E-mail a friendMandy Moore
airdate June 1, 2009
As a child, Mandy Moore spent much of her time exploring her love of performing. She went on to become one of the most versatile artists of her generation, pursuing interests in music and film. Her platinum albums launched her into stardom, and a lead turn in the film A Walk to Remember made audiences take notice of her big-screen presence. Moore's film credits include Because I Said So and License to Wed, and her '07 CD, "Wild Hope," marked her debut as a songwriter. "Amanda Leigh" is her newest album.
Singer-actress performs a song from her new CD. (4:27)
Full interview. (14:16)
Mandy Moore
Tavis: Pleased to welcome Mandy Moore back to this program. The talented singer-actress is out with a new CD called "Amanda Leigh." In just a few minutes she's going to perform a song from the new disk, but first, here now some of the video for the single, "I Can Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week."
[Clip]
Tavis: I've always known you, Mandy, to be such a nice person. (Laughter) When I heard that song, I said, "That can't be Mandy, talking about breaking somebody's heart any day of the week." What kind of pronouncement is this?
Mandy Moore: Oh, I had to find some edge. Yeah, trying to be a little sassier now. I'm 25, I figure now's the time. (Laughter) Why not?
Tavis: That's how you come out - "I Can Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week."
Moore: Of course. (Laughs)
Tavis: Other than records, what you been doing since I last saw you? Dating anybody?
Moore: No, not really. Nothing going on. (Laughter)
Tavis: Nothing going on?
Moore: No, no. No, I got married; actually, since I saw you last.
Tavis: Congratulations.
Moore: Thank you very much.
Tavis: How's married life?
Moore: Really no different, but wonderful, yeah, I love it.
Tavis: Does it change your perspective about your music? And I ask that because you said - you were joking earlier about being a little edgier, a little sassier, you're 25 now, you're married now. Does that have an impact on your craft at all?
Moore: I think it will. As far as, like, this record in particular, not much. I don't think that there was really much of a shift at the point that I was writing the record last year and subsequently recording it. But I foresee, like, forging ahead. It'll definitely inform the choices I make and the type of music I write.
It's nice to have that sort of support at home to be able to run creative ideas by him and whatnot.
Tavis: You write a lot of your stuff. How has - the marriage notwithstanding - how have you seen your writing change over these seven, eight records?
Moore: Well, I just sort of started writing the last record, "Wild Hope," and then with "Amanda Leigh," I guess the progression just comes organically and naturally with growing up, so time definitely factors in. But just having a better understanding of myself and the world around me - going on tour, actually, with the last record really informed, too, the type of music that I wanted to write.
Because there was something about the idea of knowing what I was getting myself into, performing the songs night after night after night on the road. But other than that it's like you just sort of take what life gives you and that's what you write about.
Tavis: That wasn't your first tour, though, your last record.
Moore: Well, it was my first proper tour with a band and the whole schlep across the country on a bus, so it felt like the first tour, sure.
Tavis: You take what or you took what from that experience?
Moore: I took an undying sort of, like, passionate love for performing live. I always really loved it, and I loved the little bits and bobs and opportunities that I'd had had over the years, but it really solidified to me, as an artist and a performer, that's the type of career I wanted to have - to be able to make music and then take it on the road. Everything else was just icing on the cake.
Tavis: What's the challenge - and I'm asking these questions now so I can put this tape in my collection, (laughter) so when you come back like 15, 20 years from now and you're sick of touring and you're tired of traveling the world -
Moore: You can bring this out.
Tavis: And schlepping around the - yeah. I'm going to pull this tape out about how you were so excited -
Moore: Enthusiastic about it.
Tavis: - after your first tour. What was the challenge for you of being able to get up every night, vocally, energy-wise? What's the challenge of getting up every night for the first time, doing this every day?
Moore: I think for me the biggest challenge was always sort of getting past the nerves of being in my head all day, thinking about the performance that evening. Being able to just sort of get past that, enjoy my day and walk onstage when the time was right and just be in the moment.
Tavis: So you were processing every day what was happening that night.
Moore: I was. It was the pressure that I sort of put on myself, and I still deal with that, to a certain degree. I found myself truly loving the opportunity to have a fresh audience each night to sort of try new things with and new music with, and I loved my band and it was a great group of friends that I had on the road with me. So everything else was smooth sailing.
Tavis: Tell me why you named this CD as you did.
Moore: Amanda Leigh is actually my given name - my legal name. But I've always been Mandy, so Amanda Leigh was sort of - I don't know, I guess in a way like I was taking my name back. Because the only connotation I have with it is my parents being upset with me. It's the only time I ever really heard Amanda Leigh.
So now I'm going to own it and assign a new - just a better definition when I think of it. But I think it's reflective of where I am in my life and just that sort of true sense of self that I think the music's at right now as well.
Tavis: I have two friends - I have more than two friends. (Laughter) For the sake of this conversation I have two friends who are grown now and like you, their entire lives they've been called by their nicknames. I'm not going to call their names on television but one of them, he's okay with me calling him by his nickname; his wife goes berserk.
Moore: Really?
Tavis: She'll put her finger in your face - "That's not his name, his name -" I almost said it. (Laughter) But I cannot call him by his nickname. I have another friend, it's not his wife, it's him. He wants to be taken more seriously now so he wants to be called by his given name and not by his nickname.
Moore: Interesting.
Tavis: So I raise all that to ask whether or not any of this has to do with you just being tired of being called Mandy.
Moore: No, no, not necessarily, and I don't assume there will be a point in time where I want to be referred to as Amanda.
Tavis: Even when you're 50 or 60, you still want to be called Mandy?
Moore: Maybe that's when I'll sort of take that deviation and shift in life. But no, I like being Mandy. It's all I've ever known, but I just thought it was proper to sort of name the record that.
Tavis: Tell me more about the record. What's on this, and how does this distinguish from the other projects you've done through the years, other than the great photo. That's a great cover, by the way.
Moore: Thank you very much.
Tavis: I love the photo. Before I even saw the record I saw the big story in "USA Today" or something.
Moore: Thanks.
Tavis: I was, like, man, what a - I had to look twice, "What a great picture of Mandy."
Moore: Thank you, I appreciate that. I guess the record as a whole, I was sort of - I wrote it with my friend Mike Viola who I'll be playing with later, but we sort of were going for a fun, sunny, California pop record, like, sort of '70s influenced. I listen to a lot of, like, old McCartney and Wings and Joni Mitchell and CSNY and Todd Rundgren, and so I think it's just an amalgamation of all of those influences on the record.
Tavis: So if you're listening to that stuff, you go into a studio and you produce it, the sound that you're trying to create, how does this differ from the other projects?
Moore: Well, initially I wanted to record it in my house but I thought my neighbors would probably not take to that too kindly. So we ended up doing it in a basement of a house in Boston, our buddy's house in Boston. I think we were also pretty keen to keep the - to sort of achieve the sound of all of the stuff that the music was influenced by.
I don't think anything on the record was made before, like, '76, in terms of equipment and the instruments that were used. Everything was great, vintage gear. But yeah, I don't know, we were just very careful to make sure that there was a specific palette on the record, too.
Like the song that you just heard, "I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week," there's clavinet on that, but there's clavinet sort of sprinkled on a couple of other songs. So there is a common thread throughout the record.
Tavis: So the choice to do it in a basement when you could be in a studio that gives you the sound, the quality, all the engineers, the sound quality doesn't suffer from being in the basement when you're doing something like this?
Moore: Not at all. I think we've sort of reached the day and age where you can make quality-sounding music just about anywhere if you have the right equipment and the wherewithal. That certainly was the case, I think, with this record. This album in particular was the best recording experience I've ever had.
Tavis: The best?
Moore: Yes, the best. The intimacy of being in the room basically with my friend Mike and our engineer friend Ducky, it was the three of us like the Three Musketeers, forging ahead making this music every day for a month. It was just the sort of summer camp experience, really.
Tavis: Sounds like it, with a guy named Ducky.
Moore: With a guy named, Ducky, of course, how could you go wrong? (Laughter)
Tavis: Mandy Moore's new CD, properly titled "Amanda Leigh." Got to get it to add it to your collection if you are Mandy fans as we are around here. Mandy, nice to see you. Congrats on the record, on the marriage, on all that good stuff.
Moore: Thank you very much.
Tavis: Come see us again.
Moore: Anytime, thank you.
Tavis: My pleasure to have you here. Up next, Mandy performs a song from the new CD. You don't want to miss that - stay with us.
From her new CD, "Amanda Leigh," here is Mandy Moore accompanied by Mike Viola, performing the song "Merrimack River." Enjoy.
Back to June 1, 2009