Celebrity Interviews
MusicSpectator.com offers up the following celebrity interviews for your enjoyment.
A mixed bag
An interview with KT Tunstall
by Craig Marquardo
She was adopted 18 days after she was born. Her birth mother was Chinese and Scottish, her birth father was Irish. But growing up she had much more prominent Chinese features, making her stand out in Scotland. As she got older, she started to grow into her more Eurasian features.
Her song 'Black Horse and the Cherry Tree' was a mere #79 on the Billboard charts. That is, until it was touched by an idol, well, an American Idol. Katherine McPhee asked her if she could use it on the show. While not a fan of the show itself, she allowed the song to be used. It immediately jumped to #23 the following week.
She barely lost out on the 2007 Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance to Christina Aguilera, but her new album, Drastic Fantastic, hit as high as #9 on the charts. Doing the interview via teleconference, she was in high spirits about her upcoming show.
MS: What’s the worst thing about being KT Tunstall?
KT: It’s a hard question. I’m a pretty positive person, and I’m a die-hard optimist. So the worst thing would probably be regularly having to get up at fucking four in the morning to get plane flights somewhere, then having to be nice all day. Life is hard core.
MS: How has your fan base changed in recent years, besides just increasing?
KT: I’ve noticed that when I first started out it was people, you know, 25-30 upwards. And as I’ve gigged and gigged, I’m noticing that the front row is just getting younger and younger and a lot of younger kids are getting into it. Like young guys, which I’m quite surprised by, you know, 13-14, guys that are really into playing guitar and they really like my pedal and the songs. But it’s strange, you’ve got these little guys who are kind of dressed in Korn t-shirts and they’ve got their baggy pants on and everything. I’m like, my God, I’m so flattered, you’re into my stuff. I would have thought that they would think I was like Phoebe from Friends or something. And they’re totally up for the gig. It’s wicked.
MS: If your career had to suddenly change, maybe an illness or something...
KT: A terrible larynx accident.
MS: Exactly..
KT: I would learn how to make chandeliers. But I’d make mine out of like old toy cars and teacups and they would be called chandelwierds. KT’s chandelwierds. That’s my backup plan. So if all this goes wrong, it’s the chandelwierd business.
MS:What is the biggest difference between your American fans versus your fans overseas?
KT: I think I have to say, my European fans are going to kill me, but the Americans...I always find American audiences were just so uninhibited. And when I first came over here as a teenager and I was doing some open mic nights in bars and that kind of thing. In Britain they’ll cross their arms and nod to the one next to them asking "what do you think?" "Well, I don’t know." "Are you going to buy it?" "Maybe, if you buy it I’ll buy it." And then here, if they like you people get up and dance on tables, there’s no holds barred. I’ve always appreciated that reaction and that support. It’s just a riot playing for American people, they love it.
MS: What made you start to play with that pedal and looping?
KT: Way back when, no one knew who I was so I couldn’t pay a band to come around with me. So I just had to go out on my own and couldn’t face the thought of going out with just a guitar after making this album, it just didn’t make sense, I wanted to make more noise, and have more kind of diversity to what I was doing. I’d seen a couple of people, particularly this Canadian guy called Son of Dave, he’s an amazing blues performer who uses this pedal, it was just fantastic. I got hold of one of my technical friends and worked out how to get my voice and my guitar to it and my moment of genius came in a sweaty rehearsal room. I just thought if I bash the hell out of my guitar, surely I’ve got a drum machine. And that was basically where 'Black Horse' came from.
MS: You know, I’ve interviewed a lot of musicians over the years and the one thing that always winds up coming up, now that you have your 'big hit' under your belt, do you have the nightmare where you’re 65 years old still singing this song?
KT: Well, when asked what is my guilty pleasure, I have to say that it’s actually playing Black Horse because I still really like it. I thought I would hate it by now. But it’s because of my loop pedal. It’s because it’s a constant challenge, it’s a constant X factor. I just have to loop myself and it can go really wrong and so there’s always this kind of burst of excitement that the song being a hit hasn’t completely arsed up, you know?
MS: We got your album here and immediately people were snatching it up from me.
KT: Well, you know what the record company did? When they got the copies of my album, they copied them and then put them in a sleeve that said Paula Abdul’s Greatest Hits. And no one stole it. Yeah, that’s the worst that you can do, you’ve just got to go Barry Manilow Plays the Blues, and no one will steal.
MS: Oh, come on. You know everyone’s going to buy that album.
KT: Actually, they probably would. It would be good.
MS: Umm, maybe not. Being on the road so much, how do you combat things like exhaustion and repetitiveness, in order to feel like you’re getting the most for yourself?
KT: Well, there’s no antidote for that. It’s definitely something I’ve experienced pretty regularly in these last three years. You just have to accept that it’s part of what you do, that you can’t have these amazing times free. You know, there’s got to be some payback somewhere. And the good thing is that when it comes to different and repetitive stuff, the interviews, early mornings and all of that stuff, you see the payback from that so quickly when you play a show somewhere you have never been before, and people come out and it’s sold out. So it’s been pretty tough at times. But it’s all worth it and it’s difficult to complain because I’m doing what I absolutely love and everybody has bad days at the office.
MS: Now that you have this level of success and are 'KT Tunstall', celebrity, where have you paid the price personally?
KT: Well, from my positive and die hard optimist place, my friends are very glad to see my arse out the door and actually touring rather than trying to persuade them to come to yet another tiny little club gig. A lot of my friends are very old friends and they’ve been there from the beginning and have really supported me through it. And I miss them, but it’s kind of like going backpacking for three years or something, they don’t expect to see me but we keep in touch. I miss my friends, I miss people’s weddings, I miss births, birthdays and it’s a shame not to be closely involved in some great moments in friends’ lives but, you know, they enjoy knowing me. They get perks, they definitely have perks.
MS: And from the romantic side?
KT: And from the romantic side, I’m living the dream, because I go out with my drummer, and he’s an amazing drummer. So instead of him getting the pat on the back, I’ve had people coming up to me and saying he’s a great drummer, well done. I’m like hang on a minute, he’s meant to be lucky to be with me. But it’s been really great, it’s worked. I think its’ the kind of thing that could be a nightmare, but thankfully we both have our independence, and a passion for what we do. He’s ten feet behind me on the riser. I don’t feel like I could be in a relationship if it wasn’t one where we were working together. If I was with someone who was home I wouldn’t see them.
