It’s more than just a personal victory, suggests KT Tunstall.

The 30-year-old Scottish singer-songwriter hopes that being one of the success stories of 2006 is a reminder that there is a lot of good music and musicians waiting to be found. They just need a break once in a while.

“I’ve never questioned that. I know there are great people out there. I’m always finding gems of CDs that haven’t been given the platform. I hope my success maybe changes the minds of a few record companies,” she says.

That’s especially so for those labels that “completely ignore the talent of women over 25,” she adds. “I’m just so surprised by that attitude. It’s a real shame when Sheryl Crow had her first album at 34 and it was one of the best selling albums on the planet.”

Tunstall’s own debut CD, “Eye to the Telescope,” has gone triple platinum in her native United Kingdom and is gold and moving toward more rarified color in the United States, on the strength of one of the year’s most durable radio hits, the intriguing “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree.”

Two years after it was released in the UK, “Eye to the Telescope” is still reaching listeners as a new album in the states.

Tunstall also hopes that it is seen by struggling musicians as a lesson in patience.

“Absolutely, I’ve had a lot of musicians come up to me after shows saying they were getting so depressed (about their chances) and that my success ‘makes me feel like it could still happen,’ “ she says. “I hope it still serve as some kind of comfort for a lot of people who have been hard at it a long time. I was trying for 10 years before all this happened.”

Her story is one that also is a reminder there are many ways to catch a listener’s ear. Songs from her album have been featured on a series of high-rated television programs, including “American Idol” (Runner-up Katharine McPhee sang her ‘Black Horse and the Cherry Tree’), “Will and Grace” and “Grey’s Anatomy.”

“Suddenly I See,” the CD’s second single, was the opening song in the Meryl Streep/Anne Hathaway film comedy, “The Devil Wears Prada.”

Tunstall describes herself as a huge film buff. “I love films. I always hoped there would be a possibility for a song to crossover to film. The television thing really didn’t cross my mind. I knew it happens, but I wouldn’t have been upset if it didn’t get used on TV,” she says. “It’s quite amazing that it just has been eaten up by so many shows. It’s an amazing medium to get to people.”

Many people have told her they heard her songs on various television programs. “The important thing is it gets people to shows,” she says.

Tunstall says she is not sure why “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” has made such a connection. “With that song, it’s so weird,” she says. “I feel like a little fish that got through the net. It’s very bizarre. When it was released in the UK I expected to turn a few heads, maybe get me the first rung of the ladder to go and introduce some of the more traditional stuff from the record.”

She admits to being “completely bowled backwards” by the fact so many people connected to it and really loved it.

“Refreshing” is the word she most often hears from fans of the song. “People say it doesn’t sound like any of the songs played in between on radio, and that it is catchy and intrigues people. A lot of people are trying to work out what it’s about.” The meaning of it is an intricate thread, she says.

In making “Eye to the Telescope,” this daughter of a physicist dad at the University of St. Andrews, says she found inspiration in Carole King’s early ‘70s’ chart-topping “Tapestry” album. “It was such a brilliant way to introduce herself, using songs that were very personal, almost biographical,” she says.

The essence of a singer-songwriter is looking for new ways to tell an old story, Tunstall says. “Basically you are rewriting cliché subjects that you look to work out in a new way,” she says. “It’s incredibly exciting. I tried to keep it very simple and personal and intimate.”

She just started a new album and says the material is quirkier and faster “and a little more of a mystery.”

What she records is meaningful to her, she assures. “And I like to think it is meaningful to someone else. That’s the reason I do it. I get up on stage and share it and have an experience with people. It’s so visceral.”

She is appreciative that she has an opportunity not afforded to everyone. “I’m enjoying myself and I hope people enjoy me,” she says

The artist does not sense that there is a different perception of her music in America than in her own country or elsewhere in the world. In fact, it is surprisingly similar, she says. “I actually thought the audience here would have a different feel or demographic. I really didn’t have the expectations of it being similar, but it is such a similar crowd, very similar.”

Her musical awareness moved into high gear as a teen when she received a scholarship to Connecticut’s Kent School, where she formed her first band. She became a frequent performer at local open mike nights. By the second week, she recalls, “they started introducing me as ‘their special guest from Scotland.’ ”

Her audience now, she adds, is “completely varied.” “There are kids sneaking in and realizing their parents are at the show as well. That’s really, really cool. I’m so glad it is appealing to such a wide variety.”

She was asked to perform on the Cartoon Network for kids 9 to 12 years old. “It was such a compliment that they are into what you do when you are 30 years old and writing lyrics for adults,” Tunstall says.

Her favorite email came from a 43-year-old punk rocker in London who said he was embarrassed to be writing to her, but “You’re the only person I can tell that I absolutely love your record.” “He said he couldn’t tell his mates,” she recalls, laughing.

Asked to evaluate her own strengths, Tunstall says it is in knowing where she is at and what she wants. “Had this happened to me five years ago, I wouldn’t have known,” she admits. “If you don’t know what you want, and other people make the decision for you, that’s when you lose your soul. It has to be what you are. Otherwise there is not much point doing it if it’s just for making money.”

The great thing about being older is that she has that realization, she says. “I’m so relieved I’m this age and doing this on my own terms. I’m not signed to a label that is trying to make me do something I don’t want to do. Why would I do that? I’d prefer not to do it at all.”

She says her own approach to music is “very compulsive and very sensual,” and it feels very natural to her. “It’s not something I analyze or get particularly deep on. It’s a very, very intrinsic and normal part of my life.” She has been writing stories since she was 16. “It was natural as anything else, writing songs and having the compulsion to play for people. If I couldn’t perform, I’m not sure I’d write any more. The reward of writing is doing it live. Playing live is the fundamental basis of what I do.”

Tunstall says performing live is the closest she ever gets to meditating. “I am at the mercy of music when I play a gig. I don’t think about anything else,” she explains. “It’s a very important connection to something much bigger. It’s my reason for being. That hour and a half on stage is where I feel most at home.”