Q&A Mandy Moore

On making music again after becoming one of TV’s biggest stars and why she’s all in on Mayor Pete

- BRITTANY SPANOS

Mandy moore is more famous these days as an Emmyand Golden Globe-nominated actress on the hugely popular family drama This Is Us, but she’s never stopped thinking about the music that came first. Moore, now 35, became a TRL-era superstar at 15 with the bubblegum-pop hit “Candy,” and made a series of more-adventurous, indieinspired albums like 2007’s Wild Hope. But she put music on hold after marrying Ryan Adams; Moore told The New York Times last year that his controlling behavior led her to stop releasing songs. Moore found a new teammate in Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, whom she married in 2018. Together they wrote and recorded Silver Landings, which includes Fleetwood Mac-inspired highlights like “When I Wasn’t Watching,” a sparkling, folky song about personal growth. “I’m looking at the mountains, and it’s a beautiful sunny day with beautiful skies,” she says from her home in L.A. “That’s what I imagined this record to be like.”

Your new song “ Fifteen” makes being thrust into fame at that age sound overwhelming. How do you feel about that time now?