KT can't wait for sell-out return to Kingdom

Now KT Tunstall says she can't wait to return to Fife later this month on the only Scottish date of her world tour, a sell-out concert at Dunfermline's Alhambra Theatre.

KT told Press Online, "I'm really looking forward to coming to Dunfermline. I remember playing the Alhambra when it had just been refurbished and it's a beautiful theatre. It's the only Scottish date and it'll be a right old knees-up. Can't wait." KT has found huge success in the States, where her debut album was a million-seller, she has regularly appeared on the major TV talk show circuit and she reveals owing even more to the U.S. as it was American students who cheered her on during her early gigs.

However, as a teenager KT's plans for a career on the stage involved acting not music.

She said, "I was really quite into theatre for a long time and up to about 16 I was pretty involved in acting and done Scottish Youth Theatre in Glasgow.

"I spent a summer in Glasgow when I was 15 which was quite a formative summer for me because it was five or six weeks away from home � the first time I'd been away for that long.

"I was living in student gigs through in Glasgow so it was my first taste of being grown-up and was brilliant.

"I got introduced to a lot of music too at that time. I came home from it a firm Stone Roses fan and experiencing Glasgow James Brown parties which was quite a new thing to me.

"People jumping about to James Brown all night and drinking peach schnapps which was horrible but a lot of fun," she laughed. "That was the summer that I first picked up the guitar really." Her dreams were boosted by the success of Kenny Anderson's Scuobhie Dubh (pronounced Scooby Doo) Orchestra from her native St Andrews.

"That was quite inspiring, it felt like it was do-able. They had the Scuobhie Dubh Orchestra and they'd jump in an old van and drive around Scotland doing gigs.

"They'd been doing it for ages and then Kenny saw me play in the Vic in St Andrews when I was about 16 and asked me to join the band. That was a big deal. That was the first time I'd met musicians and it all solidified into something I wanted to do, "I still sang with them through until my early 20s and then at the end of uni that was when I started doing my own thing and formed a band with Kenny's brother Ian.

"We really just played around St Andrews for a long time and concentrated on writing. It was circumstantial. It was so expensive (to be based elsewhere). If we had been in Edinburgh we could have been a step up. London wasn't really practical at that time.

"It was a great opportunity to play to people. You had a student population in St Andrews and not an awful lot for them to do so it was great. I got to know a few good friends who were studying at uni at the time.

"There was quite a large American contingent of students at St Andrews and I discovered that Americans are a lot less inhibited when it comes to showing their appreciation of someone so they would be all up the front shouting.

"That's one of the major differences between Britain and the States. Even when they don't know who you are, the Americans tend to be a bit more vocal about whether they like you or not. That was a good place to go and work as well. I spent a fair bit of time in my teens over in the States." KT didn't get her record deal until she was 27 so was it a difficult time waiting on that big break and did she always believe it would come?

"It was difficult in that it was banging your head against the wall and not much was happening.

"At the same time it was making me more determined. When I moved to Edinburgh in 2000 it wasn't fashionable to be a girl with a guitar.

"It was all indie boy rock bands so it was really difficult to get gigs. That forced me to start my own music night which was a great experience doing that. It was called Acoustic Extravaganza and it still carries on under the name Acoustic Edinburgh.

The best piece of advice KT ever received was from a mentor who told her, "You're a writer and you should get your publishing deal".

She said, "A lot of people don't know that you're separate entities as a writer and a performer. It's two separate things. You get two separate deals.

"So he said go and get signed as a writer first and that's exactly what I did and that gave me a couple of years to live in London, find a band, write some more material and work out which label I wanted to be signed to.

"I didn't just want to sign for whoever gave me the most money, which was fantastic advice actually.

"And then when it did all kick off, it kicked off quick and kicked off big and that was a big surprise, yeah." Did she struggle to cope with suddenly being thrown into the spotlight of fame and success?

"For a long time I didn't have enough time to worry about it. My diary was so busy that I didn't have any time off basically. I was more than comfortable being on stage playing and just doing what I do.

"It was the occasional time where I'd get spotted outwith doing a gig or I'd end up at some bizarre party with more famous people.

"But most of it is fun and transported me a place I'd not been before. Most of the time it's been great, some of the time it gets a bit much. Usually, if I keep my head down, I don't get noticed so it's a good trick.

"For my first album I obviously had all the stuff I'd written up to that point but I'd got quite sick of playing some of the older stuff.

"For the second album, I had absolutely no time at all because the first album had taken off in America so I kind of had to rush the second album. I'm really proud of it but I would have liked to have had more time to write.

"And for this third album (Tiger Suit), I knew I had to take some time out and ended up writing about 75 songs.

"It was much more than I was expecting to write but I was glad I did. I've got a whole bunch of material now that I'm really proud of.

"You can never have too much material. For the album. it was actually surprisingly easy to pick out the tracks because I wanted to have a more beat oriented sound and there was a bunch of songs that worked well together." Does she believe in moving into new territory with each album or keeping to what's been successful?

"Never say never. There's something to be said for having your own personal style and having a signature sound.

"It's not something I would rebel from just for the sake of rebellion but certainly I'm interested in a lot of different genres and I'd like to explore them but I think there will also be times I come back to just acoustic guitar. I think that's where the roots of what I do come from.

"Playing always has been my favourite part of it all but I had such a fantastic time in the studio making this new record and I've never really embraced working in the studio before.

"I'd always found it quite alien and a difficult place to express so this time I really enjoyed making the record but absolute still love touring." The album was recorded at the Hansa studios in Berlin where David Bowie made 'Heroes' and U2 created 'Achtung Baby'. "It's a legendary place and such a brilliant city as well. It was inspiring." What's KT's plans for the rest of the year? "We're touring in Europe, Japan then maybe the States. We have to wait and see if the demand is there. It's hard times over there just now. The touring scene's taken a massive kicking.

"People haven't really got an awful lot of money and everybody's feeling it a little bit.

More so over there I think than here, but again Ireland's different again. Different places are in different states of disrepair.

"Certainly the whole touring business is America has taken a pretty big blow but hopefully we'll get back out there.

"I'm also very much looking forward to the festivals this summer. We're definitely playing in the UK but I'm not sure if I'm able to say yet.

"I'd love to be playing T in the Park. It's been a while so I really really hope so." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzOfE2X8eB8