KT TUNSTALL might well be a born-again beach babe, with the glamorous strip of sand known as Venice at her front door, but she says she still wears shoes. “Well, sometimes. I am growing my hair really, really long though.”

Although the place she calls home currently is Los Angeles, more Scotland-friendly attire is being packed for two appearances in May, first headlining Oban Live, then heading to Perth Concert Hall as part of the city’s Festival of the Arts.

It’s going to be a busy summer, criss-crossing the Atlantic to play US and European shows, and no-one is more surprised than KT that there is new material to debut. An EP called Golden State will be released mid-June, with her fifth album to follow in September. All of this contrary to her intention to concentrate on what has been a successful transition into writing music for film.

“I honestly didn’t expect to be so excited about making another album,” she says, without any adopted Californian drawl but with a lazy timbre that is indicative of a relaxed state of mind. “The title of the EP reflects a few things. Not everyone knows that California is known as the Golden State, so that’s one thing, but it’s a title that expresses my current mood.”

KT is open about the fact that on the 2013 album, Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon, she was “going through a whole load of sh*t that was happening in my personal life”, referring to the death of her father and break-up of her marriage, which happened in rapid succession.

“After that I sold up everything I owned, moved continents, and made a fresh start. It was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

She also made a break from the cycle of album/promotion/touring that had become relentless in the preceding 10 years since the release of Eye to the Telescope.

“After having success and touring for such a long time, I found it almost impossible to stop. The most difficult thing is that you enjoy what you’re doing. It’s the studio, it’s a gig, it’s where you want to be, so it can be very difficult to say no. In the end you end up completely battered. You realise that you’re nearly dead.”

Of course that’s a sobering and serious thought but perhaps the pacifying effect of the ocean has got to her as she can also joke about what might have been. “I genuinely think that if I hadn’t done what I’ve done, I’d be locked up somewhere in a white gown talking to a plughole. And that would have created an entirely different album.”

If the last album was a chance to exorcise the loss, then this would appear to be the opposite. “One of the songs is called It took me so long to get here, but here I am. It’s the theme of the record really.”

The decision to relocate to the West Coast came with an opportunity to study feature film composition at the Skywalker Ranch of George Lucas. Since then she has written or co-written songs for films including Disney’s Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast and Million Dollar Arm and soundtracks to Winter's Tale and About Ray.

The intention, she says, was to stop making albums and focus on composition. To be visible to studios being in LA was necessary. Although she had visited before and enjoyed it, LA hadn’t been on the list of places to live.

“But what I found out is that, perhaps more than anywhere else I’ve ever been, LA is made up of wildly different areas. They are so far apart too, so you feel like you’re in a completely different town. I had some work in Santa Monica and cycled down to the boardwalk to Venice Beach and it just blew my mind. I saw f***king dolphins! That came out wrong - I didn’t see dolphins f***king but you know what I mean.

“The culture of being a beach bum is completely alive and well here. Even people in the entertainment industry take time off. I thought, ‘god I never have weekends off, never mind a week day’.”

There was a fear that this pace of life would slow down the work, but the surroundings proved to be a catalyst rather than having the feared soporific effect.

“My friend Tim Smit, who was behind the Eden Project, did offer to send me a roller blind with a view of Hackney, so I could block out the sunshine and get down to some work.”

In the end, further exploration of the area was enough. Driving through the canyons and spending time in the hills around the city, she found the ghosts of Laurel Canyon when it was the creative powerhouse of songwriting – but not in that bread head way, man. Following days hiking in Topanga Canyon, she drove home at sunset to a soundtrack of Fleetwood Mac, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and even Tom Petty.

“It all fed into the writing. This has become an unexpected record for me - probably the biggest-sounding album I’ve made. It’s a real rambunctious, bombastic pop record. I definitely wouldn’t have made this record in the UK. I would have been far too self-conscious. Here I don’t care about that - I’m just enjoying myself and everything I’m doing is feeding in to the songs. There are also Californian psychedelic touches, what I’d called the Third Eye element.

“Watching day turn into night here is seriously magical and really a bit spooky. LA has a suicidal glamour that David Lynch gets perfectly in Mulholland Drive. In the hills you can be 10ft away from a superstar or 10ft from a mountain lion.”

The sense of home KT feels is more understandable when she recalls living there as a child. Her father was a physicist and, during a sabbatical to UCLA, moved the family over from St Andrews in 1979. “My first memories are when I was four and they are all of California, so there has been some kind of imprint on me with this place.”

Another useful aspect of taking control of her life has been added input in how she gets records to the public. Choosing to fund the production of the fifth album through Pledge Music was a difficult decision, but she has seen the positive side of staying connected with a loyal record-buying following.

“At first I thought, ‘I’m an established artist, why would I do that?’ but I knew that it could work for my situation with Virgin/Universal. It’s a licensing deal so I cover a lot of the upfront costs of records. That gives me more freedom in how I want to make the record so it made sense that way.”

The unexpected bonus for KT is cultivating closer relationships with people who, as she says, “have stuck by her no matter what kind of album I’ve made.” It also satisfies the greater demand that music fans are showing in terms of getting access to musicians and bands.

“They are genuinely interested in how I get to the point of releasing a record, so this gives them access to the process, with videos from the studio and previews of songs. They can also get hold of things they want – stuff like lyric sheets and photos from the studio. I’m also offering a limited edition guitar. It’s making sure that what we offer is genuinely valuable to them.”

Part of the Pledge process can be offering private gigs at home. For artists with KT’s level of success they usually cost in excess of £5000 but she’s kept the price down to £1745.

“I didn’t want them to be restricted to the really rich. But then they disappeared almost immediately. I have the distinct impression that I’ll turn up to someone’s living room and I’ll end up playing at their wedding.”

On the subject of heading “home” she responds in a way I’ve heard before; that she likes the nomadic lifestyle and has a tenuous grasp on where home really is. “But I do miss that landscape. Actually there’s an announcement to come in the near future that will mean I can spend more time in Scotland. I really can’t say yet, but I’m looking forward to it. And I’ll bring you all roller blinds of Venice Beach.”

KT Tunstall headlines Oban Live at Mossfield Park today. Tickets from www.obanlive.com. She plays Perth Concert Hall as part of Perth Festival of the Arts on Friday, May 27. Tickets from www.perthfestival.co.uk.