If Mandy Moore’s early 2000s pop career felt like a pastel-colored ad for Limited Too, her latest musical chapter is more like an NPR Tiny Desk with emotional baggage. And she’s good with that. “Music has always been the thing I’m most passionate about,” Moore tells me. “But I never found the same degree of success with it as acting… so it kind of felt like I had the ultimate freedom.”
That freedom turned into In Real Life, the quick follow-up to her 2020 comeback Silver Landings—quick, of course, if you ignore the whole “global pandemic and also I had a baby” thing. “It wasn’t something I put pressure on myself to do,” she says of the new record, written again with husband Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes and producer Mike Viola. “It just… happened.”
Cue the ‘future tripping’—a phrase she uses to describe writing about impending motherhood. “So much has proven true,” she laughs. “Life going from black and white to technicolor? It really does feel like that. Even just going to the grocery store as a family—it’s the best.” If you can imagine Mandy Moore beaming over a child seat in the produce aisle, congratulations, you’ve found her 2022 vibe.
This isn’t a record about baby bottles and sleep schedules, though. Musically, it jumps between styles—by design. “We didn’t go in with a specific sonic direction,” she explains. Instead, she and Taylor leaned into the joys of live recording with a dream team that included Dawes drummer (and brother-in-law) Griffin Goldsmith, bassist Sebastian Steinberg, and the Lucius crew.
Gone are the days of label-mandated songs handed down like cafeteria food. “Back then, you’d get a track from some incredible demo singer and basically karaoke your way through it,” she shrugs. “Now, it’s puzzle piecing together a sound with people I love and trust.”
Still, don’t expect her to ignore the past completely. She’s bringing “Candy” on tour—yes, really. “Let’s be honest, I’m not sure anyone wants to represent the whole catalog,” she says, smiling. “But I didn’t write those early songs, and I still think they’re good pop songs. When you have incredible musicians playing them, anything can sound good.”
That tour, by the way, is her first in 15 years. “I’m just hoping it’s like riding a bike,” she says, noting that her toddler is coming along for the ride. “It’s going to be a fun family vacation—hopefully not crazy.”
The timing couldn’t be more poetic. While gearing up to hit the road, Moore was also saying goodbye to the most emotionally exhausting gig of her career: This Is Us. Her portrayal of Rebecca, a character she aged from 25 to 85 over six seasons, gave her plenty of emotional whiplash—especially in the final episodes. “I was saying goodbye to the job, the character, the friends I’d made, all while filming the character’s literal death,” she says. “I had to get the tears out beforehand, just to be present.”
She didn’t write the ending, but says it was perfect. “That whole last episode was a tribute to Dan Fogelman’s mom. The train analogy, the people from your past greeting you—I mean, I hope it’s like that for all of us in the end.”
If playing a mother for six years made her ready to be a mother, Mandy’s not exactly arguing. “I think it did help shape how I thought about family,” she says. “It activated something in me that had been dormant. I realized—I miss singing. I miss performing live.”
So she’s doing both now. Singing about motherhood, touring with a band of musical ringers, and somehow managing to make peace with her teenage pop stardom. There may not be a better metaphor for her entire career arc than singing “Candy” with Mike Viola, Taylor Goldsmith, and Sebastian freaking Steinberg behind her.
“It’s the craziest gift of a life,” she says. “And I don’t take any of it for granted.”
Listen to the interview above and then check out the videos below.
