KT Tunstall

KT Tunstall is the performing name of Kate Victoria Tunstall, a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist from Edinburgh, United Kingdom, born in 1975. Her music spans alternative rock, folk, folk pop, indie rock and singer-songwriter material, and she releases through Relentless Records. She starts her recording and performing career in 2000.

Early work and breakthrough

Before becoming widely known, Tunstall plays in indie bands including Elia Drew and Tomoko, and she focuses on songwriting throughout her twenties. She also performs with members of the early Fence Collective, including work in the Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra with King Creosote. In Edinburgh and St Andrews, she plays in Red Light Stylus, which is regarded as one of the better bands to emerge from the limited Fife scene.

Her breakthrough comes with a solo performance of “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” on Later... with Jools Holland. She has only 24 hours to prepare after Nas cancels, and the performance draws attention from viewers and tops the programme’s online post-show poll. The song is later picked up for wider exposure in the United States when American Idol contestant Katharine McPhee sings it for Billboard-themed week, helping the track rise on the Billboard chart.

Albums and recordings

Her debut album, Eye to the Telescope, arrives in late 2004. After the Later... performance, it is re-released and rises to number 3 in the UK album chart after first entering at number 73. The album is nominated for the 2005 Mercury Music Prize. In the United States it is released in February 2006.

In May 2006 she releases KT Tunstall's Acoustic Extravaganza, first as a mail-order release through her website and then in stores worldwide later that year. She also sings with Travis on their 2007 album The Boy With No Name on “Under The Moonlight”.

Her third album, Drastic Fantastic, appears in 2007 and reaches number 1 in Scotland, number 3 in the UK and number 9 in the US. Its lead single “Hold On” reaches number 21 in the UK and also charts in Italy, Norway, Switzerland and Ireland. “Saving My Face” follows and reaches number 50 in the UK, while “If Only” is the final worldwide single from the album. The album also includes “Funnyman”, a song about Gordon Anderson, with whom she once lives.

Collaborations and other work

Tunstall tours with the Klezmer band Oi Va Voi and appears on their album Laughter Through Tears. She also sings backup on Suzanne Vega’s 2007 album Beauty & Crime on “Zephyr and I” and “Frank and Ava”; Vega notes that they do not meet during the recording process. In 2008 she records a song for Songs for Survival in support of Survival International and speaks publicly about indigenous rights, consumer culture and the environment in connection with the project.

Recognition

Tunstall receives three nominations before winning a BRIT Award. She also receives a Grammy Award nomination and an Ivor Novello Award.

Later recording

By 2010 she records material for Tiger Suit in Berlin’s Hansa studio, with finishing work in London. She also performs at a Haiti fundraising gig at the Roundhouse in Camden, where she says the set includes new songs and new collaborators.