Mandy Moore branches out into songwriting (Reuters)

Moore's fourth album, "Wild Hope," was released this month -- her first in four years -- and is the first to be fully co-written. Critics hailed it as a move away from sugary pop to thoughtful musings on love and life.

But Moore, 23, who has been linked romantically to tennis player Andy Roddick and actors Zach Braff and Wilmer Valderrama, wasn't giving much away about the origin of the lyrics when she spoke to Reuters recently:

Q: Was it a big move to go from singer to songwriter?

A: "No, not as much as you would think. It felt like a very natural progression and it was something that came from me, so it wasn't someone pushing me in any one direction."

Q: What were the musical influences in your head?

A: "A little bit of everything. But I would have to say myself and John Alagia, who produced the record, were both incessantly listening to "Court and Spark." I had my little rental car up in Woodstock and every time I got in the car I was listening to "Court and Spark.""

Q: The album took a long time to make and there is a fairly consistent dark, regretful and mournful tone. Why is that?

A: "I kept making some mistakes, I guess. I kept meeting the wrong people, having the wrong people in my life!"

Q: What was the cause of this?

A: "Part of being a young woman, I guess. There was some progression. There was growing up ... As sad of an undertone as some of the songs may have, I still feel like there's hope because that's innately who I am as a person. I'm not a really glass-half-empty kind of girl. I listen to the record and to me it's a lot about self-understanding and definitely hope."

Q: Will certain men be able to identify themselves in certain songs?

A: "Probably not ... It's not fair to completely say that all of these songs are about one or two people, It's an amalgamation of a bunch of different experiences."

Q: So the song "Nothing that you are" was written when you were in a pretty dark frame of mind?

A: "Yeah, very sad. Pretty devastated ... Something that I was going through in my life! Heartbreak."

Q: Was that the Zach (Braff) situation?

Q: The Andy (Roddick) situation?

A: "Maybe. My first real heartbreak."

Q: Does it bother you that you're so clean-cut that people assumed you were a Republican?

A: "I have no idea why that happened. I think it was because I performed a couple of years ago at a Christmas thing that the Bushes attended."

Q: Do you have political views?

A: "I do, yeah. But at the same time, I don't think it's really my place to put myself out there in that sense."

Q: Do you consider this to be the make-or-break record?

A: "I'd hate for it to be so defined as like "make or break," but I feel like more in a sense this is a second chance, being able to redefine myself. Or just define myself for the first time, really."