The Ting Tings: The MusicSnobbery.com Interview

This was the interview I eventually had to do. I've spent a good deal of space since last year's Glastonbury writing about one of the most exciting bands to come along since I've been blogging. And it's for one reason, their music rules.

The Tings Tings make some of the most infectious, energetic and memorable music coming out of the U.K. Katie White and Jules De Martino create imaginative hooks, electronic beats and ear-popping choruses that make their debut album, We Started Nothing, a must-listen. All of that translates into their live shows, which they will bring to the U.S. many times over this summer.

As an added bonus, I've gotten to know Jules and Katie through the process so it made the interview easy to conduct. I am happy to see them making a name for themselves.

It was also good timing as an hour before I called Katie back in the U.K., she found out that their song, "That's Not My Name," topped the U.K. singles chart. As I write this, the album is top of the U.K. charts as well. With that in mind, Katie is the band's lead singer and we talked about the early days, making the record, the band's image and me. Tee hee. I'd like to welcome Katie to this space.

I think we should just talk bullshit for 15 minutes.
Sounds good to me.

Let's talk about all the bruises you have on yourself.
It's all from the video we made yesterday for "Shut Up and Let Me Go." We're doing a Kill Bill type of thing. Obviously, I've never done Kung Fu in my life, so they hired this James Bond stunt guy type to teach me some things. I've got all these bruises from hitting Jules, because you can't have a video of a guy punching a girl. Just not the right message to send. I've learned how to properly pull my punches and kicks, because I just couldn't stop myself from hitting him.

Now we have to do all this work with harnesses where we fly through the air. That just causes all these bruises on my thighs and shoulders. It's a good pain because I think it will be worth it.

Who directed it?
It's these two Berlin artists Alex and Liane. We liked them because they were young and creative. We just come off a bad experience with "That's Not My Name." The original video had all these explosions in it and we looked like Roxette. We hated it. The next day we made something ourselves in half a day. Just a simple performance video, so we're glad we're finally able to get the video right this time.

I pretty much know everything about you, but one thing I didn't know about you until you were on Morning Becomes Eclectic was that you were in a teen girl band.
It's nothing really, we weren't famous or known or anything. It was just me and my school friends. We were about 14 at the time. I grew up listening to pop music because that was all on the radio. It must have been mid-1990s, so it was Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls. My parents didn't have any records at all. It was only until I got older that got into Talking Heads. Even all the Manchester bands like Joy Division or New Order -- I just wasn't exposed to that when I was a teenager.

I would like to see some pictures of this girl group.
[laughs] We didn't have any uniforms or costumers or a dance routine, so it was a poor attempt, I suppose.

You got signed last year when you only had three songs, so was it difficult to think of more songs when you had to.
Actually, no. We had already been in a band before this which didn't turn out to well. At first, we were pretty cynical starting off on our own because we felt we were never going to get signed. So we felt "let's just do it and see what happens." Either we're going to put out singles or put out all songs at once on an album -- just as long as people had a good time at our shows. We were kind of blasé about it, but still passionate about our music. So when we signed a deal, we didn't feel like we sold our soul or were under pressure.

The idea behind the band is that you do everything yourself whether it be producing the album, making t-shirts or designing art work. Do you do it that way because you don't want any outside influences or is it out of necessity since you don't have a budget to bring in outside people?
When we started out people were always offering their services for free, but we made our first demos ourselves. It's tempting to hire the superstar producer to work on an album or video -- like what happened with the "That's Not My Name" video. You end up looking and sounding like every other band out there. Your identity gets lost in there. So we didn't feel the need to change how we did things.

That's what Hard-Fi did. When they got signed and had to make new songs for a full album, they went back to the same garage where they recorded to finish out the album.
Yeah, yeah. It was also that when me and Jules worked with somebody else in the past, it ended up failing miserably. Somebody will come in and tell you to do this and that. In the end, it's bullshit. Nobody knows what the hell they are doing [laughs].

The first song I heard in it's finished form was "Fruit Machine" and it sounded just like the demo. Did you have to map out what you wanted to change or make better from those demos?
When we originally recorded the demos, we didn't know what the hell we were doing. We would bang away and randomly try out sounds. We recorded it in a big echoing room, which wasn't made for making music. If a producer saw what we did, they would be mortified. The difference is that we had it mixed. All the levels were off. If you listen to the demo and the final version on a CD back-to-back, you'll notice that one is louder than the other.

I did notice how much cleaner it sounded.
Something like "That's Not My Name" -- there a fine line there and there's wasn't much changed in the mixing process. If you turn up the vocals to loud, all you hear is me shouting at the end. The song is really a give and take between the vocals and music.

Something subtle I noticed that was changed from when I first saw you live was on "Shut Up and Let Me Go" Live, it's Jules who does the backing vocals, but on the album it's you recording over yourself. Is there a give and take between you two? You give him somethings that he wants and he gives you things that you want or do you see eye-to-eye on most things?
I think we see eye-to-eye on most things. We really didn't think to much about who's doing what vocally. We just did it. On that, he just said, "why don't you just do the vocals" and we both agreed it sounded better that way. Now, I think he just likes not having to sing [laughs].

Let's talk about the songwriting -- "That's Not My Name" is about your old band.
... About the whole experience. We've had a shitty time in the music industry with Dear Eskiimo. We signed a record deal, made a record, then dropped. We had an old manager who tried milking money from us even though we never had a contract with them. We had to sell all our equipment to make up for lost costs. All our dreams of making music were gone. If you're in band and you've been dropped from your deal without even releasing the album, you've failed miserably. We didn't even get to release the album so that people could hate it [laughs]. We were broken-hearted and, more importantly, we lost all our confidence. So the song is a response to that.

Also, from a girl's point of view -- I was 19 at the time when we first got signed. I spent weeks putting together this scrapbook of all my favorite art and photographs. We didn't have a manager at the time, so I made this scrapbook for a marketing meeting to show what I'm all about. The record people didn't even look at it. They basically said to me, "How much skin are you willing to show in publicity photos?" I was stunned, I said, "Oh my God. Is this really happening?" I thought that shit happened in the 80s. I told them to fuck off, and soon after that we were dropped. That goes into the song as well. People figure that you have blonde hair that you can slap some makeup on you to make you look like a tart.

That's completely not you.
I felt terrible. I actually look worse with make-up on. It's very strange to see girls doing that when they are in a pop band, and they are completely giving into that ideal. Then if you're rock band, you have to look tough and not very feminine. That's why I like the Tom Tom Club and Tina Weymouth. She could be in a pop band and still keep her femininity. They have kids now and they are not embarrassed about the way they looked in the 80s.

The title track of the album is called "We Started Nothing". I take it as a response to your quick popularity and that you had no control over it.
It's not taking the piss out of people, but we just didn't have a game plan of what we wanted to do. It all just sort of happened. We thought our chance had gone, so all of this new attention is lovely. We thought we'd make music for our friends to hear. It's a good way to write songs because you are not trying to copy anybody or follow a trend. So we felt the hype build up and build up, so that's why it's the last song on the album. Literally, we didn't put our name out there or make music to become popular. We just wanted to make music that felt good.

When did you get a sense that the Ting Tings were going to take off and that you can make a living being in a band?
It was our second house party at Islington Mill. Our first one, we just bought beer and everyone got drunk. We couldn't do that again because we would be poor. The second one, we found an old TV and took all the electronics out of it. We put a sign on it that said "Donations". By the second and third time we did that, there were advertisements in the papers for the parties. So by the end of the night, there would be £200 in there. We were like, "Yeah, look at this, we can pay our rent."

What was your reaction to the iTunes ad?
We were ecstatic. We were so close to not getting it all. We were playing SXSW and we were playing three shows a day. I felt so ill the whole time. We're an energetic band live, but I'm not the most healthy person. I smoke and I eat burgers.

And brownies.
Yes, your brownies are making me sick. It's your fault. So at SXSW, I was not in great shape and it's blazing hot in Austin. I'm from Manchester and I'm not use to hot weather in March. At one gig, I fainted on stage and left. Then we had an hour to get to the next one. At the last minute, I started to feel better. So I went on anyway and that's when one of the Apple people were there. She comes up to me and says, "We've got to talk." Then we didn't hear back for a bit, until Apple comes to you and says that they're considering using the song for an advert. Apparently, Steve Jobs leaves the decision until the last moment on what song will air. So we only found until everyone else found out while watching Desperate Housewives or something.

And there you have it.
And there you have it. If you're going to put your song in an advert, that's the one to do it for.

How many hats do you own?
I don't know. You know the gray hat?

Yup.
[sighs] Chris, I lost it.

Oh no!
I'm destroyed.

Where did you loose it?
At the video shoot yesterday. I'm gutted. I put it down somewhere. At the end of the day, it wasn't there. It's not that I particularly like the hat. It's not very fashionable. I got it at ASDA, which is like Wal-Mart. It's basically a cheap, supermarket hat. I would wear it at gigs because I could hide behind it. Then when I felt more confident I would take it off. I haven't done a gig without it until last night. It was so strange.

It's like Jules without his sunglasses.
He's got tons of sunglasses, but he wears them because his eyes are very sensitive to light. If he doesn't wear them, he'll have to squint the whole time.

Final question, did I make the linear notes?
No. [Laughs] There were so many people. We just thanked our friends and family and the people back at the Mill.

Ah, nuts.

We Started Nothing is available for download now on iTunes or you can get a physical album on June 3. Go to the band's myspace page for tour dates.

Comments

[SPF]

Thanks for posting this. It is appalling, if not sadly expected, how in this day & age, that the first thing that a record company will look for with even obviously talented female artists is how much skin she's willing to show. I'm glad Katie responded the way she did.

[Left/Right]

Check out this new remix of The Ting Tings!

The Ting Tings - Shut Up and Let Me Go (Left/Right Remix)
http://www.zshare.net/audio/166321696790f7ac/

[Billie]

does anyone know when Katie's birthday is