SuburbanHorror: I heard about your recent comments about Carrie Underwood from American Idol, do you regret letting your song Black Horses be used in the earlier seasons of American Idol?
KT Tunstall: No, absolutely not. I don’t regret it in the slightest. It was a weird one to come my way because I’ve never been particularly polite about how I feel about reality pop shows, I mean, they are... they’re fantastic television; it’s very entertaining. But when it comes to the actual kind of the very limited amount of space there is in our culture for new music to get through, it’s a real shame when you’ve got essentially very expensive karaoke acts taking up a lot of the space when there’s new and very exciting original artists who are writing their own music and doing something very, very new and unique. And, so, as a writer, I think that’s why it kind of wrangled me about the best new artist category because, I mean, I have nothing personal against Carrie Underwood at all, she’s a very talented singer, but I was really, really very please at the same time to see that the Grammy people had nominated someone like Imagen Heap, who’s just a completely free-spirited and very, very talented original musician. And, it was just basically scary, the best new artist getting up and saying thank you to God and Simon Cowell. It was... it wasn’t what I expected to hear when something got that award. But, I mean, there’s no bad blood with it. I mean, she does well and lots of people absolutely love what she does and she’s obviously talented. So, it was just not what I expected.

SH: Do I ask my next question, or?
KT: Yes, sure, go for it. I think what we’ll probably do is like if you want to ask three questions and then we’ll come around again if there’s more that you want to ask.

SH: Okay, I’m actually in Sterling right now. I go to the University of Sterling, so this...
KT: You’re joking! Really? What time is it?

SH: 1:00 a.m.
KT: Oh my God. Well done for staying up. You need to have another nip of whiskey to keep you awake.

SH: So I'll ask you a couple of questions. Like is... what was it like growing up in St. Andrews?
KT: It was gorgeous. I mean, it was a completely idyllic place to grow up and actually they did a pole recently in Britain with the best places to grow up as a child and I think that St. Andrew’s came out number one. I was just... it really is a fantastic place, because even though it’s very secluded and in a very, very beautiful part of the countryside, it’s very cosmopolitan because it’s got the university and the golf course and whatnot. So, there’s lots of different type of people from different places and a very high standard of education and just a beautiful place to grow up. I’d just constantly be down on the beach in the summer and skiing in the winter and I’m very close to my family so it was lovely.

SH: Okay. And growing up part Asian in Scotland must have been weird. Because I’m an Asian in Scotland right now...
KT: Oh, really?

SH: Yeah, so how was it, how was it just growing up? And do you use any of that, any of those experiences in your songs?
KT: Well, I’m adopted. So, the Chinese part of my heritage is kind of fairly hidden from me. I don’t... I’ve met my birth mother since, about 8 years ago now, but... and she’s very, very Chinese looking, but I wasn’t... I looked more Chinese when I was a kid. And my parents just really taught me to use it as something that was special rather than something that was, you know, detrimental to growing up in Scotland. But, certainly, it was a mostly completely Caucasian environment I was in and I did look a little different, and I knew that there wasn’t that many people that looked like me. So, but it never caused me any problems and now I’m, you know, I’ve always been pretty grateful for it to be honest.

SH: Alright. Well, thank you for that.
KT: Yeah, no worries. I just want to say thank you. Thank you for all the good words and it’s great to talk to you all.

-Magic Stick Mish