Almost Famous: The Ting Tings

In early 2007, Katie White and Jules De Martino were at a crossroads. Their former band, a Portishead-influenced outfit called Dear Eskiimo, had been signed and dropped by Mercury Records without ever releasing a note. He was working in a bar; she in a restaurant. “I didn’t want to be in a band,” De Martino says, “but she was really  adamant we write together again.”

Tired of the guitar, De Martino returned to his first love, the drums, which left White—a singer who’d never played an instrument—with a problem. “I thought, Well, I can’t just sing to drums,” she says. “So I picked up the guitar and played a D chord for about eight hours.” Out of that D chord came the Ting Tings’ pulsing first single, “Great DJ.” “It shouldn’t have worked, but we liked it.”

They weren’t alone. After playing a series of house parties, the duo was besieged by record execs waving contracts, eventually signing with Columbia and crafting an album, We Started Nothing, filled with spiky, off-kilter pop charms. White’s sassy voice snaps and purrs over a rubbery synth line and hiccupping beat on “That’s Not My Name.” “Shut Up and Let Me Go”—heard recently in an iPod commercial—rides a buoyant, Chic-worthy guitar riff.

“I’m from a left-of-center, indie background,” De Martino says. “And Katie had a Spice Girls pencil case in the late ’90s. Together,
we meet in the middle.”

All About us!

Last good book read:
“For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. It’s quite hard and gritty but romantic and easy enough to read.” (White)

First concert:
“My parents took me to Frank Sinatra when I was very young. He was getting on a bit by that time, but it was mesmerizing.” (De Martino)

Never leave home without …
“My sunglasses. My eyes are really sensitive to light.” (De Martino)

Favorite drink:
“Water. I recently drank too much by accident—three liters, to be precise.” (White)