Carly Rae Jepsen's sitting in a London hotel room, staring out of the window at the torrential rain outside.

"I actually like the rain," she says. "I live in LA now, there's too much sun. They all lose their minds if it rains."

"I'm from Canada, and look at my skin," she says, holding out a tiny arm. "I'm like half albino or something. I need the rain, it reminds me of home."

She's in London to promote her new album, Emotion. It's her third album, and follows on from the huge success she had with its predecessor, Kiss, and more specifically, 2011's most addictive earworm, Call Me Maybe.

Emotion was released in Japan in June, at the end of August in North America, and now in Europe. Clearly, global release day, which is supposed to see albums released on the same day all over the world, doesn't mean much to Jepsen.

"I think, because there have been so many releases, I'm just happy to have it out everywhere," she says, looking somewhat relieved.

"There's normally a grace period after you've finished an album where you're waiting to release it, sitting on it for months, but I was past the deadline with Emotion," she says. "It was finished right before it was released in Japan."

Jepsen says she wrote close to 200 songs in the time between Kiss and starting to put Emotion together. Some made the cut, some - sadly by the sounds of it - never will.

"The worst song I wrote was about Mike Tyson," she says. "I was at Justin Bieber's birthday party [she and Bieber share a manager, Scooter Braun], and Mike Tyson was there.

"He was telling this idea of his that pain doesn't really exist, it's just in your mind, and I wanted to try to get it into a song. But it was absolutely awful."

Jepsen says she's used to releasing albums now, and that the pressure is the same as ever, "even when no one was listening", due to her own high standards and a desire to push herself as hard as she can.

Eventually, when reminded of Call Me Maybe's insane success - it's nearing one billion YouTube plays and went to No 1 in 18 countries - she does concede there was slightly more expectation this time around.

"Yeah, there was a bit more pressure because of Call Me Maybe, and the time I took to be away before coming back."

She admits she spent a great deal of effort trying to get away from the song that made her.

"I was deliberately trying to write songs that rebelled against it," she says. "Then I realised I was doing that, and that's not really the right motivation to make another album.

"I checked myself, and that's why I took a break and went to New York to do Cinderella," she adds, referring to the Rodgers And Hammerstein Broadway musical she appeared in for five months. "I needed some more healthy perspective before starting to do something else.

"I knew I had more to me than Call Me Maybe, but everyone that gets famous for one thing gets pigeonholed. From the outside, we think that one thing is their identity, and it's very easy for a person to rebel against that."

After a break, and toying with the idea of making an indie folk album, Jepsen was absolutely sure she still wanted to make pop music; slick, catchy pop music inspired by the Eighties. Emotion is full of it.

Another turning point came when recalling a Cyndi Lauper concert she'd seen in Osaka, Japan, in 2013.

"I was struck by how, when she sang Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, that it could be released today without anything being changed. I have songs from six months ago where I'd change everything."

She started listening to more Lauper, early Madonna and Prince, and began trying to emulate them, without making a period piece or straight-up ripping them off.

"There's something about that era that called to me," she says.

Whatever concerns Jepsen had about writing new material, and whatever pressures there were about following up a global hit record, they're a very different set of worries to the ones she had just a few years ago, before Kiss was released.

She'd released her debut album in Canada but was still working in bars and a coffee shop to make ends meet. One day her dad's secretary saw her busking.

"I needed some more money to pay my electricity bill. It was really embarrassing, but also great because she gave me $20," Jepsen says. "Things weren't working, and I couldn't make any money from music. I was waitressing, and then a song of mine would come on the radio, but I still wasn't earning. When things finally took off, it was unexpected, and I was very grateful."

Looking back, Jepsen says she's very glad she was 26 by the time she had a successful album, as it gave her time to experience normal life, and for fame to hit "at a time when I'm able to deal with it".

"If I'm honest, Call Me Maybe took me on this incredible ride, and it's been so much fun, but I don't think I would want a song that big again. It becomes your whole life and there's not a lot of balance. Near the end, I was very ready for it to calm down."

EXTRA TIME - CARLY RAE JEPSEN

:: Carly Rae Jepsen was born on November 21, 1985, in Mission, British Columbia, and is now based in Vancouver.

:: She has sold around 20 million records worldwide.

:: She hopes to tour the US and Canada this year, and will be back in Europe in 2016.

:: She has a project in the works for Christmas time, but can't reveal what it is yet.

:: Jepsen says she wrote and demoed a 15-track album before making Emotion that is very different to this album, but would like to see it released one day.

:: Carly Rae Jepsen's new album, Emotion, is out now. Find out more at www.carlyraemusic.com.