When she meets people, pop singer Carly Rae Jepsen likes to ask what's going on in their love life.
"My friends tease me about it: 'What kind of therapy session is that?' " said Jepsen, whose love-obsessed tunes aren't necessarily autobiographical. "It's not something you usually talk about with strangers."
She has no idea why people open up to her. Maybe, she says, it's because nobody else asks about their love life.
"I think a lot of people are burning to talk about it," said the "Call Me Maybe" hitmaker, who performs Friday at the State Theatre in Minneapolis. "You don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to. But be brave."
Then, without missing a beat, she asked with a giggle: "You wanna tell me about your love life?"
"Sorry," I responded. "I'm asking the questions here. Plus, you've only given me 15 minutes of your time."
So I fired away: Do you think you'll ever settle down — or is an uncertain romantic life better for songwriting?
"That's the question, isn't it? I have every desire to. I'd love to be at that place where the butterflies come from knowing someone in an intimate way 10 years down the line. My mom says she still has that with my stepdad.
"I think I was rather addicted to getting to reinvent yourself for the new relationship. But I'm kind of tired of that, to be honest."
Jepsen's songs tend to be about brand-new love. Or short-term love. Or flirtation.
On her new album "Dedicated," she closes with "Real Love," a good summation of the relationship-themed recording.
"I think I'm at that point in my life where I'm trying to get to the good stuff. The light flirtations are not as fun as they used to be," the Canadian singer said. "I don't want to re-get to know somebody new."
The ironic thing is she co-wrote "Real Love" with her real-life beau, James Flannigan.
"We were new in the relationship. The flirtation was developing between us. It was as cheesy as you could make it, but we're really proud of the song in hindsight."
One of the standout selections on the new record is "Too Much," her current single, whose video features other women dressed like Jepsen with matching blond wigs.
It was written about a friend of Jepsen's who felt stifled in a relationship.
"She was at this party where she was dancing wildly, and she felt beautiful and all the eyes were on her. And her boyfriend walks up to her: 'Can you just chill out?' It was such a simple slap in the face that I wanted to write about it — somebody who lives for the extremes and feels that they're not appreciated or accepted for those reasons."
Forever 23
Jepsen is 33 but seems forever 23 in her songs.
"I feel kind of ageless when I'm writing. I'm not trying to do a young thing or a mature thing," she said. "I think I'm looking for 1940s-type songs. When I'm in the car, I listen to " '40s on 4' " [a Sirius XM channel]. Lyrics that cut straight through it. I love the simplicity. It can be really deep or it can be as light as you need it to be."
Jepsen is best known for 2012's coquettish "Call Me Maybe," a favorite that will ignite any party but soured the singer with its ubiquity.
"There was a time where I was like: ' "Call Me Maybe," get off my back,' " she said. "I'm proud and happy to say I don't feel that way anymore. It's been a gift to my life, and it's brought me to the career I have now."
After studying musical theater at the Canadian College of Performing Arts, Jepsen came in third place on the TV show "Canadian Idol" in 2007. That landed her at 604 Records, the production company of Nickelback singer Chad Kroeger.
After releasing her debut album in 2008, Jepsen cut "Call Me Maybe" for her follow-up. When fellow Canadian Justin Bieber tweeted about the song, it took off. So did lip-synced parody videos featuring various people — including Bieber with Selena Gomez and Ashley Tisdale; Katy Perry; the Harvard University baseball team, and the Miami Dolphins cheerleaders.
"Call Me Maybe" reached No. 1 in the United States and earned single of the year in 2012 in a nationwide poll of music critics.
That same year, Jepsen scored another Top 10 hit with "Good Time," a collaboration with Minnesota's own Owl City, and she made a little noise with a Bieber duet, "Beautiful."
Jepsen's third album, 2015's "Emotion," received much love from critics but didn't make a splash on radio even though she clearly has dedicated fans — 10.3 million followers on Twitter and 1.8 million on Instagram.
Big on collaboration
On her current tour, the singer is mixing new and old songs.
"It was tricky to know how much from 'Emotion' to put out there," said Jepsen, who just started her tour last week. "It's good to have new ones in there. They sort of flow into each other better than I expected. I'm amazed how quickly people have learned the words."
All the songs in her repertoire have been co-written with others, including well-known stars such as Sia, Jack Antonoff, Blood Orange and Haim. For "Dedicated," she co-wrote in Los Angeles, New York, Sweden and even in Nicaragua at a camp for songwriters.
No matter whom she writes with, her songs point in one direction: the hopeful romantic.
"Even when love is not working for me, I do believe in joining the chaos of trying," she said. "Love in all its forms — whether romantically or friends or compadres — is the most important thing.
"As Rufus Wainwright said, 'life is a game and true love is the trophy.' I think that lyric [in 'Poses' in 2001] hit me so hard at a very young age. I've stuck by that as my life's motto."
Twitter: @JonBream • 612-673-1719
