KT Tunstall is already one of Scotland's biggest musical success stories of recent times - now she fancies cracking the silver screen.

The Edinburgh-born singer released her fourth album, Invisible Empire//Crescent Moon, to glowing reviews earlier this year.

Yet she's now hoping to have success with an animated project. "I've been getting involved with film, that's another passion, and I've been doing some writing for film music," she says.

"I'm probably taking a break from the write, record, release schedule I've been in for the past 10 years, so I fancy doing something different for a while.

"Jim Abbiss [music producer] and I have written an animated film with an electronic soundtrack. We're just exploring that, but it's a lot of fun."

That's not to say KT is giving up the day job soon, as she headlines the O2 Academy tonight. Her show is all-seated and the songstress made that decision because she feels it suits her new songs more.

"It'll definitely be a different vibe," she adds.

"It's a mellow album, and it's nice to change the vibe and the experience. Making it all seating is because I've noticed that people's urge to shout out is connected to whether they're sitting. Having people sitting down is a better behaved situation and when you have quiet, gentle songs then everyone has a better time if they're performed in the right atmosphere."

After 2010's Tiger Suit pursued a dance floor friendly direction, KT returned to a more stripped down format for Invisible Empire, working on the record in Arizona.

Halfway through the process her father passed away, and she split up with her husband the following month. Ironically, the album's most melancholy songs were mostly written before these tumultuous events.

"The first half is more melancholic and broodier, and that was before the cataclysmic stuff happened," she says.

"It's a bit like my subconscious knew what was coming. I've always had that side to me, it's not a shock I was writing melancholy tunes, it's just I wasn't relying on the rhythm guitar this time."

Now the 38-year-old is in cheerful, upbeat mode. She believes that Invisible Empire was the first time she was truly able to make exactly the record she wanted, after early chart success with singles like Black Horse & the Cherry Tree and Suddenly I See led bosses at her former label Relentless Records to desire more hits.

"Being on a major label, and having success, is littered with obstacles in terms of the artist versus the label, because if the label sees you as a cash cow they want to keep you as that," she says. "I did end up with music I was proud of, but a lot of it I would have done differently. You've got to compromise with a label and I don't want to compromise anymore."

Many of the tracks on Invisible Empire//Crescent Moon have captured an emotional period in KT's life, but one song in particular is different to the rest - Yellow Flower. It was originally written as a poem, and marked a change for KT's usual songwriting style.

"I lost a friend to leukaemia, and wrote a poem at that time," she says. "I'm bringing out a book of poetry on this tour, called Neon Vacant Headspace, and that's my first book of non musical poetry and prose.

"That's quite exciting - sometimes words arrive in my brain without music attached to them and Yellow Flower was one of them. I liked writing that way, doing the lyrics and worrying about the music later, I think it had interesting results."

n K T Tunstall, O2 Academy, tonight, £22.50, 7pm