TORONTO - In the last few months, Mandy Moore has got married, released a sixth solo disc that she says is a "step beyond" her previous work and shot a music video where she kicks UFC tough guy Chuck (The Iceman) Liddell in a "very sensitive place."

And yet the 25-year-old L.A.-based singer and actress is getting a bit restless. These days, she can afford to be picky about the projects she takes on, and she wants to keep pushing herself.

"I think I'm just ready to kind of stretch my legs a little bit more," she said in an interview during a two-day press stop in Toronto. "The scary thing is factoring in a lot these days -- I just want to be a little bit fearful. Like, wow, can I do that? Am I up to the task?"

She definitely is on "Amanda Leigh," a folksy, crisp set about love and soul-searching that also happens to be the former teen-pop star's most mature collection of tunes yet.

Moore began putting the record together a year ago with former Candy Butchers frontman Mike Viola. She said they had instant chemistry -- "It was really, really wonderful to have kind of a musical partner in crime," she says -- and drew from a similar pool of influences, which was particularly important to her this time around.

"I really wanted to make a record that spoke of a lot of the ... artists that I love and have listened to for years," said Moore, who in person is as friendly and seemingly unencumbered by ego as fans might hope.

As far as specific influences, she cites Harry Nilsson, Todd Rundgren, the Beach Boys, Wings and Canadian singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell, whom Moore loves so much she named her dog Joni.

And it follows, then, that she happily considers the album a reference to a long-gone era in music.

"I wouldn't say that I listen to a ton of popular, popular music that's out there," she said. "I love contemporary music, I love what's going on right now, but I would say in a pop sense I don't really know what's going on.

"But this is very much a pop record, it's just pop in more of a throwback sense."

"Everblue" is one highlight, a sultry, slow-cooked tune that Moore says is about trying to make someone realize that you see goodness in them, while "Indian Summer" is an ode to Rundgren.

Moore says the stomping first single "I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week" is not a reference to Wilco's "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart," though it does bear the Chicago band's influence.

She also wants to be clear that the song's title is not meant to be interpreted literally.

After all, this is the same woman who -- in character, of course -- crushed Vince on "Entourage" and persuaded Ted on "How I Met Your Mother" to get a tattoo on his lower back (or a "tramp stamp," as they called it on the show), and she doesn't want to get the reputation of being a heart-breaker.

"(The song title) is really tongue-in-cheek, it's super tongue-in-cheek," she said. "That's not a proclamation I would make in real life.

"It's just supposed to mean there are two sides to every story, so I could turn you on or I could turn the other cheek and ignore you."

In the song's video, Moore -- surprisingly, a fanatical UFC follower -- seems as though she might seduce Liddell but instead kicks him in the groin.

"He was so sweet," Moore said of the fighter, "and actually really a great actor too."

Moore, of course, has an acting resume of her own. She says she plans to return to the screen -- her last roles were in 2007 -- but will be selective in trying to unearth parts that she finds interesting.

With film roles in the cult favourite "Saved!" and reality television satire "American Dreamz," Moore has already proven she has comedic chops. While she says comedy still interests her -- "as long as something's smart and a bit subversive" -- she might go in a different direction.

"It's really been about finding things that I'm as passionate about as I am with the music," she said. "With the music stuff, now I'm completely in control and in charge and it's nice to be in that seat finally. You don't want to relinquish that control and go back and just do something for the sake of working.

"As long as something's a challenge, I'm game. I think that would probably come in the form of some more dramatic things, and a period piece, or something that I can really feel that I'd benefit from."

She hopes to tour in support of "Amanda Leigh," but beyond that, doesn't seem quite sure what's next. She wants to spend more time with her husband, alt-country singer Ryan Adams, but doesn't appear ready to take a break.

"My guy is chilling out right now and not working and it's like, I kind of want to join him in that frame of mind," she said. "Just relax for a little bit and enjoy married life and feel settled. I don't know. I feel like it's a really interesting time in my life right now."

She adds that she and Viola have been writing again.

"It makes me want to start the whole process again because I had the best time making this record," she said.

"I don't want to sit around and twiddle my thumbs all day but it's nice, because I also have someone at home who I can write with and we can make some music and jam at the house, and that's fun too. So it's work and pleasure combined."

Viola has said in interviews that Moore is "in flux" as an artist right now, still figuring out who she is. To a certain extent, she agrees.

"I definitely don't have my whole career mapped out," she said. "But I think that's a good thing, don't you?"