The Ting Tings Interview

After their first album We Started Nothing was released in 2008 it seemed the whole music world went crazy for the Tings Tings unique sound. They were nominated for a host of awards and the album went on to sell over 2 million copies. There doesn’t seem to be a unified genre the band belong to though, are they pop? Are they Indie? Are they synth pop? To see what the band think and to find out about the new album we talked to Jules de Martino who provides drums, lead guitar and vocals for the band.

You and Katie were in the band Dear Eskiimo and the relationship with your record label broke down, were you tempted to leave the music industry?

That band was a band that we wanted to be in, me and Katie and another guy. We formed a band that we were serious about. We made a record and got signed and we were very conscious about what we wanted to be. We were into Portishead and we wanted to kind of be into that trippy, laid back style of music. Going through that process meant a hell of a lot to us and we were very precious about it. Then everything went wrong, not just in terms of losing the record deal, when the band spilt up we lost friends, me and Katie didn’t speak. It was the classic cliché band stories that went wrong and it put us off being in a band for life. Then me and Katie hooked up and started doing a bit of writing, like artists always do. We were living in a mill in Islington, with a load of other artists and without wanting to be in a band the Ting Tings were created. If you can image that feeling of going around the world, having a successful album, playing great shows and not having any of that corporate stuff. That was the feeling of euphoria we had with this band and it all makes sense again.

Is there a genre you feel the band belongs in?

Not at all. When me and Katie were in Manchester hanging out, the parties we created and the scenes that were involved in with our friends, the music that was being played could be anything. We would dance to an Aerosmith track, equally we would be doing the same to a New Order track, equally to something that was new wave that was happening three years ago. There were no lines drawn between that, no-one turned their nose up at us playing a Duran Duran track or whatever. The records we played were just great records, that’s where this band was born. We are not trying to set any trends, I just think that’s where we are at the moment with the digital age with music. It has become really varied because you can go online and discover Led Zeppelin for the first time or Brittany Spears, whatever it is. I think that’s where our music is, I don’t think you can pigeonhole it. I think we just love making great music. At the moment, on this album we are fascinated by funk and groove, buts it’s not going to turn into a fully hip-hop album. Well it might, we are allowed to do anything we want to in this band and I think that’s why people get confused about what kind of music it is, if you want to put it in a pigeonhole I don’t think you can.

It that why you said the new album has a playlist feel?

We can’t fake to be something we are not; we can’t sit in the studio and say well we are a kind of new wave pop band that has a DIY core but looks like a total manufactured pop band in certain areas. If something is coming from your heart and soul when you’re in the studio and it defines what and how you go about recording music or playing music or travelling with your music, that’s all there is, we just don’t analysis it. We have spent three and half years, close to four years when the next album is out in January. People ask us why its taken so long and well we have travelled around the world, we have done some amazing things as a group, it wasn’t just about music. I think people take that whole concept of what your music style is, what they expect of you, how you’re meant to be in and out of the studio way too seriously.

I think with journalism it’s getting to the point where people are going to have to be a bit smarter when they write their articles. I mean polish band that we have met on travels, bands from India, they have not broken through the mainstream in the UK but there bands out there that we have met that are doing amazing music, its truly incredible and the way that they are promoting themselves online and I can tell you know that there isn’t a title for any of that music that is coming in the next five years, there is no title for it, its just great music with influences of hip hop and influences of punk but that doesn’t mean it’s a hip hop band, I just wouldn’t call it that.

Where is your favourite place in the world?

It changes because we are still opening that envelope. We are in Ibiza at the moment, we have been here before but we have never spent any time here rehearsing so we thought we would do that. We all know what Ibiza has in store in terms of a mad weekend but actually being here in a really cool rehearsal and recoding complex is a different experience. We have spent a couple of days here and already this is feeling like it could be an amazing place to hang out. We adored South America; Brazil was fantastic to hang out in, the audiences in France are amazing. We lived in Berlin for a while; there are just so many places that are mind-blowing. We will favour one for six months and think it’s the best thing ever, all of a sudden we go to visit another place and that takes over for a while.

Published in Metro and Yorkshire Evening Post