KT Tunstall Tells Us The Secret to the Eye of the Telescope
So, the album that you have produced - "Eye to the Telescope" is somewhat different to the experience of seeing you play live. Was that an intentional thing you set out to do?
Not at all actually, and my experience of music has always been live. So, you know going into the studio and making an album was just a completely virgin experience. It was almost the vehicle to be able to go out and play seven nights a week. And after the album, and you know while we were making it and after it was done, I suddenly went 'oh my god this is a thing!'
This is actually really important.. it sounds ridiculous saying it 'coz of course it's important but you know I assumed that you could do that, that you could just take your live sound and stick it on record and you can't. A CD and an album is gonna be a different experience 'coz your sitting in a room with no visual stimulus only using your ears. I think it's quite good to have a separation actually.
In a studio you've got opportunity to really explore a lot different avenues with the sound and it gets away with being a lot more complex. Whereas on stage I've come to believe that playing live is much more about picking out the really important parts and absolutely doing away with everything else, and just putting on the simplest show possible. I wouldn't be surprised if I start taking that back in the studio actually. Because I subscribe to the boot and the cardboard box theory - if that's the sound that you want then hit a box with a boot and don't use twenty thousand pounds worth of equipment to make a kick drum sound like it!
How would you describe your live show?
It's a four piece band and its myself on lead guitar and lead vocals- obviously! I haven't got a hidden person beneath the stage doing the singing! The bass player also plays a bit of cello and a keyboard player who also plays a bit of cheeky trumpet and a drummer and percussion player. There's a lot of hand clapping and its just kind of raucous, very vibey.
Tell us a little bit about when you were making the record itself 'coz you worked with some very high-profile people like Steve Osborne...
It didn't really feel like that for some reason... in a weird way it all felt quite normal. I don't mean to belittle it in anyway cause it's been an amazing experience but it's never felt overwhelming, you know, it's what I've spent the best part of a decade trying to get to and when you spent that long trying to get there, it ceases to become an incredibly exciting novel thing you know......
You're not just constantly going 'YIPPEE THIS IS GREAT!!' Because you've invested so much energy into getting to a certain point. I felt quite sincere about the whole thing and saying, 'right I've got that' and 'I've got that' and now we really need to do this.... and maybe it's a mechanism to just not get too mental. Haaa!If I did I'd just go out and make a mess of myself. |
About Petrol Records
About Petrol Records
