Mandy moore: pop's anti-bitch goes back in time

Interview, August, 2003 by Carole King

BY CAROLE KING

CAROLE KING: Hi.

MANDY MOORE: Hi. How are you?

CK: I'm good. You're in Prague?

MM: I'm actually in a small town called Pisek [in the Czech Republic], which is an hour and a half outside Prague.

CK: So what are you doing there?

MM: I'm doing a film here. I'm playing the president's daughter. We're on our third week of shooting.

CK: Cool. Alright, let's jump in. What prompted you to make the Coverage album [in which Moore covers classic songs]?

MM: I guess I did the record for selfish reasons, because the music that's on the album isn't music I grew up listening to. Back then I was a huge musical-theater fan, and so this album is made up of music I've discovered only over the past two years. I feel like a lot of people my age are kind of missing out on it.

CK: That is a great reason. [both laugh]

MM: It was the ultimate karaoke experience. I came up with the concept myself. I went into the studio unbeknownst to the record company and just started doing it. About halfway through recording the album, they found out about it.

CK: That's great. It's funny because I'm not on a label, and I've stayed off labels for that reason. I did my latest album. Love Makes the World, the same way. Rockingale is my own record company, so I didn't have to worry about any of that. It's a great feeling, isn't it?

MM: [laughs] It's a very nice feeling: You can do what you want without a bunch of people stirring the pot and telling you what you have to do.

CK: And now they like the album, right?

MM: Yeah, they like it. I'm charged to get it out there and for people to hear the music. I have to say, I'm more nervous about you, the original artist, hearing the music.

CK: Let's talk about "I Feel the Earth Move" [King's song that Moore covers on her new album]. I want you to know that I'm really. really happy. I love what you did to it: You kept all the integrity of the original, and you added wonderful stuff.

MM: Thank you so much. Oh, my God! [laughs] I just had fun with it. That song, probably of any song on the record, was the most fun to do, and it was the easiest.

CK: When did you first hear Tapestry [King's classic 1971 album]?

MM: I would say probably close to a year ago.

CK: There aren't many people who can say that. [laughs]

MM: I know, I know.

CK: Most people have heard it; most people your age have heard it from their mothers or their grandmothers. [laughs]

MM: I know. But a lot of this music was just not played around my house. Probably the only pop artist I ever heard growing up was Elton John. Everything else was a discovery to me.

CK: Mind you, when I wrote it, I didn't know it was gonna be an important album. It turned out to be an important album because it had an historical context. Men and women have come up to me and said, "I got married to that." But you, hearing it for the first time, weren't hearing it in the historical context that those people had heard it.

MM: Yeah, but it still resonates today. There's just something more organic and more--I can't find the right words--but it's just more special than stuff that's out today. Maybe that's just because it's classic. You listen to these songs, and obviously they're addressing the same things that music is right now, but I think they address them in a more original way.

CK: Tell me about your artistic process.

MM: For me, usually it's about coming up with lyrics first. I'm not the kind of person who can just sit down and say, 'Okay, I'm going to write a song today or in these two hours." It just comes to me at random times-usually after I've been listening to music.

CK: The people at Interview tell me you're dating [tennis star] Andy Roddick. Is this something you want to talk about?

MM: That's fine, we can talk about it. We met in Toronto. I was doing How to Deal [Moore's latest film] there last summer, and he was playing a tennis tournament. It sounds cheesy, but my mom was going anyway to watch some of the matches, and I said, "If you get the opportunity to meet him, invite him to the set." She did end up meeting [Roddick]. And he was like, "I'd love to come." It was just love at first sight.

CK: That's about a wrap. Do you have any questions you want to ask me?

MM: No, you were a spectacular interviewer.

CK: Oh, thank you. You're delightful.

MM: Bye-bye.

CK: Bye.

Carole King is currently working on musical projects for film arid Broadway.