Taylor Goldsmith, Dawes frontman and husband of Mandy Moore, has spent the years since their 2018 marriage building a life that spans indie rock, television songwriting, and an expanding family now numbering five.
It is a lot to keep track of. So here is the full picture, from Instagram DMs to a newly reconfigured band and a third child who arrived, in Moore’s words, ‘right in time for Virgo season.’
Taylor Goldsmith, Dawes Frontman: The Band Then and Now
Goldsmith leads Dawes, the indie rock band that has released eight albums. He is not doing it with the same lineup anymore. According to Magnet Magazine, bassist Wylie Gelber and keyboardist Lee Pardini amicably left Dawes in 2023.
That departure reshaped the band significantly. Their most recent album, Oh Brother, is the first Dawes record made solely by the founding brothers: Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith, as AllMusic notes. The album’s lead single, ‘House Parties’, arrived on 17 July 2024, according to Wikipedia’s Dawes page.
The band already had at least one high-profile convert before any of this. Moore’s This Is Us co-star Chris Sullivan once admitted on Busy Tonight: ‘I’ve fallen in love with Mandy Moore’s husband. We’re having a real bromance. He and I bonded over music, he’s the lead singer of a band called Dawes. As soon as we met I bought all of their records. He’s producing my next record.’
How Moore and Goldsmith Met, Married, and Kept It Together
The origin story is very 2015. Moore posted a photo of a Dawes album on Instagram in May that year, captioning it: ‘Real excited about this one. Have a feeling it’s going to be the soundtrack of my summer.’ Goldsmith saw it and got in touch. Moore later told People: ‘Somehow, Taylor saw it and sent a note to me. We started emailing back and forth, then we went on a date and the rest is history. Thanks, Instagram, for helping me meet my fiancé!’
They married in a backyard Los Angeles ceremony in November 2018. Moore told Glamour that same month: ‘I was still dealing with the trauma of my divorce when we started dating. Taylor was steadfast in his support, that was a huge sign for me. He makes me melt. I can imagine no better partner.’
Their professional lives have overlapped too. Goldsmith co-wrote ‘Invisible Ink’, an original song Moore’s character Rebecca performs in season 3 of This Is Us, and the pair performed it together at an Emmy FYC event in Hollywood. Moore also appeared in the Dawes music video for ‘Rolling With The Punches’ in 2017. And from June 2019, the two were sharing studio photos as Moore worked on her first album since 2009, with Goldsmith involved in the production. Moore told People of recording together: ‘I was singing in the booth last night. I looked over, and he had his eyes closed, playing the guitar. I thought there’s nothing cooler than being able to collaborate in this sort of setting with somebody you love, trust and respect.’
Keeping a marriage functioning through parenthood and touring takes deliberate effort. In a September 2026 interview with People, Moore explained their approach plainly: ‘Obviously, the kids are always going to be a priority, but our marriage is just as much of a priority because if we’re able to be an aligned unit, I think it makes us just better parents, better partners, better for each other, better for everybody.’ They schedule regular date nights and take care not to overlap their work commitments. Moore also mentioned a two-week rule: ‘He doesn’t like to be away for more than two weeks at a time, but even two weeks now feels like a long time.’
The family has grown steadily. Their first son, August, arrived on 20 February 2021. Their second, Oscar, followed on 20 October 2023. Moore announced her third pregnancy on Instagram on 31 May 2024, writing: ‘Sometimes life imitates art. The third in our own Big Three coming soon. Can’t wait for these boys to have a baby sister.’ Their daughter, Louise ‘Lou’ Everett Goldsmith, was born in September 2024. Moore marked the arrival on Instagram: ‘Lou is here! Louise Everett Goldsmith arrived happy, healthy, expeditiously and right in time for Virgo season.’
Goldsmith marked Moore’s 40th birthday on 10 April 2024 with a post that is worth quoting in full for the tone it sets: ‘Thanks for showing me and everyone else we know how to live life with such kindness, grace, intention, and selflessness (sometimes too a fault, lemme clean up the boy’s dinner while YOU watch the first 10 minutes of Cars for a change). There’s no way I’ll ever be able to properly pay you back for the love, the joy and the meaning you’ve brought to my life. But I’ll never stop trying.’
Taylor Goldsmith, Dawes frontman, newly stripped-back band and all, next plays a show every time ‘House Parties’ gets another spin.
