"It's been a cool day today," Carly Rae Jepsen, calling in from Los Angeles, says casually. "I ran into RedFoo from LMFAO at the airport, and we've been writing a song together today. Over the phone." 

This is Jepsen's reality in June 2012 - running into electro-pop stars and concocting spur-of-the-moment collaborations during downtime between interviews about the No. 1 song in the country and recording sessions for her suddenly highly anticipated second album. Last year, Jepsen was a modera...