My first memories of life were Californian. I remember lemon trees, orange trees, sunshine at Christmas and the most ridiculous festive decorations. I lived in LA for a year when I was four – my dad was doing a sabbatical at UCLA – so it always remained quite a familiar place.
Staying on Sunset Strip, doing our show, getting wasted, and staying up until morning. That was my experience of LA as an adult, playing gigs there over the past 10 years. It wasn’t until I had some work at a studio at nearby Santa Monica and a record label put me up in a Venice Beach hotel that I fell in love with it. I walked out of the hotel and saw dolphins jumping out of the water. I was blown away and two years ago I moved here.
The week I arrived I heard someone playing my song. I was walking down Main Street, and through the window of O’Brien’s bar I saw a band playing my song Black Horse and the Cherry Tree. I went to the window and gave a thumbs-up to the guitarist. He had no idea who I was – just waved back and ignored me. But it was a lovely welcome.
This is the first time since I was a kid that I’ve lived somewhere where I can’t hear traffic. Venice Beach is incredibly quiet at night: no streetlights, no traffic, hummingbirds in the garden, palm trees everywhere. There are also crackheads going through your recycling, but that’s just the juxtaposition of living there. I really cherish it as a sanctuary, which I never expected from a place like LA.
I feel part of a community that knows how to relax and enjoy itself. I don’t have weekends in a structured way and I’d often feel quite alone in London during my down time. It’s also the most informal style of living in a metropolis I’ve come across – bohemian, unconventional, a bit barefoot. It’s difficult to find a restaurant where you would ever feel underdressed. People go shopping in pyjamas and to dinner in flip-flops. At first I was worried I wouldn’t be able to do any work. A workaholic friend said: “I’m going to send you a roller blind of Hackney to pull down and stop you being distracted.” But really, there’s no downside to living here.
There’s this community of interesting, bizarre characters down on the beach. One guy walks around in a metallic red nappy with a pair of devil horns glued to his head. I’ve never seen him without them. Then there’s Muscle Beach, where my drummer, Sarah, got her photo taken with a seven-foot Adonis.
Loads of very influential, seminal music has been made in LA. Like Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Fleetwood Mac … I spent a lot of time driving round the canyons, listening to these amazing musicians whose music has deeply informed my new record. I really started to understand why their music comes from those places.
The topography of LA is fascinating. It has huge swathes, like the (San Fernando) Valley, with gazillions of people next to each other. Then these incredible mountain ranges just spring out of the ground. Only half an hour’s drive from Venice Beach is a hike I love called Eagle Rock, in Topanga Canyon. After 10 minutes of walking you can’t see a house or hear a car. You feel like you’re in the wilderness.
My favourite place to eat is very near my house: it’s called Gjelina. It serves fresh, interesting fusion food. It’s quite famous for the pizzas; there are toppings like vongole (clams), prosciutto and fig. It makes incredible salads, with mandarin and melon and pomegranate, and beautiful cheese and walnuts. You get a little tin plate and sit outside on a milk crate in an alcove covered in flowers.
One of the great things for a British person living in Venice Beach is the plants. They are all so exotic and succulent. The Juicy Leaf shop on Figueroa Street in Highland Park is gorgeous. It’s full of these lovely little air plants that you don’t need to plant: you just give them a bit of water every now and again and put them wherever you want.
• KT Tunstall is on tour from 14 September, her new album, Kin, is out on 9 September
