K T Tunstall will release her fifth album KIN on September 9, two years after she thought she was done with making music.

“As an artist I feel like I died. I stopped. I gave up. I didn’t want to do it anymore,” says the Scottish singer-songwriter, who put her stuff in storage, bought a house in Venice Beach, California and enrolled in the Sundance Institute’s elite Film Composers Lab.

It was to become a turning point in her life. A year later, KIN was born. Produced by Tony Hoffer, who has worked with Beck and Belle And Sebastian, and written by K T in Los Angeles, it elicited an 11-track album of guitar pop that will be preceded by the September 2 single Maybe It’s A Good Thing.

“I’ve finally made peace with being a pop songwriter,” says 41-year-old K T. “This record was very much embracing my dharma as an artist, which is to write happy songs that are also good.”

The album highlights include the raucous rebellion of It Took Me So Long To Get Here, But Here I Am; a duet with KT fan James Bay, Two Way; the shimmering pop of Run On Home; the call to arms of Hard Girls and the beautiful closer Love Is An Ocean.

K T will follow up next month’s Highlands and Islands tour with 14 autumn dates, including York Barbican on November 5. Box office: 0844 854 2757 or at yorkbarbican.co.uk