2006年VOA标准英语-KT Tunstall's Debut Album Takes Off in US and U

By Craig Fitzpatrick
Washington
03 July 2006
 
Watch Tunstall Report

KT Tunstall is the latest in a line of contemporary singer-songwriters from Scotland who offers listeners haunting melodies and gripping, biting lyrics¹. She says her songs are kitchen table songs, like conversations with one other person. After years of informal gigs and recording² in little studios in the woods, she has signed on to a major record label. Her debut³ album has taken off both in England and the United States. Larry London sat down with KT Tunstall recently in the VOA studios.

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KT Tunstall  
  
KT Tunstall has been making music for years. Recently she topped the charts in England and America with her song, "Black Horse & The Cherry Tree".

Her music career started years ago as a teenager. "I started really when I was 15," she said, "I was always writing stuff. I loved writing poetry. I always loved rhyming things."

Although KT grew up in Scotland, she is part Chinese.

She said, "I'm adopted, and I've always known from day-dot, and my parents have been wonderful about it. I've always made it something very special, being adopted." Tunstall said, "I don't look outrageously⁴ Chinese myself, being a quarter Chinese.  It's always been something that's added a lot of mystery, and it's intriguing⁵, and it's exotic."

And her new CD is certainly intriguing - her first recorded in a major studio.

"You're in this little weird⁶ room with headphones, with no guitar, with no band, with no audience, and you've got to sing," she said. "And that's not how I sing. I sing to people and I was singing to a padded wall." 

 
KT Tunstall at VOA 
  
Singing in a studio and signing her first record contract were difficult for KT, who had always been free to follow her own path. She didn't want to become just another product.

"I had the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other," she said, "and the good guy was just going, ‘This is really scary and you're going to have to be really, really careful.' And this guy, the black horse, is just going, ‘Go for it, you could be really massive, you could be really rich.'  And I'm just going ‘shut up.'"

That contract produced the album, Eye to the Telescope.  Tunstall said, "I very deliberately⁷ picked songs which were looking at relationships, and looking twists in relationships."

She prefers her relationships monogamous and stable. She's been dating her drummer for about four years now, however there was that incident a few years ago.

She said, "It happened once, I saw a cute boy and I was like, ‘Do you have a cigarette?' I smoked at the time.  Don't smoke anymore.  He said, ‘Yeah.'  I said, ‘Actually, I don't want a cigarette, I just wanted to meet you, you're gorgeous.'  And I was just so appalled⁸ at the whole idea of talking to someone just because they looked nice, and they might be just an idiot. That was my first foray into the one-night-stand and it was terrible."

Whether it's relationships or the music business KT Tunstall has no regrets. "It's been a great ride and it really teaches you to assert yourself, which is a very useful lesson in life," she said.

1 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。

2 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

3 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

4 outrageously   

凶残地； 肆无忌惮地； 令人不能容忍地； 不寻常地

参考例句：

• Leila kept smiling her outrageously cute smile. 莱拉脸上始终挂着非常可爱的笑容。
• He flirts outrageously. 他肆无忌惮地调情。

5 intriguing   

adj.有趣的；迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词)；激起…的好奇心

参考例句：

• These discoveries raise intriguing questions. 这些发现带来了非常有趣的问题。
• It all sounds very intriguing. 这些听起来都很有趣。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

7 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

8 appalled   

v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• They were appalled by the reports of the nuclear war. 他们被核战争的报道吓坏了。 来自《简明英汉词典》