KT Tunstall has had an extraordinary career. With an Ivor Novello award, Brit Award and Q Magazine award it’s safe to say she’s had a successful career so far. Now she has a new album out, KIN, and I caught up with her to hear what it’s all about.
The road to KIN wasn’t a straightforward one for KT. The death of her father and a divorce, half way through writing her last album Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon, led to her escaping to LA to pursue film writing. “I fell out of love with it [performing], and I think I needed to feel that I could walk away”. She adds, “I really thought I was going to take five or ten years out depending on how it went with the film scoring”.
It’s certainly clear that for KT something of a rejuvenation has occurred. When the beginning of her music career is mentioned she describes how, “I felt like a really mature and experienced musician. But I was not a mature and experienced well balanced person”. But now she’s back, and seems as well balanced as a person could be.
She talks about meeting the love of her life, ditching any false image she was presenting and regaining the love for music she once had. “There’s no getting away from it, I love being on stage and something happens to me on stage where I become capable of doing stuff I didn’t even know I could do myself”.
Her new album, KIN, is what she describes as “The Joy Phoenix”; a joyous piece of artwork that has come from the ashes of her personal loss. A triumph of pop rock choruses and heartfelt lyrics, she’s clearly delighted with how it has turned out. Driving through the hills of LA, listening to Fleetwood Mac, all inspired her to get back to song writing.
KT also goes on to describe the moment that Stevie Nicks gave her an unexpected shoutout at one of the former Fleetwood Mac star’s gigs. “Three songs in or four songs in, the whole band left the stage. It’s just Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham, and she goes ‘I would like to dedicate this to a rocking lady in the house tonight, this is for KT Tunstall’, and they played ‘Landslide’. I couldn’t believe it. One of the best moments of my life” – her face emitting the same excitement as a six year old girl talks about Frozen. This is all part of Tunstall’s charm: there is no celebrity bravado to be found, she talks on your level and is still so excited by the whole experience of being a professional musician.
Talking about ‘On My Star’, a song about her partner, she says “I realised that stripping back and making life much more simple was the best thing in the world. Deleting 80% of the people in my phone, I didn’t really have particularly close relationships with. I really got down to brass facts of who I loved and who loved me. Really, even beyond on all of that, I mean when you find the love of your life, which I have, which I’m so grateful for, it’s changed everything. I was just like man, as much as I love everyone else could we just disappear into space and have a new world where there’s no arseholes”.
KT is truly a lovely person and a world class musician. She’s had really had an astonishing journey whilst making this album. As unexpected to her as any member of the public, “The Joy Phoenix” could mark the start of a massive return for KT.
Ben Roberts