KT Tunstall’s UK tour starts in a matter of days and she is understandably excited. After catching her big break on Later with Jools Holland in 2004, her first album ‘Eye to the Telescope’ went platinum five times over. With her third album released late last year she talked me through her lyric writing style and travelling around the world.
How has your style developed from ‘eye to the telescope’ to ‘tiger suit’?
I think I have got a much healthier relationship with the studio now. I always found it quite difficult to perform when I was recording stuff because it was such a weird environment when there is no audience. I think there is a confidence in my performance when I record that I didn’t have before. I have really developed a taste for experimenting in the studio; the introduction of electronica on the new record was quite a step forward. I think I have all round improved in what I do as I am playing so much. You just develop better skills at what you do. Touring is great because, especially at festivals you see a lot of other acts and get quite inspired by what they are doing and it leads you to discover new music and discover what other people are up to. It’s a real continual learning curve of finding out what turns you on and you can try really.
What is it like to have your husband Luke Bulllen as the drummer in your band and tour together?
I think that if I wasn’t in a relationship with someone that I worked with I would definitely be single. It’s so difficult with what I do I just wouldn’t see him at all as I’m hardly ever in one place. He is fantastic, he is really brilliant, a world-class drummer. I’m just really grateful that he feels he is able to do what he should be doing within my music. He also makes his own music and he’s got a bunch of electronica that he is working on. He is also the musical director of the band so he is really key, a pivotal part of it all working. He can get the band up to speed with the gigs while I go off and promote the records. It’s a real partnership working together and we are just really lucky that the chemistry works. I think there would be a lot more problems not seeing each other than seeing each other too much.
Are the lyrics you write in your songs introspective and personal or more outward looking, reflections on people or society as a whole?
I normally don’t write epic massive numbers, I’m usually pretty specific about what I’m writing about. I always think that personal stories are inevitably an analogy for bigger situations and vice versa. You can find such mirrored messages in lyrics. It all comes down to children and toys, you can look at any situation and it can boil down to something really simple. It’s a sort of a backyard politics stance. Under the weather was my reaction to 9/11 but the reason I wrote it was because it was this massive tragedy that made everybody want to find the person they love. Its always going to be quite an intimate affair with me I think.
Where is your favourite place in the world?
I think its probably different places for different things. Being on a horse running through the mountains in Patagonia was pretty incredible, that was one of my favourite places. I’m still very attached to the Arctic after my trip there, it’s a landscape I really miss, I really love it.
The Arctic Trip with Cape Farewell?
Yes, it was very intense but a really profound experience.
You gave your house an eco makeover and built a solar powered recording studio, do you consider yourself an environmentalist?
Well I would like to think so but I can’t really call myself an environmentalist as I fly so much. If I want to have an international career I have got to get on planes. I just basically do my best with what I’ve got and what I do. I’m very interested in trying to push the music industry into changing its ways. I really tried to release this album on card only sleeves because plastic dual cases are 95% more carbon output than recycled card. It’s just so difficult as you are up against retailers, distributers and manufactures. We did are best and I think more and more people are pushing towards things like that. I’ve got someone who calculates my tour and communicates with venues to find out what they are able to do to make it more eco-friendly. I’m just trying to do my best basically.
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