// Capitol Records Recording Artist KT Tunstall
KT Tunstall has clearly gone pop—but she does so while still keeping credibility and amazingly stark songwriting skills. Find out what she thinks of the dwindling music industry, British pop music and Carrie Underwood.
“you wouldn’t go into a store and steal a CD, you’d pay for it. You wouldn’t just walk out with it. So, it’s the same on the Internet, it’s just the same thing, it’s just stealing"
Art Nouveau Magazine: I heard about your recent comments about Carrie Underwood from American Idol, do you regret letting your song Black Horses to be used in the earlier seasons of American Idol?
KT Tunstall: No, absolutely not. I don’t regret it in the slightest. It was a weird one to come my way because I’ve never been particularly polite about how I feel about reality pop shows, I mean…they’re fantastic television…But when it comes to the actual kind of the very limited amount of space there is in our culture for new music to get through, it’s a real shame when you’ve got essentially very expensive karaoke acts taking up a lot of the space when there’s new and very exciting original artists who are writing their own music and doing something very, very new and unique. And, so, as a writer, I think that’s why it kind of wrangled me about the best new artist category because, I mean, I have nothing personal against Carrie Underwood at all, she’s a very talented singer, but I was really, really very please[d] at the same time to see that the Grammy people had nominated someone like Imogen Heap, who’s just a completely free-spirited and very, very talented original musician. And, it was just basically scary, the best new artist getting up and saying thank you to God and Simon Fuller. It was… it wasn’t what I expected to hear when something got that award. But, I mean, there’s no bad blood with it. I mean, she does well and lots of people absolutely love what she does and she’s obviously talented. So, it was just not what I expected.
ANM: How has stardom impacted you?
KTT: In the biggest way, I think, that the really the craziest thing about it is you become very self analytical, which I’ve never been. And doing interviews you get asked things that you would never ever wonder on your own, of your own accord. It can, you know, your brain can start to kind of eat itself, you start masticating on your own grey matter and going, my God, is that what I really think and, you know, it’s really easy to kind of get a bit twisted up about what you said, if you said something and you didn’t mean it and it really… I’ve had to really learn to just kind of let go a little bit and just go well, that’s how I felt that day and as long as you’re honest about it then you’re alright if the next day you turn around and say do you know what, that’s actually not how I feel, that’s just how I felt yesterday. So, it’s… you have to, you have to get used to that part of it because it can kind of mash your head up a bit, but on the whole it really… I’ve just absolutely loved it. I have such a good time, and playing on the stage with the band means everything to me so it’s really amazing that that’s how I make my living these days.
ANM: How has your fan base changed in the last three years, besides just increasing?
KTT: Yeah, well, do you know what, it’s… it gets younger. I’ve noticed that when I first started out it was people kind of, you know, 25-30 upwards. And I’ve liked
gigged and 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. And, like young guys, which I’m quite surprised by, which, you know, 13-14, guys that are really into playing guitar and they really like my pedal and they really like the songs and… but it’s strange, you’ve got these little guys who are kind of dressed in Korn t-shirts and, you know, 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, you know, I would have thought that they would think I was like Feebe from Friends or something. And they’re totally up for the gig. It’s wicked. So, but yeah, people’s like people’s very small children as well seem to really like my music. Which I take as a huge compliment because kids are horrifically honest, if they don’t like it, you know.
ANM: Why do you feel it’s so important for people to buy albums?
KTT: Well, I mean, they don’t have to buy physical CDs, it’s, you know, they can pay for downloading, but it’s just that it’s very, very difficult for artists who are signed to record labels to keep doing, keep making music and keep traveling as a band if there’s no income. So it kind of, it can put someone like me in a really difficult position if record labels aren’t making any money from CD sales, because it means that they can’t put the money into making my new album, they haven’t got the money to put into helping me get my band over here to promote the new record. It, you really fee the effects of what’s happening, so. And, you know, like you wouldn’t go into a store and steal a CD, you’d pay for it. You wouldn’t just walk out with it. So, it’s the same on the Internet, it’s just the same thing, it’s
just stealing.
ANM: with growing popularity do you feel like you have more or less freedom with your second CD than you did with your first?
KTT: I think I, making the CD I definitely had a lot more, I definitely had a lot more freedom and, but it was really freedom through experience rather than freedom from someone not letting me do something. You know the first album I’d never, I’d pretty much never been in the studio, so I was kind of beholden to the naivety a bit. Whereas on this one I kind of new quite a bit more about what I was doing in the studio and knew, had a better idea of what I wanted it to sound like and where I wanted it to go. And so, I was really, me and Steve Osmond (sp?), the producer, were very much left to our own devices to make the album so it was a really very kind of creatively liberating experience, it was great. And as for now, the record is out, it’s kind of a case of seeing what happens because it has to, you know, it depends on how well this record does really to see how, what kind of freedom I have in terms of where I can play and, you know, what I can afford to do. So we’ll just see how it goes, but fingers crossed we’ll be touring forever.
