Moore for Your Playlist

Audrey Mathilde is walking around the University of Oregon’s campus disguised as Tillie Moore — sort of like a modern-day Hannah Montana.

written by JANE GLAZER

On a cool day in January, Tillie Moore was sitting shotgun in a car with three friends, driving from Eugene, Oregon, to the coastal town of Florence. Her friend Sarah was on aux, and after shuffling through Harry Styles and Maggie Rogers, she played a song titled “About a Boy'' by the artist Audrey Mathilde. Moore could feel her face turning bright red as Sarah said to the rest of the car, “You guys know this is Tillie’s song, right?” The two other girls in the car were taken aback. Their eyebrows raised and jaws dropped as they perched up from the backseat to look at Moore in disbelief. For the next 30 minutes, Audrey Mathilde stayed shuffling, with the acoustic guitar and ethereal vocals creating a dreamlike aesthetic for the drive down Highway 126.

Keeping her songs separate from her social life is typical for Moore; she says she fears sounding “pretentious” when telling people she makes music. Regardless, Moore has found enjoyment writing her own lyrics and working closely with her producer to turn her passion into published art under her birth name, Audrey Mathilde. She thinks Audrey Mathilde is the “sickest name ever,” despite having gone by Tillie her whole life. She currently lives in Eugene — she’s a junior at the UO — and doesn’t produce any songs while there; free time is mostly reserved for date dashes and homework. But when she has time, or when she doesn’t feel like doing anything else, Moore sits at the keyboard in her bedroom covered with band posters, playing and singing. And she does this for herself more than anything else.

“I’m not trying to be like a star, you know,” Moore said. “I make music for me, and when people like it, that’s a really fantastic plus.”

Moore grew up in a musical family. Her mom, Tina Moore, has songs streaming under the name Aurouze. Her dad and uncle jam out on the guitar after Christmas dinner. Moore even sang “Love Story” by Taylor Swift at her first-grade talent show. But it wasn’t until she was in seventh grade when her brother played “Sunday Afternoon” by The Kinks that her passion set in.

“I swear to god, my world changed,” Moore said. “I was like, ah, that’s music. I really chalk it up to that.”

Two years later, as a freshman at Redwood High School in Marin, California, Moore joined her school’s music program as a singer. Moore had never taken voice lessons before, and her music teacher was known for his intensity.

“That class was tough,” Moore said. “I think I was always a sweet kid, like teachers had a hard time not liking me, but I wasn’t this kid that was super great at music.”

But Moore wanted to be great at music. She still does. Scrolling on her iPhone, Moore has hundreds of voice memos recording her voice, and she’s glad that she sounds different on her most recent voice memo than on her first.

In 2019, Moore’s parents gifted her a session for her 17th birthday to record her first EP, “Life in Gold.”

Moore said that she received only positive feedback from her peers after her EP was produced. This support gave Moore more confidence in her work.

As her confidence grows, Moore says she wants to start performing at open-mics around town. Her friends’ support is enough comfort for her to share her voice live with the Eugene community. And while fame isn’t her end goal, her voice has traveled from coast to coast.

A couple of weeks ago, Moore got a text from her high school friend Sydney. Sydney was in Washington D.C. visiting a friend who started playing “If You Asked Me To” by Audrey Mathilde. “Have you heard this? It’s so good,” the friend asked Sydney. Laughing and remembering her initial reaction to hearing Audrey Mathilde’s music, Sydney nodded and immediately had to let Moore know.

Such moments are the most special to Moore. “I love how music make me feel, so I like the idea that my music can help emote something to someone else,” Moore said. “That’s like the coolest thing in the entire world to me.”