O2 Academy TV spoke with KT Tunstall backstage at O2 Academy Newcastle, where the Scottish singer songwriter talked about how her frequent travels influenced her most recent album ‘Tiger Suit’, the Cape Farewell project, recording the latest LP at Hansa Studios and what she loves most about live performances.

On travel and it’s ‘Tiger Suit’ influence:

First of all, all the places I went had really interesting musical heritages and really unique sounding musical histories behind them, India, New Zealand, the Arctic, South America, they’ve all got really, really strong musical identities. Secondly, I found that when I came to make the new album, each song ended up with a location that’s like the song had a landscape for me, and I wanted to take whoever was listening and myself, pick myself up and just put me in that landscape, and it was about finding sounds that made it feel like that. I think traveling did a lot in terms of the eyes connected to the ear bone, and making it all make sense in terms of vision for how the songs were going to sound.

On the Cape Farewell project:

The Cape Farewell thing was mind blowing. It was really a once in a lifetime experience where not only did I get to go to the arctic, and I had been quite obsessed with Inuits as a kid. All these little Eskimo dolls and puzzles that I loved and I was really, really into the idea of nomads, where parents would camp all the time, so I just love this idea of putting everything in a bag and disappearing, which is partly why I love touring.

On recording ‘Tiger Suit’ at Hansa Studios:

I think what was wonderful about Hansa was that the room where Bowie recorded and U2 recorded hasn’t really changed that much. They completely place Bowie and Bono where they were in those pictures, and really see that they were in this room. I find it pretty magical being in the room that this stuff was recorded. It added an energy to the place definitely.

Watch the interview via YouTube below.

KT Tunstall caught up with STV at T in the Park a year ago, where the Scottish singer songwriter remembered her first visit to the location fifteen years ago and what’s it like now, if she misses camping out at festivals now that she’s found success, and how she feels returning home for a gig now that she tours the world.

On her first visit to the festival:

’96 was my first T in the Park, and I was a backing singer in the Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra. We all came in a transit van which we slept in, if we could find it again. It was just an amazing year. It was Radiohead and Beck and the Cocteau Twins. It really had a massive effect on me. It was an incredible festival to come to. Such a great lineup, such a good vibe. People were very hardy, and I think it really adds to this one. They don’t really care what they get they’re just gonna go for it and have a good time.

If she misses the camping part of festivals:

I have to say the best Glastonbury I ever had was when I was camping and I went for five days and I didn’t have a shower. You’re in it and you just have all these hilarious things happen to you that are not on the schedule. I would always take the chance to go to a festival not just to play. For many years that was my plan, I’m not going to do festivals unless I’m playing at them. That was a big incentive to get somewhere as a musician. I think now I’m more than happy to go and get dirty.

Watch the interview via YouTube below.

Aderra caught up with KT Tunstall at the pre opening party of the Fashion Rocks first shop in Sheffield recently. The Scottish singer songwriter discussed her fashion choices for gigs, how she’s evolved into having a stylist and how female artists are pushed to become style icons.

On concert wardrobe selection:

I sort of subliminally think about it during the day, because if I’m stressing about my outfit right before the gig, I’m in major trouble, because I’ll just start forgetting verses worrying about my shoes. I’ve actually been in the middle of a gig and realize I’ve put the wrong shoes on and have to change my shoes on stage because I felt too weird. I basically thing about it during the day and plan it so I can just get changed and not worry about it.

On having a stylist:

I didn’t have a clue when I first started. I was busking, playing in pubs. I didn’t really get involved in fashion. I just shopped at charity shops and obviously you can get amazing stuff, but it was never a big priority for me. Then when I started getting on the telly, I was like whoa, I really need to sort this out. So I’ve got a brilliant stylist named Lucy Manning, and she’s now a really good mate of mine. She literally pulls in stuff that I would never choose myself, and just lets me pick what I fancy.

On female artists needing to become style icons:

It seems like that at the moment. I think music just goes through these cycles and it always changes. If you’re into something in particular, you don’t have to look hard to find it. I’m personally into the image side of stuff. I’m into Patti Smith and Chrissie Hynde, they’re just always gonna be my benchmarks where it’s not super super feminine. I like having a bit of masculinity and a bit of androgyny in the look. At the same time, I’m as excited as the next person seeing what Lady Gaga is going to wear, or what Florence Welch is gonna wear because they really put a lot of time and effort into that, where as I just can’t dedicate as much time concentrating on it, because it’s gotta be a passion to get that involved.

Watch the interview via YouTube below.

KT Tunstall performed as part of Conan O’Brien’s Summer Concert series on Monday night (July 25) at Stage 16 Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California. Watch the Scottish singer songwriter performing ‘Madame Trudeaux’ below. Watch her performance of ‘Other Side of the World’ below, and check out pictures from the ‘Conan’ appearance at TeamCoco.com.

KT Tunstall released her latest album ‘Tiger Suit’ earlier this week. The Scottish singer/songwriter tried some different things on the new album, all the while remaining true to her roots. Fox All Access producer Jeff Axelrod caught up with her backstage before a performance at Hollywood’s Hotel Cafe to talk about the new album, including the unusual story behind its title.

“The idea for the album came from a recurring dream I had since I was a kid,” Tunstall said. “I walk out into my garden or into somewhere really familiar, and there’s a tiger lying in the grass or in the road, and I pet it. Then I go inside and it’s only when I look out the window afterward I’m like, ‘Oh my God, he could have killed me. I’m crazy, what was I doing?’ It sort of as an adult reminds me of how I approach my performances quite a lot of the time where I won’t really think about what I’m doing until afterward.”

Watch the interview via YouTube below.

KT Tunstall visited NPR’s World Cafe while promoting her just released album ‘Tiger Suit’, performing four songs during the studio session and talking with guest host Michaela Majoun.

On taking a trip to the arctic before writing ‘Tiger Suit’, she said:

It was difficult in many ways. It was sort of scrape me out inside somehow and it was the beginning of my time away from the spotlight to try and come up with something new and it really marked the doorway to thinking differently about what I was going to do next and cutting ties with what other people might want from me, fans or label or management, family or anything. I just had to get selfish. I think that’s really important. You just stop worrying about people pleasing and you have to move forward and do what you want to do. What better place to start thinking about that than on an icecap, where you are completely removed. It was also a very claustrophobic experience because there was I think 40 of us on this ex Russian military vessel. Artists Leslie Feist, Martha Wainwright, Jarvis Cocker, Sakamoto, Robyn Hitchcock, Vanessa Carlton, it was really varied and there was sculptors and painters.

It’s a charity called Cape Farewell, and they basically take artists and scientists doing genuine climate change study and we all went up to the arctic and the idea is that Cape Farewell is kind of a social provocateur, so instead of me going around and being incredibly irritating telling people to turn their light bulbs off, I actually write about it in the way that I naturally communicate. The idea of climate change slips naturally into pop culture rather than it being this kind of fake facade of celebrities being mostly hypocritical all the time, which I’m definitely guilty of as well. I got a plane here, so it’s just a much more natural way of awareness really. It’s great. It was an amazing trip.

Confidence wise it was hard, being surrounded by people who were so good and so sincere.

Listen to the Scottish singer songwriter perform ‘Madame Trudeaux’, ‘Black Horse And The Cherry Tree’, ‘Still A Weirdo’ and ‘Fade Like A Shadow’, and web extra performances of ‘Glamour Puss’ and ‘Other Side Of The World’ at NPR.org.