Carly Rae Jepsen thought her boyfriend James Flannigan was "trouble" at first.

Carly Rae Jepsen

Carly Rae Jepsen

The 'Call Me Maybe' hitmaker has been dating the musician-and-producer - who is best known as a member of the pop punk band Stiff Dylans from the movie 'Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging' - for the past two years and has admitted it took her partner "a while" to persuade her that she should be with him.

Speaking on the 'Table Manners with Jessie Ware' podcast, Carly spilled: "He is [a Brit]. We were best friends for like a year, and I always thought he was just trouble, but then he kind of convinced me after a while that we were a good idea, so we've been together for about two years now."

The pair met at a songwriting camp in Nicaragua in the US and their first date was with the 33-year-old pop star's mother Alexandra.

On how they met, she said: "As predictable as it is, he's a musician & producer as well, so we met the usual way at work, and we'd both been invited to a songwriters' camp in Nicaragua."

On their unusual first date, she added: "I think my mum invited him over for dinner at one point when she was in LA with me.

"I was like, OK, cool he's not gonna come, it's like a family dinner, but he arrived and then it felt very date-like. I think our first date was with my mother."

The Canadian star also talked about her new single 'Julien', which although it isn't about her former lover with the name, she confessed she still likes him and joked about always falling for musicians.

Quizzed on who the song is about, she replied: "There's a couple answers to that question. I did date a boy when I was younger named Julien, a French-Canadian guy. We had a wonderful weekend in Quebec City once.

"But this is not like a song where I'm sending a message secretly to Julien, I thought it was such a musical name, and I'd been trying to put it in a song for a while."

Asked if she still likes Julien, she said: "I do, he moved to LA actually, and I think we went to play pool once a couple years back and he's doing great, he's a musician as well. I always fall for musicians. My next song is going to be like, 'don't kiss the producer.'"

Carly previously dated singer-and-producer Matthew Koma, who is now with Hilary Duff, between 2012 and 2015.

Listen to the full episode to 'Table Manners with Jessie Ware' here: www.tablemannerspodcast.com