KT TUNSTALL
ooking around the room gives a clear
indication of the reason behind KT
Tunstall’s remarkable success. Crammed into the boardroom at XFM Scotland’s headquarters in Glasgow are two dozen competition winners being treated to an intimate acoustic show from the diminutive Fife lass, and they couldn’t have a wider demographic.
Rubbing shoulders are timid teenagers, 2()something wide boys, indie kids, young professionals, families, middle-aged couples and people approaching retirement, all of whom are captivated as Tunstall treats them to a few new songs and old favourites, her natural charisma and down-to-eanh humour immediately closing the distance between perfomier and fans.
The combination of Tunstall’s music and persona is key to her success. She blends an unashamedly mainstream songwriting sensibility that can appeal to almost anyone with a refreshingly uncontrived attitude — she’s the millionaire pop star you could imagine being loads of fun over a few pints down your local.
As she chats with fans afterwards, slugging beer, signing things and graciously accepting gifts. it‘s pretty obvious this is someone extremely comfortable with her place in the world.
We adjourn upstairs for the interview and Tunstall (first name Katie) remains charming and self-effacing, despite a handful of media types and press people fussing over her. The 32-year- old is beautiful in an unconventional way. her dark eyes drawing you in, and her enthusiasm for life is infectious. I notice she has the word ‘now' scrawled across the face of her chunky watch in thick pen — maybe when you‘re as famous as she is, you never have to know what the time is.
Having won umpteen awards (lvor Novello and Brit awards, Grammy and Mercury nominations, among others) and sold four million copies of her debut album, Eye to the Telescope, Tunstall’s life has been turned upside down from her days
18 THE LIST 6—20 Sep 2007
KeeEin o
The music industry has a habit of grinding artists down with relentless workloads but KT Tunstall has made it through to the other side. Doug Johnstone meets her and finds an artist on the eve of the release of her second album who remains down to earth despite her million-selling, pop star status
as a struggling musician in Fife and Edinburgh, but she’s still brimming with a kind of naive excitement at the world she finds herself inhabiting. That said, her success inevitably brings its own pressures.
‘I did a radio interview a while ago and said I didn’t know when the next record was coming out,” she says. ‘I told them it might not be til the summer or autumn, even though it was meant to be out in the spring. My manager took me aside and said, “Katie, do you mind just saying it’s coming in spring, otherwise the record company’s share price is going to drop”. I said, “Don’t tell me that! I don’t need to know that!m
It’s just what you don’t need when you’re working on that difficult second album. Happily that follow-up record is here now, a little late maybe, but well worth the wait. Drastit' Fantastic is the sound of a musician stretching her wings. While maintaining the unerring ear for melody of its predecessor, it’s a more diverse record, which displays a breadth of sound and atmosphere only hinted at on Eye to the Yelest'ope.
The bluesy rattle and thrum of lead single ‘Hold On” is just a taster of what’s on offer. Elsewhere there is everything from the full-on pop romp of ‘Saving My Face‘ to the slightly proggy and creepy melancholy of ‘Beauty of Uncertainty', and the beautiful lo-fi closer ‘Paper Aeroplane‘.
‘The first album was deliberately more contained,” she says. ‘I wanted it to be a really traditional old school singer-songwriter record — Carole King's Tapestry was my aspiration, an album that was open, friendly and inviting. For this album I thought me and Steve [Osborne, producer] would make this gritty, lo-fi, garage- sounding record, but it‘s turned out totally the opposite. Having said that, it’s not too smooth - that would terrify me. I think it’s still got an edge; it‘s still got crank on the elecm'c guitar. I really feel like I’ve progressed, I’d be so angry with myself if I’d repeated what I’d done already