How does it feel to have moved away from the pop star rat race?
I feel like I kinda did that a little bit with Coverage, the last record. But this means more because this is my own music now, so I’m obviously more personally invested. I’m just excited for people to hear new music from me, because it’s been so long. It must be liberating to sing your own songs, too. It’s night and day, in comparison to singing somebody else’s words onstage. It’s a very different experience. I just enjoy this so much more, I enjoy actually having been a part of the process from start to finish. Do you miss all the “pop star” grooming? To be honest, I never felt like I was groomed. I was just sort of shoved in a studio with people I wasn’t necessarily a fan of and kind of told what to sing and how to sing it. I would show up at the studio and the track would be completely finished and all I had to do was sing on it. It was a bit of a bummer, because you have to conform whatever you have to sing to what the band’s already played. Sounds like Mandy has come a long way s
