Tom Oxley
We almost lost KT Tunstall.
Not literally, of course, but as a major pop musician. Tunstall, the Scottish singer/songwriter who first blew our doors off back in 2004 with “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” got a little lost in the wake of a divorce and the death of her adoptive father. After a move to Los Angeles and a few years of film composer school, she’s rediscovered her muse on a new album, Kin, which echoes the confident pop-rock of her debut Eye to the Telescope.
Isthmus spoke to Tunstall in advance of her Sept. 23 show at the Barrymore Theatre to chat about overcoming obstacles, getting inspired and checking out a new career path.
“Suddenly I See” was Hillary Clinton’s campaign song back in 2008. Now she’s the first female candidate for the U.S. presidency.
There’s a very weird relationship between musicians and campaigning politicians using music, because they never ask permission. I always very much wished for a Democratic government in the U.S. — I can’t vote in America — and at the time it felt like a really positive way I could be involved in seeing that happen. Also, the opportunity for the U.S. to have a female president is completely awesome. I’m proud to be a small part of that trajectory.
You’ve had a rough couple of years, both personally and creatively. How did those experiences inform Kin?
There’s a song called “It Took Me So Long to Get Here But Here I Am,” which is the mission statement for this record. It’s all about these really difficult obstacles and incidents and accidents in your life that you’re faced with — and at the end of it the opportunity is there for these things to become incredibly useful tools in your emotional toolkit. You can choose whether these perceived negative experiences own you or you own them, and really use them to become a wiser, more compassionate, happier person. The deeper your sorrow goes, the greater your capacity for joy, because you know the other end.
You’ve said you felt like you “died as an artist.” Was there a point where you started to feel it turning around?
It was driving in my car. Driving for me is sanctuary, my favorite place to listen to music. While I was doing this film work, I was hiking and visiting people in other parts of LA. I found myself driving the canyon roads, Mulholland Drive — these beautiful vistas and all this wildness. I’m driving and listening to Fleetwood Mac and Tom Petty, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, driving through where this music was made. It totally started to seep into my bloodstream. I started waking up in the middle of the night with these emotional, really big-sounding choruses and hooklines and titles, and all the totally familiar flags that go up when you start to make a record. Of course, my mind and my body were like “No, I don’t want to do it, I want to take a break!” My spirit won. My subconscious won. With what was coming out, I would have been an idiot not to follow it.
You’ve been enrolled in the Sundance Institute’s Film Composer Lab and composing songs for films, such as this year’s Bad Moms. Is that something you’ll continue to explore?
It’s something I’ve always wanted to try, and now I’ve started. I’m learning. It’s a unique skill, and it’s not something I would expect to just be able to jump into. It’s a real art, and I’m at the bottom of the ladder, but I really find it fascinating. As a solo artist who creates and controls what I do, there’s something really enjoyable about collaborating and working for someone else as part of a much bigger project. And there’s very few things more thrilling than hearing your music coming out of a movie theater with a great film on the screen.
