KT Tunstall Sleeping With The Clintons
KT Tunstall
IT was written as a tribute to Patti Smith, but Scottish singer KT Tunstall's hit Suddenly I See has become one of the theme songs to Hillary Clinton's charge at the White House.
The song's rollicking chorus "she's a beautiful girl, she's a beautiful girl" is being used to herald Clinton's arrival at rallies across the US, and it's having a strange impact on Tunstall herself.
"I had a dream two nights ago that I was sleeping in the same hotel room as Bill and Hillary Clinton because I was part of their f---ing campaign," she says in a lilting brogue which makes the profanity sound somehow charming.
Initially concerned about becoming a political soundtrack, Tunstall says she's now happy to lend a helping hand to the Democrats.
"I've got a lot of friends in America who are all desperate lefties. I asked them if they felt it was maybe a little weird having her use my song . . . they said, 'We desperately need a Democratic government, so just help how you can'. So that's how I feel about it."
The 32-year-old singer/songwriter is gearing up for her first tour to Australia after visiting Sydney "for a matter of hours" on a promotional trip last year. She'll arrive in March to join an impressive line-up for the Easter weekend Bluesfest at Byron Bay and is looking forward to visiting the beach retreat she's heard so much about.
"Everyone keeps banging on about Byron Bay, so finally I can tell them to shut up 'cause I've been," she laughs.
The tour comes on the heels of quite an eventful Christmas break for Tunstall. Her boyfriend Luke Bullen (who is also the drummer in her backing band) turned up on the doorstep of her family home in St Andrews on Christmas morning to propose.
"He and my family completely hoodwinked me for a month because he did the traditional deed and went and asked my dad like a month before. And I'm very glad – take note boys, that's the way to do it."
Tunstall says she almost surprised herself with how much she appreciated the nod to tradition, considering her far from conventional approach to life. She found fame at the ripe old age (by industry standards, anyway) of 29, after cutting her musical teeth in St Andrews with the anti-establishment Fence Collective, led by friend and mentor King Creosote.
"We were all very anti-label. We're all signed now," she laughs, explaining she and the others realised they had to find a way to work within the industry framework.
"I thought if I don't change my attitude and try to embrace ways of making this become a job for me it's going to be a hobby and I'm going to be desperately unhappy."
Spurred on by visions of herself ending up like coffee shop guitarist Phoebe from Friends, Tunstall packed her guitar and headed to London. At the time record labels were only interested in indie boy bands, so Tunstall began turning up and performing in offices to show she could rock out with the best of them.
"Well, it doesn't look good on paper, you know – 27-year-old Scottish girl with acoustic guitar," she says.
A performance on English show Later with Jools Holland shot her debut album Eye to the Telescope to No.3 on the UK charts. And – ironically for someone fiercely critical of TV talent quests – Tunstall broke through in the US after American Idol runner-up Katherine McPhee performed her hit Black Horse and the Cherry Tree on the show.
Since then, her stocks have been bolstered by the inclusion of her songs on TV shows from Grey's Anatomy to Ugly Betty and now, as the soundtrack to Hillary Clinton.
For someone who only hoped to earn a living from music, everything extra is just cream for Tunstall, who says she's determined to have fun with it as long as the ride lasts. She says her 2007 album Drastic Fantastic aimed to capture the sense of excitement and hilarity of the situations she now finds herself in.
"Just weird things like Elton John turning up at a sound check in Atlanta to say hello, then bumping into Jack White," she says.
The tongue-in-cheek cover photo, which features Tunstall in a Quatro-esque rock chick pose captures the attitude perfectly, although not everyone got the joke.
"Some people were like: 'What are you doing pretending to be Suzi Quatro?'," she says. "And I'm like, 'Well, what the f--- do you think I'm doing? I am pretending to be Suzi Quatro and I'm having the time of my life.
Drastic Fantastic is out now. KT Tunstall plays the East Coast Blues and Roots Festival at Byron Bay on Monday, March 24. The festival runs from Thursday, March 20 to Monday, March 24. Go to www.bluesfest.com.au. (Catriona Mathewson, news.com.au)
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