The Ting Tings Review

By Jeremy Anderson

Purposely ignoring music industry convention, The Ting Tings set themselves apart with their uncompromising focus on infectious spontaneity and freshness. The British indie-pop duo isn’t preoccupied with creating works of long lasting artistic significance or perfecting market friendly music. The group’s allure comes from holding close to the immediacy of creative inspiration, crafting instantly pleasurable, funky, and danceable songs.

Nothing in Katie White’s brash vocals and poppy guitar licks merged with Jules De Martino’s up-tempo percussion sounds overly rehearsed or remotely pre-contrived. “We’re a couple pop heads at heart,” White said describing the duo’s musical connection.

True to form, the band and their style emerged haphazardly. “This [band] we didn’t mean,” said De Martino. “This one was writing to have parties and get rid of frustration… It was just me and Katie left over from the [previous] bands that didn’t work… She picked up a guitar for the first time and I was back on my drums for the first time in five years… We didn’t know what we were doing. We just had to get some rhythm going for our drunk friends to dance to.”

Quickly, a lot of buzz arose around the parties put on by the duo at their Manchester flat. “The first party, twenty-five people came and the second party a few more came,” said White. “By the fourth one we felt spoiled to be invaded by the music industry, so we stopped.”

By this point, White and De Martino knew they had stumbled upon something exciting for both themselves and their expanding audience. They went to lengths to keep the process intuitive. “We took everything straight to the studio and if it didn’t work within two hours we scrapped it,” said Martino, describing recording their debut album, We Started Nothing. “We’re very impatient. We’ve got to get that fix.”

Their process is not merely happenstance. White and Martino are two experienced performers who learned and developed much due to their hardships in previous groups. “Sometimes people take too long in music studios trying to make things perfect,” said Martino. “Sometimes you lose what you had in the demo. We weren’t about to do that because in our last band we did that quite a lot.”

The pair are taking their early success in stride and don’t feel pressured by high industry expectations. “We don’t really have goals,” said White. “When we set out with this band we didn’t really think we’d get anywhere with it… We didn’t plan it… We just went on our instincts and I think we’re just going to keep doing that.” The entire existence of their band has happened so quickly and intuitively that both members remain connected in the moment.

De Martino described The Ting Tings music as a “snapshot” of the time which it is invented, making their songs ripe for the here and now. “We want to do it again after touring this year… go back into the studio and relate how we feel,” he said. It is an ambitious uphill struggle to remain fresh and relevant when methods age with familiarity. Will these two Brits be able to continue surging with spontaneity in the future? Their sound is carefree, poppy, and accessible, but is unlikely to leave a lasting imprint. Appreciate The Ting Tings music today, as close to it’s creation as possible. Longevity is not their aim.