Hottt List: The Ting Tings Issue #38

They Started It

By Selena Fragassi
Published: December 1st, 2008 | 12:00am

If the Hottt List Best Dance Album of the Year Award came down to a tie, the Ting Tings would know how to settle the score: A good old-fashioned dance off. Not only could the former DJs mix up a killer playlist (notable favorites including “Ghostbusters” and “Kung Fu Fighting”), but singer-guitarist Katie White possesses a little-known talent that puts her and drummer Jules De Martino a quick step above the rest. “Katie’s really good at dancing,” De Martino told me on the phone recently, “in fact, before she was a musician, Katie was a ballroom dancer in the U.K. where she won a lot of local events.”

The Ting Tings have been victorious at a lot more than dancing contests lately — this summer’s release of We Started Nothing has won over critics, established the band a growing global fan base, and earned them a Moonman trophy at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards. Although they unsurprisingly lost to Britney Spears for “Video of the Year,” the band did win for “Best U.K. Video,” unbeknownst to American audiences. “It’s the first award we’ve ever won ... I just hope we each get a [Moonman]. If we only get one, I think the band will be over in weeks,” De Martino jokes.

The overwhelming amount of success has De Martino “gobsmacked,” especially when you consider that it wasn’t until early 2007 that he and White started to take their musicianship seriously. “Katie started playing the guitar for the very first time around March 2007 ... and I hadn’t played drums in five years,” he says, noting that the band formed purely by accident.

At the time, the duo was in deep debt and shallow spirits after a sour break-up from their previous venture, Dear Eskimo. “It all went completely wrong. The other band members left, the record label dropped us, management and everybody who had anything to do with us ... had just run away and left us with all the bills,” says De Martino.

So, with the four months of studio time that still remained in their contract, he and White re-teamed and decided to use the space strictly for party purposes, inviting artist friends who were struggling with their own craft. “It was really about all of us getting together and saying, ‘enough of this depression,’” remarks De Martino. “And for the first time in our lives, we weren’t worried about what music we were playing, what clothes we were wearing, what haircuts we got. We just wanted to play the most obvious, feel-good records that you could find.”

And the happiness soon spread to sell-out festivals like this year’s Lollapalooza and Glastonbury Fest where the Ting Ting’s acquired style of marching band beats and high-energy chants turn every show into a pep rally. “To be able to tap into that energy and enjoy that moment for you,” says De Martino, “it’s phenomenal for us.”