Highlights of Carly Rae Jepsen's set will be broadcast on BBC Three from 19:30 BST on Friday. The full set will be shown on the iPlayer's live feed from The Other Stage at 15:45.