KT Tunstall EXCLUSIVE: X Factor CLOGS UP The Airwaves Meaning REAL Artists Don’t Stand A Chance

KT Tunstall smashed onto the rock scene in 2004.

She was loud, she was opinionated and she was cool. One of the first chicks to rock that bleached bit at the front of her hair, plus she basically told sickly sweet Dido she was sh*t.

But she was also almost demonically obsessed with being a successful rock star and, by her own admission, a ‘selfish b****** musician’.

Credit: Pamela Littky

‘Suddenly I See’ is probably the song she’s most known for (she won a Brit Award for it in 2006) but she’s also got a pretty remarkable back story.

KT was the illegitimate child of a half-Scottish, half-Chinese dancer and was adopted by a physics lecturer and a primary school teacher.

She tracked down her biological mother in 1996 but later renounced her stepfather because of his decision to run as a BNP candidate.

‘Punchily outspoken’ and ‘plain-speaking’ are phrases that have been previously used to describe the raven-haired rocker so Yahoo Celebrity was slightly unsure what to expect when we met her ahead of her performance at Gibraltar Music Festival.

Credit: Pamela Littky

What we didn’t expect was how softly spoken, relaxed and - without sounding like a new age w**** - how zen KT was.

KT explained that relocating to LA (Venice Beach to be exact) with a new partner has a lot to do with how joyful her new album is and how she is no longer so fed up with life.

She says: ‘We just kind of eloped, it’s been really good. I’d spent 25 out of 40 years just blinkered and hell bent on becoming a musician and I hadn’t developed myself.’

Credit: Eric Charbonneau/REX/Shutterstock

But despite KT’s newfound calm she still gets fired up about the things she cares about - like the music industry’s obsessions with profit, and how reality TV basically ruins the chances for up and coming ‘real’ artists.

She said: ‘Parts of music have become a complete corporate exercise.
‘It’s always happened but it’s just happening now on a much larger scale.

‘The amount of artists putting music out now is unrecognisable.’

She added: ‘Also with the advent of all the reality TV shows – you’ve just got tens and tens of not even artists, but singers, being spouted out then disappearing.

‘Be it Cowell’s label or whatever, they’re basically taking up a lot of air space when the new Bowie or the new Lou Reed can’t get on the radio because X Factor has clogged up the airwaves. And it’s not longevity, it’s about money.’

KT was also almost alarmingly candid about the death of her father two years ago. David Tunstall was a science lecturer at the University of St Andrews who she said pushed her very hard to succeed.

Credit: WENN (KT and her dad David Tunstall)

So much so that she admitted it was in a weird way like a ‘gift’ when he died.

KT said: ‘When my dad passed away that was a massive shift for me, it was obviously very sad but it was also a really big gift.

‘For people who have lost a parent, it’s this completely different situation where this person who you’ve had a very concrete relationship with is gone.

‘I was really close to my dad but he was a real taskmaster, all about achievement. And I loved him to bits but that’s how he was brought up.’

She went to say that while going to see her father’s body was ‘very moving’, she realised also she didn’t have to please him any more - something she describes as a ‘revelation’.

Credit: Wenn

KT also defied her spiky reputation by admitting that she actually loves the cloying bubbliness of California where she now lives and embraces all the ‘have a great day’ mania ‘like a puppy’.

Because without turning up the cheese factor too high, love obviously suits her (her new partner is music teacher Jarom Rowland) and has created a calmness and more ‘que sera’ attitude than before.

And though her new album is about love and change it still contains her trademark ‘cat scratch’ she assures us.

Credit: Rex

KT has been in the business for a long time and when she started out, she says the scene was mostly scruffy men. And with the advent of uber polished, super sexualised and super media trained pop juggernauts like Taylor Swift and Rihanna, does she think modern artists lack authenticity and are being forced to be sexy to sell records?

She answered: ‘There are omnipotent people like Michael Jackson and Madonna and I think that fluctuates in gender and style and at the moment it just happens to be young women who are dominating.

‘You can tell pretty easily which women in music are expressing themselves and celebrating their incredible hot bodies like Rihanna and Miley Cyrus and are making their own decisions and are in control of it.

‘Of course there’s tons of female performers where you can tell they’re getting their bums and boobs out because it’s going to sell their record – you can just tell.’

Credit: KT Tunstall / Twitter (KT with her new man)

KT has a summer of festivals ahead of her including a US tour and a set at Gibraltar Music Festival in September.

But she hasn’t ruled out selling out Wembley either.

KT said: ‘When my first album went stratospheric I could have easily done arena tours but I was too scared. I kick myself. And I’d love to try it now.’

Watch this space, then!

KT Tunstall’s new single ‘Evil Eye’ is out now. Her fifth album will be released this autumn.

For GMF tickets go to gibraltarmusicfestival.com