Mandy Moore Used to 'Apologize' for Her Old Music

Getting personal. On Mandy Moore‘s new album, Silver Landings, she’s more honest and in control of her own sound than she ever has been before.

One track, in particular, titled “Fifteen,” she holds near and dear.

“It’s sort of rumination on coming of age in this industry,” Moore, 35, shares exclusively in the latest issue of Us Weekly. “I think I really apologized for a lot about my early work because I was embarrassed and being a teenager, not having creative control and not fully standing behind some of the choices that were made on my behalf.”

Moore signed with Epic Records in 1999 and dropped “Candy” that year. She was 15 at the time. Now, she’s able to look back and positively reflect on the experience.

While she doesn’t want to “disparage anybody’s musical choices” and feels lucky that some people love her older music, she’s now able to distance herself from her past — and look at it fondly.

“The only reason that I’m here today, 20 years later, is because of 15-year-old Mandy and the music that she was singing and how I started out,” the This Is Us star says. “I love her. She’s a part of me and always will be and I carry her around. It’s important to acknowledge that and have affection for that time of my life.”

Moore was also ready to do things her way — and that’s exactly what happened with this album.

“I didn’t feel like I had to meet anybody’s expectations. If I was going to make music again, I wanted to make it on my own terms — so that’s what I did. I made a pop record the way that I love pop music,” she shares with Us. ” The band and I recorded live on the floor, figured out the arrangements and then we recorded it to tape. Nothing sounds like that anymore! We just didn’t want to do it digitally. It was so much fun, it was challenging and a new experience. I had never made an album like that before but that was kind of our biggest mandate.”

For more from Moore, pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now.

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Silver Landings is available now.

With reporting by Kayley Stumpe

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