Mandy Moore used to feel "embarrassed" by her music.
The 35-year-old star – who released her debut studio album, ‘So Real’, back in 1999 – has admitted that not being in control of her career during her younger years caused her to feel awkward.
She said: "I think I really apologised 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."
However, Mandy now has a completely different view of her early years in the music business.
She told Us Weekly: "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.
"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."
Mandy has more creative control than ever before on her new album, ‘Silver Landings’.
And she feels proud that she’s managed to make the record on her own terms.
Mandy said: "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.
"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."
Mandy Moore: I used to feel embarrassed by my music
