CityLife

Getting Tings back on track

BACK: The Ting Tings return

 IF there's a line from a song that sums up The Ting Tings' approach to their difficult second album, it's Orange Juice's famous chant, 'Rip it up and start again'.

After touring their debut album, We Started Nothing (written at Islington Mill in Salford), for over two years the pair had a vision – a dream, even – to throw themselves into life in Berlin and put down album two. It was a city they played in their early days, and a place with a music and arts scene they adored.

In hindsight, says the group's chirpy frontwoman, guitarist and occasional keys player Katie White, Berlin wasn't what they needed. Or, more specifically, Berlin in winter.

Holed up in a former basement jazz club, a windowless retreat from the minus-27 temperatures outside, the band ended up with a set of sad songs. “I wouldn't go there trying to write songs in winter – it's just grim,” laughs Katie. “Great place, but not in winter.

“After that, we were like, '**** that, we need some sunshine', so we went to Spain and you can really hear the difference in the songs we wrote. The ones in Berlin are really melancholy and dark, and then in Spain we're like, 'Hey! Sunshine!', and they're very upbeat and shouty.

“We discovered Paul's Boutique by The Beastie Boys and really got into Malcolm McClaren. So we ditched all those Berlin recordings and just went back and jammed.”

The group's drummer and bassist Jules de Martino agrees. “It felt good going from Manchester to Berlin – it felt like the right thing to do.

“Some bands make a record every year, but we came off the back of three years touring and travelling the world; we were squeezing something out of us that we weren't ready to do.

“The light switch went on that it wasn't real and we tried to make it right by partying harder. But it was wrong, and realising that was a blessing in disguise.

“So we went to Spain and then to London and then back to Islington Mill. We needed a bit of Manchester, but we also needed to be travelling around rather than being stuck in one city.”

It doesn't help that both Katie and Jules are born perfectionists (“If it was up to Jules,” confesses Katie, “we'd have been 10 years making an album; he's like, 'We could make this high hat sound even more sparkly'. I'm a bit more like, 'Well, I'm dancing to it, so you know...'.”), but Spain did eventually bring out the best in them.

Far from the gritty suburban architecture and claustrophobic clubs that inspired their original sound, Spain provided them with the Andalusian mountains to climb and dogs to walk and endless days of scorching weather.

It shows in the album's lead single, Hang It Up – all blue sky melodies and Beastie Boys-meets-Blondie chatter.

And is also comes through clearly in Katie's refreshed delivery – check out her Samurai sword swing in the video: “I can't even carry a glass of water without spilling it, I do everything back to front,” she laughs. “But somehow the Samurai sword brought out the best in me.” – who, after a troubling spell in hospital because of exhaustion, says she has no intention of slowing down.

Travelling around gave them an album title, Sounds Of Nowheresville, now set for release at the end of January. “Still me and Katie don't own anything to live in, we don't see our families much and we feel very nomadic,” says Jules. “Sounds From Nowheresville feels like where we are at the moment.”

They were lucky to get it; they are, it seems, a band exporting more than just Manchester sounds to world. Sitting under a very grey sky in Ibiza ahead of two weeks of rehearsals, they're watching the rain bounce off the pavements. “The exoticness of coming to Ibiza ends now,” laughs Jules. “Don't tell me it was sunny in Manchester.”

Completing the album is the second most rewarding thing Jules has ever done, second to finishing their debut album. “I don't think I've ever finished anything in my life, I've been bumming around half-finished canvasses for 20 years,” he smiles.

“Finishing We Started Nothing was a major achievement, even before it got signed and released. And then getting the Ivor Novello, I don't think I've ever won anything aside from a badge for doing a few lengths in the swimming pool.”

And that thrill of being recognised artists has inspired them to give other budding creatives a chance on their latest tour, which hits Manchester's Sound Control on Sunday. This time, they're working with local colleges to encourage students to design their costumes and sets, make their videos and even pick their support bands.

It's the reason they've chosen a bijou set of venues for SFN's debut outing. After so long out of the loop (bar the odd secret gig), it gives them a chance to get to know the audience again.

“Doing the DIY thing isn't easy,” Katie explains. “I remember the last time we did Glastonbury and there'd be Katy Perry with stylists and we were on after her and I'd be dragging my amp around myself and trying to find somewhere to plug my hairdryer in.

“It's weird because you're trying to keep it DIY but you can't really keep up with the pace of it all.

“We did a lot of tours like this on the first album because it feels a bit more real for us and interactive. It was never about selling out 20 dates in a row in big venues, it was about trying to do something creative.

“A big venue is a just a big concrete box, they all look the same. Small venues will let you paint on the walls,” she smiles. “And play around.”

Sound Control, November 27, £12.50