The Ting Tings - Interview
Playing secret gigs in German doctors’ surgeries, getting your parties crashed by the hottest major label talent scourers in town and having emails from Rick Rubin crouching in your inbox. Not exactly your typical rise to fame eh? So noize tracked down this hotly tipped duo at the start of the 2008 NME Awards Tour to divide the fairy tales from the real life truths.
* What has it been like to go from playing in The Islington Mill one month to being hounded by major labels the next?
Katie: Yeah it was pretty mind blowing because we did our first gig there and we were in the living room of our studio so we got the TV and just pushed it to one side to make a little stage. Then we had like twenty five of our friends and some of the artists from the Mill and did a show for them. The second one was like 50 people and the third one. By the fourth one it was advertised on XFM and we had people from Sony and all these different labels. They weren’t even really invited!
* So they sort of crashed your party?
Jules: Yeah! We got a really cool picture though, a friend of ours who took this picture and it’s all these people sat on our wooden floor in our studio. All these kind of big cheeses from the music business sitting on the floor going *makes a jaw dropping face* hahah so we can’t wait to get it on our myspace.
* Where you a bit apprehensive to work with labels after having those disappointments with Dear Eskimo? Where you worried that would happen again?
Katie: Yeah but then we met Mike Piccarin (she pronounced this PIK-A-RIN but I was unsure of the spelling) he used to be in a band himself and nig things happened. We knew he was going to be one of our big contacts at Sony and we just felt really comfortable with him, he’s from Manchester and he’s our A&R guy but he’s not in the studio every week he’s more just like seeing how we are and if we need anything. So we got sort of left to our own devices and then Rick Rubin sent us that email so that sort of just made us think we’ve gotta go with Sony.
* How has it been for you having so much interest from people like Rick Rubin, Zane Lowe and Jools Holland? Was that a bit overwhelming?
Jules: Yeah obviously a bit overwhelming because these guys are big peers in the music industry. We’re kind of weird, I don’t know…. we didn’t really lap around much with the industry. Of course we wanted a record deal and of course we needed the record deal to put our records out to a certain degree but we still make our own records- we recorded and produced our own album. The guys we work with our management are amazing and the label we work with are fantastic. The people we met from the other labels were really good, I think we just got really lucky that we were kind of half way through our record when we started meeting industry, we’ve been doing these gigs, the buzz was already out there and we’d sent out a couple of little vinyls so when these guys came in they were like these guys have got it sorted …
Katie: We were lucky that we’d got ourselves in the position were we could really say what we wanted out or our record label and we weren’t prepared to do. We weren’t jaded by it we’d gone through that phase; we’d gone through the phase of being like pissed off at the music industry. In all honesty I think on reflection we just compared to what we’re doing now we’re so glad it didn’t go right.
* Zane Lowe compared your single “Fruit Machine” to Girls Aloud in a “good way”. How does that sort of comparison make you feel?
Jules: When you’re a new band you get compared to a lot of things, everyone’s trying to pigeon hole you; everyone’s trying to put you with something. It doesn’t really make a lot of sense but equally it’s brilliant getting compared to bands like that because it’s fun. It’s like some people are saying we’re a pop band, other people are saying we’re a rock band; everyone’s trying to make us something somewhere. I mean some people have said there’s a White Stripes comparison and we’re nothing like The White Stripes and then we’ve got people saying Girls Aloud and we’re nothing like them so…..
Katie: I think we have the um…were big fans of Yeah the thing is we’re big fans of pop music and I don’t particularly rate Girls Aloud but I probably rate the writers because it’s quite nice for pop tunes but it’s not really Girls Aloud. So I’d really rate their writers more than the actual band.
* So do you think The Ting Tings could start a pop revival?
Katie: I’ve no idea!
Jules: Yeah! A pop revival could be happening big time. I think people are taking bigger chances.
Katie: I think real pop like as opposed to fake pop. We write and produce it ourselves so we’re not a really poppy band on paper because we don’t even work with producers, we do it all ourselves and you don’t get many pop bands like that.
* What are you hoping to bring to the rest of the NME stages on this tour?
Jules: We’re hoping to get on with all these new bands we’ve met tonight and just have a real good giggle! Yeah because we’ve been so busy recording, mixing, travelling, going to meetings-all that stuff so it’s so good to be on the road again with musicians and leave all the industry behind us and just kind of get out there and jus rock and. Just play our stuff so it’s just good watching other bands and stuff.
* I know some of them are in here but who’s your favourite act on the tour?
(DIOYY? and Joe Lean are hanging around)
Jules: The ones in here! (Shouts in the direction of the DIOYY? camp) Yeah your show was awesome, your lead singer better be careful, he’s gonna break his fuckin’ neck!
… Jules is referring to his stage climbing antics earlier on…
Katie: Yeah we’d only seen these guys (DIOYY?) and they were brilliant!
* So if you two were choosing the bands for your own tour, who would you put on the bill?
Katie: Oh we’d have David Burns on!
Jules: Yeah David Burns any day….Talking Heads…
Katie: There’s a girl called Annie Rossi she’s really cool, she plays the violin and stuff.
Jules: From Chicago. Maybe some of the bands here but we’ve gotta see the other two
* Back to Dear Eskimo, what’s changed for you from going from a three piece to a two piece like how did that dynamic sort of change as you lost a member?
Katie: It was really weird because we found there’s so much more energy with two people than three and I don’t know why there’s just so much more energy I think.
Jules: The other thing with less members is you have to do more because we run everything on loops so we have to keep hitting them with our feet and you have to do more. Then Katie’s singing obviously, walking around playing guitar, singing, playing the drums. She’s doing a lot and it’s quite because you’re doing a lot and you haven’t got other members to sort of rely on. So if it’s not right, if we just go out there and one of us isn’t up for it, then the shows over. It’s just not gonna work. There’s an edge there with just two of us because normally before we go onstage we keep reassuring each other-“ Do you remember the lyrics?” ,”Do you remember the loop times?” So if like one goes wrong it’ll all fall apart.
Katie: Yeah but we like that danger thing, it could all fall on the floor.
Jules: Yeah so that’s what’s good about being a small unit in a way.
* You released your single “Great DJ” as a free download so why have you decided to do that? Where Radiohead any inspiration?
Jules: Well, we recorded the songs and put the demos out and we’re always moaning at the label about giving people music out so they can listen to it and they kept saying “You can’t do that!” Then they conceded and said we’d be able to put the stuff out so iTunes did a free download and the Calvin Harris remix and then everybody in the States and Canada, all these other countries were complaining that they couldn’t get it because it was just in the UK so we just got fucked off and put it on myspace and said everyone can have it.
Katie: Then we got the Americans ringing up being all like “Get that off myspace now!” It was like being put in the naughty corner! We had a whole day of it where you could download it for free but it’s on a lot of blogs on myspace anyway.
* Dirty Pretty Things were hoping to give away their album for free, do you think this is a new trend that you’d be a part of?
Katie: Well, we couldn’t give away our album for free firstly because I think you’ve got to have some worth to it. I don’t mean money worth, even if it’s just the emotional worth, I mean you slog at it and you’ve got to be able to tour. It’s alright for Radiohead because they’ve got in a financial situation where they can, maybe if we ever got in that situation but we’ve gotta get there yet.
* Who are your biggest influences?
Jules: Talking Heads, Tom Tom Car….
Katie: LCD Soundsystem…stuff like Prince and even like The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and stuff like that.
* What would be your career highlights so far?
Jules: Playing Jools Holland, that was a really good day and a really good day.
Katie: Yeah we went in to do the sound check and we sort of just realised we were playing Jools Holland and that was amazing.
Jules: And I think going to New York as well was a big eye opener and LA, you know LA was crazy.
Katie: You went up Sunset Boulevard didn’t you?
Jules: Yeah it was just really cool to get a bit of travelling.
Katie: But also just another great thing we did was a gig in Berlin, not that we’re like that well connected there or anything we just went to do a gig in this old disused doctors surgery. They’d built a stage out of crates and we didn’t know if anyone would even come because hadn’t released anything in Germany. It’s just amazing people travelled like miles which was amazing. And the venue…it just felt like it was made out of nothing, no anything so that was just a really good gig. For our second album we wanna do it there because it was just so inspiring.
* Finally, what are you hoping for the future of The Ting Tings?
Jules: We’ve finished the album now so we can’t wait to get the album out and we wanna go and see more countries this year. We’ve got touring dates coming in and we’ve got festivals lined up in Japan, Australia, America, Europe so were really looking forward to getting out there, that’ll be really cool. After that it’s just get the album finished, get the touring finished and take a break.
Katie: Also to get ourselves in a position where you can do quite big venues and really put on your show. We’ve got loads of ideas there because there are only two of us we don’t wanna hire in more musicians to make it interesting. I think it’s quite easy for a lot of bands to do that but we’re really quite sort of tenacious about keeping it as a two pieceas loops and making people understand what loop pedals do. We’d like to go into controlling the sound and the lights with our feet. Just sort of to get all this music, noise and light like what we’re going through onstage, how were expressing ourselves just really get to that stage where we can go really out there for our performances.
Interview by Sara Irvine
www.myspace.com/thetingtings
Discuss this with the noize community - Sign in or Sign up! (click here)
* What has it been like to go from playing in The Islington Mill one month to being hounded by major labels the next?
Katie: Yeah it was pretty mind blowing because we did our first gig there and we were in the living room of our studio so we got the TV and just pushed it to one side to make a little stage. Then we had like twenty five of our friends and some of the artists from the Mill and did a show for them. The second one was like 50 people and the third one. By the fourth one it was advertised on XFM and we had people from Sony and all these different labels. They weren’t even really invited!
* So they sort of crashed your party?
Jules: Yeah! We got a really cool picture though, a friend of ours who took this picture and it’s all these people sat on our wooden floor in our studio. All these kind of big cheeses from the music business sitting on the floor going *makes a jaw dropping face* hahah so we can’t wait to get it on our myspace.
* Where you a bit apprehensive to work with labels after having those disappointments with Dear Eskimo? Where you worried that would happen again?
Katie: Yeah but then we met Mike Piccarin (she pronounced this PIK-A-RIN but I was unsure of the spelling) he used to be in a band himself and nig things happened. We knew he was going to be one of our big contacts at Sony and we just felt really comfortable with him, he’s from Manchester and he’s our A&R guy but he’s not in the studio every week he’s more just like seeing how we are and if we need anything. So we got sort of left to our own devices and then Rick Rubin sent us that email so that sort of just made us think we’ve gotta go with Sony.
* How has it been for you having so much interest from people like Rick Rubin, Zane Lowe and Jools Holland? Was that a bit overwhelming?
Jules: Yeah obviously a bit overwhelming because these guys are big peers in the music industry. We’re kind of weird, I don’t know…. we didn’t really lap around much with the industry. Of course we wanted a record deal and of course we needed the record deal to put our records out to a certain degree but we still make our own records- we recorded and produced our own album. The guys we work with our management are amazing and the label we work with are fantastic. The people we met from the other labels were really good, I think we just got really lucky that we were kind of half way through our record when we started meeting industry, we’ve been doing these gigs, the buzz was already out there and we’d sent out a couple of little vinyls so when these guys came in they were like these guys have got it sorted …
Katie: We were lucky that we’d got ourselves in the position were we could really say what we wanted out or our record label and we weren’t prepared to do. We weren’t jaded by it we’d gone through that phase; we’d gone through the phase of being like pissed off at the music industry. In all honesty I think on reflection we just compared to what we’re doing now we’re so glad it didn’t go right.
* Zane Lowe compared your single “Fruit Machine” to Girls Aloud in a “good way”. How does that sort of comparison make you feel?
Jules: When you’re a new band you get compared to a lot of things, everyone’s trying to pigeon hole you; everyone’s trying to put you with something. It doesn’t really make a lot of sense but equally it’s brilliant getting compared to bands like that because it’s fun. It’s like some people are saying we’re a pop band, other people are saying we’re a rock band; everyone’s trying to make us something somewhere. I mean some people have said there’s a White Stripes comparison and we’re nothing like The White Stripes and then we’ve got people saying Girls Aloud and we’re nothing like them so…..
Katie: I think we have the um…were big fans of Yeah the thing is we’re big fans of pop music and I don’t particularly rate Girls Aloud but I probably rate the writers because it’s quite nice for pop tunes but it’s not really Girls Aloud. So I’d really rate their writers more than the actual band.
* So do you think The Ting Tings could start a pop revival?
Katie: I’ve no idea!
Jules: Yeah! A pop revival could be happening big time. I think people are taking bigger chances.
Katie: I think real pop like as opposed to fake pop. We write and produce it ourselves so we’re not a really poppy band on paper because we don’t even work with producers, we do it all ourselves and you don’t get many pop bands like that.
* What are you hoping to bring to the rest of the NME stages on this tour?
Jules: We’re hoping to get on with all these new bands we’ve met tonight and just have a real good giggle! Yeah because we’ve been so busy recording, mixing, travelling, going to meetings-all that stuff so it’s so good to be on the road again with musicians and leave all the industry behind us and just kind of get out there and jus rock and. Just play our stuff so it’s just good watching other bands and stuff.
* I know some of them are in here but who’s your favourite act on the tour?
(DIOYY? and Joe Lean are hanging around)
Jules: The ones in here! (Shouts in the direction of the DIOYY? camp) Yeah your show was awesome, your lead singer better be careful, he’s gonna break his fuckin’ neck!
… Jules is referring to his stage climbing antics earlier on…
Katie: Yeah we’d only seen these guys (DIOYY?) and they were brilliant!
* So if you two were choosing the bands for your own tour, who would you put on the bill?
Katie: Oh we’d have David Burns on!
Jules: Yeah David Burns any day….Talking Heads…
Katie: There’s a girl called Annie Rossi she’s really cool, she plays the violin and stuff.
Jules: From Chicago. Maybe some of the bands here but we’ve gotta see the other two
* Back to Dear Eskimo, what’s changed for you from going from a three piece to a two piece like how did that dynamic sort of change as you lost a member?
Katie: It was really weird because we found there’s so much more energy with two people than three and I don’t know why there’s just so much more energy I think.
Jules: The other thing with less members is you have to do more because we run everything on loops so we have to keep hitting them with our feet and you have to do more. Then Katie’s singing obviously, walking around playing guitar, singing, playing the drums. She’s doing a lot and it’s quite because you’re doing a lot and you haven’t got other members to sort of rely on. So if it’s not right, if we just go out there and one of us isn’t up for it, then the shows over. It’s just not gonna work. There’s an edge there with just two of us because normally before we go onstage we keep reassuring each other-“ Do you remember the lyrics?” ,”Do you remember the loop times?” So if like one goes wrong it’ll all fall apart.
Katie: Yeah but we like that danger thing, it could all fall on the floor.
Jules: Yeah so that’s what’s good about being a small unit in a way.
* You released your single “Great DJ” as a free download so why have you decided to do that? Where Radiohead any inspiration?
Jules: Well, we recorded the songs and put the demos out and we’re always moaning at the label about giving people music out so they can listen to it and they kept saying “You can’t do that!” Then they conceded and said we’d be able to put the stuff out so iTunes did a free download and the Calvin Harris remix and then everybody in the States and Canada, all these other countries were complaining that they couldn’t get it because it was just in the UK so we just got fucked off and put it on myspace and said everyone can have it.
Katie: Then we got the Americans ringing up being all like “Get that off myspace now!” It was like being put in the naughty corner! We had a whole day of it where you could download it for free but it’s on a lot of blogs on myspace anyway.
* Dirty Pretty Things were hoping to give away their album for free, do you think this is a new trend that you’d be a part of?
Katie: Well, we couldn’t give away our album for free firstly because I think you’ve got to have some worth to it. I don’t mean money worth, even if it’s just the emotional worth, I mean you slog at it and you’ve got to be able to tour. It’s alright for Radiohead because they’ve got in a financial situation where they can, maybe if we ever got in that situation but we’ve gotta get there yet.
* Who are your biggest influences?
Jules: Talking Heads, Tom Tom Car….
Katie: LCD Soundsystem…stuff like Prince and even like The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and stuff like that.
* What would be your career highlights so far?
Jules: Playing Jools Holland, that was a really good day and a really good day.
Katie: Yeah we went in to do the sound check and we sort of just realised we were playing Jools Holland and that was amazing.
Jules: And I think going to New York as well was a big eye opener and LA, you know LA was crazy.
Katie: You went up Sunset Boulevard didn’t you?
Jules: Yeah it was just really cool to get a bit of travelling.
Katie: But also just another great thing we did was a gig in Berlin, not that we’re like that well connected there or anything we just went to do a gig in this old disused doctors surgery. They’d built a stage out of crates and we didn’t know if anyone would even come because hadn’t released anything in Germany. It’s just amazing people travelled like miles which was amazing. And the venue…it just felt like it was made out of nothing, no anything so that was just a really good gig. For our second album we wanna do it there because it was just so inspiring.
* Finally, what are you hoping for the future of The Ting Tings?
Jules: We’ve finished the album now so we can’t wait to get the album out and we wanna go and see more countries this year. We’ve got touring dates coming in and we’ve got festivals lined up in Japan, Australia, America, Europe so were really looking forward to getting out there, that’ll be really cool. After that it’s just get the album finished, get the touring finished and take a break.
Katie: Also to get ourselves in a position where you can do quite big venues and really put on your show. We’ve got loads of ideas there because there are only two of us we don’t wanna hire in more musicians to make it interesting. I think it’s quite easy for a lot of bands to do that but we’re really quite sort of tenacious about keeping it as a two pieceas loops and making people understand what loop pedals do. We’d like to go into controlling the sound and the lights with our feet. Just sort of to get all this music, noise and light like what we’re going through onstage, how were expressing ourselves just really get to that stage where we can go really out there for our performances.
Interview by Sara Irvine
www.myspace.com/thetingtings
Discuss this with the noize community - Sign in or Sign up! (click here)
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