Curiosity (album)

## Singles

1. Call Me Maybe
Released: September 20th 2011

**Curiosity** was the intended sophomore studio album from Carly Rae Jepsen, set to be released on February 14th 2012 through 604 Records, exclusively in Canada.

The project was instead cut down to a six track extended-play; it was originally intended to feature 11 tracks in total, including Call Me Maybe.

## **Writing and development**

#### **My Beating Heart**

Since the release of her Tug of War in 2008, Jepsen would continue writing new music, and by the beginning of 2010 would have a total of 55 songs written.  These songs would be considered for her next project, which had began to materialise in January 2010, alongside collaborator Ryan Stewart. At the time, this was under the original working title of My Beating Heart. Carly continued working on the project under its original title as late as July 2010.

#### **Curiosity & new project direction**

Across its early development, the original concept for the project was to continue in the same direction as Carly's previous release, Tug of War, pulling from "cozy folk-pop" influences such as that of Natalie Imbruglia.  However, that was until the album's new title track, Curiosity, was written, sometime in 2010. Carly stated how the song had "come rushing out differently," and was decidedly "very bubblegum pop", a notable shift from the folk inspirations of her previous work and the material written for the new album.

Over the course of eight months in 2010, Carly and producer Ryan Stewart questioned how the song was going to fit onto the album, and they wondered if she could take on the new direction for the project. Eventually, Carly concluded that the album would feature both pop and folk influences in equal parts, describing it as a "pop-folk collaboration".

#### **Deciding on the album's title**

Though it's unclear when exactly the decision was made to rename the project, Jepsen states the new title represented how she was 'curious' about trying something new, which is how the name was decided upon; "For me, the title has a double meaning." she explained.  As of January 2011, the album had gone through three different name changes.

#### **Development through 2010 - 2011**

Throughout 2010, the project remained in development and Jepsen would begin to tease songs such as Alice In Wonderland and Katie's Kicking in the Corner through social media and in a series of live performances.  Over the course of a month in 2010, the project's lead single Call Me Maybe was developed alongside collaborators Tavish Crowe and Josh Ramsay. Originally written as a folk song with Crowe, Ramsay helped to reconstruct the track and develop it as a pop song instead.

In 2011, Jepsen worked with songwriters Tino Zolfo and Joe Cruz on writing new material for the project. However, their contributions to the album wouldn't see an official release until being reworked for Emotion later in 2015, in the form of Warm Blood (originally written as Falling For You) and I Didn't Just Come Here to Dance (formerly known as Came Here to Dance).

Carly would meet with Ryan Stewart in the studio multiple times that year to work on the album, collaborating on all album tracks except Dear Julien and Call Me Maybe; the former being co-penned by Canadian producer Kevin Maher. Work on the album would continue up until September 2011, around the release of Call Me Maybe in Canada, when mixing on the last song of the album was completed.

Jepsen states a total of 35 songs were written for the project, with the majority of the album made at Stewart's Wine Cellar Studios in Vancouver, then mixed by Dave Ogilvie at Mushroom Studios.  Similarly, Carly described how she had "at least three album's worth" of material written for Curiosity, and had let her friends and family pick which ones made the final cut for the album during a listening party she had organised.

## **Announcement and release**

#### **Album announcement**

In November 2011, it was first reported that Jepsen's second studio album would be titled Curiosity and expected to release in 2012. The album was officially announced on January 12th 2012 after being teased earlier that day. On January 24th, Curiosity was made available for pre-order via iTunes Canada.

#### **iTunes Canada previews**

Alongside the album pre-order, snippets of the then-upcoming songs would be made available to preview on iTunes Canada. Of all the cut songs from the album, Dear Julien is the only one to have its iTunes snippet later resurface online. This is because the preview was mistakenly left on the iTunes servers, instead of being deleted alongside the rest of the album when it was reformatted.

#### **Album scrapped and reformatted**

The full-length Curiosity album was cut down to just six tracks by 604 Records and reformatted into an extended-play on February 8th 2012, just days prior to its intended release date. The album was scrapped due to the rising popularity of Call Me Maybe - at the time, Jepsen was in talks with School Boy and Interscope Records to sign under the label. As the deal was finalised, it was decided to reformat Curiosity into an extended-play to give Call Me Maybe "time to grow", before an official international album release would come later in the year.

Jepsen discussed the Curiosity album in a 2015 interview, stating "I was planning to put out my second release, we had this whole album ready to go. Then, the song [Call Me Maybe] took off, and everyone funnelled in with, 'Do you want to come down to LA and meet some writers here?' It was my dream to do that, so I threw all those songs into the abyss and went and started new. I had the security blanket that if I didn’t write anything I loved, I could go back and release bits of that album."  Ultimately, Curiosity would remained scrapped, as Carly would instead work on her then-upcoming second studio album Kiss in Los Angeles, released in September 2012.

#### **Original release plans and delay**

During its development, Jepsen originally planned to release Curiosity a year earlier, on Valentine's Day in 2011, which ultimately never happened. In 2012, Carly explained this was because she was "a little nervous" following-up Tug of War and about "the idea of the sophomore being a little 'less-than' because it's so rushed." She stated, "I wanted to give myself the time to not feel that pressure".  Another set of plans saw Jepsen similarly hoping to release the first single from the album for Valentine's Day 2011, with the album to follow "soon after", though this likewise failed to come to pass.

## **Album cover**

The Curiosity album cover was photographed by Vanessa Heins and designed by Re:form [AVW]. It features Jepsen squatting down in the middle of the composition with her her and album title in block capital letters above her. For the release of the Curiosity extended-play, the cover art was adjusted add 'EP' to the name of the project.

## **Singles**

#### **Call Me Maybe**

The only single from the album, Call Me Maybe, was released on September 20th, 2011 through 604 Records exclusively in Canada and would serve as the intended lead single for the project. After the release of the now-reformatted extended play, Jepsen was signed to School Boy and Interscope Records in February 2012, who distributed the song worldwide as the lead single for her new second studio album Kiss instead.

## **Gallery**

* *§ Visit the Curiosity gallery: Gallery • Photoshoot Gallery*

## **Album credits**

#### **Writing and production**

* Carly Rae Jepsen - songwriting (1-3, 5-11)
* Ryan Stewart - songwriting, production (1-2, 5, 6, 11); production (4, 7, 8, 10)
* Tavish Crowe - songwriting (3)
* Josh Ramsay - songwriting, production (3)
* Joni Mitchell - songwriting (4)
* Larry Jepsen - songwriting (5)
* Kevin Maher - songwriting, production (9)
* Stuart John Hobson - songwriting (10)

#### **Performance**

* Carly Rae Jepsen - vocals (all tracks)
* Josh Ramsay - instrumentation (1)
* Ryan Stewart - instrumentation (2-6)
* Kevin Maher - instrumentation (9)

#### **Technical**

* Dave Ogilvie - mixing
* Gene Grimaldi - mastering
* Josh Ramsay - engineering
* Ryan Stewart - engineering
* Zach Blackstone - mix assitance
* Brock McFarlane - mix assitance
* Jeremy Patch - mix assitance
* Nik Pesut - additional editing

#### **Overview credits**

* Simkin Artist Management - management
* Jonathan Simkin / 604 Records - A&R

#### **Album cover credits**

* Re:form [AVW] - album cover design
* Vanessa Heins - photography

## **Navigation**

* Curiosity
* Discography

## **References**

1. ↑ "Curiosity by Carly Rae Jepsen - Pre-order Curiosity on iTunes" iTunes Canada, January 30th, 2012. Retrieved July 22nd, 2021 - Archived via WayBack Machine
2. ↑ @carlyraejepsenOn the plane I wrote a list of songs written since Tug of War. Over 55 options for album 2. Who wants to come to my voting party? January 28th 2010 - via Twitter
3. ↑ @carlyraejepsen First day in the new studio with Ryan has me physced for album #2! January 26th 2010 - via Twitter
4. ↑ @carlyraejepsen Record number two is brewing. My Beating Heart. July 16th, 2010. Retrieved April 4th, 2021. - Via Twitter
5. ↑ @carlyraejepsen My Beating Heart....! March 21st 2010 - via Twitter
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Biography | The Official Carly Rae Jepsen Site" Carly Rae Jepsen, May 3rd 2012 - archived via WayBack Machine
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Liz Call Me Maybe: CG's Interview with Carly Rae Jepsen" College Gloss, March 2012
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 The Star Scoop 'Carly Rae Jepsen Interview: “To be completely honest with you…”' The Star Scoop, January 4th 2011.
9. ↑ @carlyraejepsen "I'm Alice in Wonderland.....LOVE is calling. I know why they call it falling." June 13th 2010 - via Twitter
10. ↑ @carlyraejepsen "Hoping @JoshRamsay will fly home soon. "Kt's Kicking in the Corner" needs his musical touch." May 8th 2010 - via Twitter
11. ↑ Table Manners with Jessie Ware Spotify - S6 Ep 3: Carly Rae Jepsen Spotify, May 2019.
12. ↑ @carlyraejepsen "Recording some vocals with Joe Cruz! " I didn't just come here to Dance."" January 14th 2011 - via Twitter
13. ↑ @carlyraejepsen "We are mixing THE LAST SONG OF THE ALBUM TODAY. Somebody pinch me please." September 20th 2011 - via Twitter
14. ↑ @carlyraejepsen "working on the LAST song of my second record. What a feeling." September 2nd 2011 - via Twitter
15. ↑ @carlyraejepsen "CURIOSITY comes this Valentines Day <3". January 12th 2012 - via Twitter
16. ↑ @carlyraejepsen "BIG announcement today....". January 12th, 2012 - via Twitter
17. ↑ @604Records "You can now pre-order Carly Rae Jepsen's new album "Curiosity" on iTunes featuring the hit single "Call Me Maybe".". January 24th 2012 - via Twitter
18. ↑ Lipshutz, Jason 'Call Me Maybe' Tops the Hot 100 Billboard, June 22nd 2012.
19. ↑ Lanksy, Sam "Carly Rae Jepsen on the Song She Wrote About Mike Tyson That Didn't Make Her New Album". Time Magazine. August 19th 2015.
20. ↑ Marchand, Francois 'Curiosity Didn't Kill Carly Rae Jepsen". Vancouver Sun, February 17th 2012 - archived via WayBack Machine