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Interview with KT Tunstall: The noise within

KT Tunstall seated on a wooden chair in a dark room. Credit Richard Faulks

KT Tunstall shares her personal story and shows her support for tinnitus awareness and research.

“It can be very isolating. It can make you feel alone because you’re trapped in the sound of it and cannot get out. I think it would be life-changing, for a lot of people, to have a cure.” 

Brit Award-winning and Grammy®-nominated Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall shot to international fame in the mid-2000s with iconic hits like ‘Suddenly I See’, ‘Black Horse and the Cherry Tree’, and ‘Other Side of the World’. She has sold more than 5 million albums worldwide and has written the music for soon-to-open West End musical Clueless.

KT, who also won an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection, has faced a personal challenge that many of her fans may not know about: tinnitus.

This year, KT, who also experiences hearing loss in her left ear, has lent her voice to support our campaign as we raise awareness and critical funds for tinnitus research.

In our exclusive video interview, and below, KT shares her deeply personal journey, reveals how she manages her condition, and admits how it has shaped her career.


My experience with tinnitus

Like most people when they’re young, I loved loud dance music and going clubbing. When I was at college, I would go clubbing for hours and I would get a ringing in my ear the next morning. Then it really set in after I’d started touring heavily and I noticed it was not going away in my left ear.

I remember there was an incident where I’d been to see a friend perform in a concert. I was close to the front of the stage, and I was under stress from travelling and working. I woke up the next morning and had horrendous, very loud, constant ringing in my left ear. As usual, I thought, oh, this will pass. But it didn’t.

I’m pretty sure the tinnitus is from noise damage to my ears, being around extremely loud sound systems, and dancing too close to the speaker – I would do that differently if I could do it again.

How my tinnitus sounds

My tinnitus began weirdly as an extremely loud, solid concert C. It was so loud I could tune my guitar to it – helpful in some ways!

Now it’s more of a white noise sound rather than a note. But I can hear it at night. I can hear it all the time. Sometimes I find it weirdly reassuring – because I’m deaf in my left ear I find it kind of balancing, even though I don’t really like it.

The other thing about my tinnitus, is that I can get these surges. Out of nowhere I suddenly get this really loud surge, which kind of makes me stop in my tracks and I’m like, oh man, I really hope that does not stay like that.

A difficult acceptance

It was really shocking. I would say that it was causing me some depression.

I felt very reclusive. I remember being on the tour bus and just wanting to stay in my bunk under the covers.

I did not want to leave the bus. It was overwhelming, you cannot really think about anything else. You cannot focus on conversations and it’s difficult to get to sleep. It can be really, really upsetting, and it took some time to accept that it was going to be there all the time.

Learning to cope

When I first got tinnitus, it felt quite unmanageable. I can really understand how it sends some people mad and affects their life.

I had to make a spiritual, very personal decision that this was not going to happen to me. I had to come up with a system within myself to deal with it, so I came up with this idea that my tinnitus was the universe, constantly in my ear, keeping tabs on my wellness.

If I’m tired or exhausted, or if I’m working too hard, it starts screaming. So, for me, my tinnitus is a good gauge for my wellness and whether I’ve been overexerting myself. It stops me from doing things that I would usually try and push to do.

A cure for tinnitus

A cure for tinnitus would be so special in those quiet moments, particularly in nature. I’m such a nature-lover, and my favourite sound is birds singing.

It would be lovely to hear a peaceful environment with beautiful birdsong and not have tinnitus there listening with me. That would be awesome.

It’s very difficult to explain to someone who does not have tinnitus what it’s like. It’s life-changing. It can be very isolating. It can make you feel alone because you’re trapped in the sound of it and cannot get out.

You’ve got to change your life to deal with it. It really would be life-changing, for a lot of people, to have a cure.

If you or someone you know has tinnitus, RNID is on hand to offer the support and guidance you need.

Credit: KT Tunstall photos by Richard Faulks

KT Tunstall seated in an empty theatre credit Richard Faulks

Help silence tinnitus

There’s currently no cure for tinnitus, and our understanding of what causes it is limited. We fund tinnitus researchers to help develop treatments and cures. Please support our research today.
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