KT Tunstall

The singer-songwriter reflects on backstage cuisine and how finding the correct earplugs changed her life…

- David Mead

What was the first gig you played and how did it go?

“The first gig ever I booked for myself when I was just 16 turning 17. I started playing guitar and writing songs at about 15 and a year later I wanted to put a gig on. I don’t know what had made me want to do the show; it was compulsion to share what I’d written. They said that because I was underage I could go into one of their back rooms and take just a few friends in there at seven o’clock or six or something. One of my friends, Siobahn, worked at the local woollen mill and she worked with King Creosote, aka Kenny Anderson, who was working in the woollen mill as well. He ended up coming along and pretty much at the end of that gig asked me to join his band. So it went extremely well and I ended up jumping into touring straight away because they were driving around Scotland in a van. It was like following the white rabbit, that one, and absolutely down the rabbit hole into a completely different life.”

Describe your current stage rig…

“I’m currently lucky enough to be touring with a band, so I don’t really need to have my big loop pedal-rig set up when I’ve got a band. I just use the loop pedal and not all the other shenanigans that I usually use. I’m playing Supro electrics and my old Gibson acoustic, swapping out for a Taylor acoustic and I’ve got a fantastic combo, a Supro Statesman, and also the Supro drive and tremolo pedals. The combo sounds superb – they’ve really got it going on with their combos.”

What’s on your rider?