Irving Plaza | New York, NY | September 19, 2016 | Photos & Words: Cortney Armitage |
KT Tunstall dropped by Irving Plaza in New York City to share the love of her new album, KIN. The Scottish songstress charmed everyone with her wit and high energy show; with such a genuine soul, it is easy to forget that she isn’t performing an intimate set in your living room. After all, one man bought her a drink and delivered it to the stage and another woman came through on a promised jar of Nutella. Between songs and food and drink exchanges, she had New York City completely wrapped around her finger as she spun stories of how songs and experiences shaped her music. Here she explains how the new album came to be:
“I moved to Venice Beach. I just wanted to take time out. I felt really burnt out. I’d loved that last record. It was a folk record, super emotional and real cathartic record but I’d just about burnt. So I was just going to take time out and I’d always wanted to write music for film and this is my biography, by the way. I have a Google lens and I’m just reading you the bio things in the updated wikipedia page. Any way there is a point, the point is, I was going to take a lot of time out and after a year of driving around Laurel Canyon and Mulholland Drive and the Hollywood Hills and PCH listening to Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and all the people who wrote that music in that place…it was amazing listening to it, driving the road that they were on and in the places where they wrote that stuff and it seeped into my blood. I started getting to that thing where at four o’clock in the morning waking up with massive backing vocal chorus. Oh shit! It’s happening!! I think it’s a bit, I mean I don’t have kids, but I think it’s a bit like when a woman knows she’s pregnant. She’s like ‘Oh shit. It’s happening.’ You know, it takes nine months and a few people. It’s quite painful getting out and when it’s out you don’t want it anymore. It’s not that different from a baby [extended cheers and laughter]. I know it’s New York, GET ON WITH IT! [laughter] The album is about coming through some difficult stuff and realizing that you’re better for it and that you’re in a better place than you would have been if the shit hadn’t happened.”
We need more women like KT Tunstall, we just do.
