Ting Tings serve creative demon (no, not that one)
VANCOUVER— It’s midnight in Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom and the two members of the Ting Tings are embarking on some decidedly non-satanic post-gig dressing room behaviour. Drummer/guitarist Jules De Martino is sipping a small glass of red wine while singer/guitarist Katie White, still recovering from emergency appendix surgery, is inspecting their rider’s fruit bowl. It’s a markedly modest scene that contrasts with some of the Internet’s more outlandish conspiracy theories, which insist that the band’s frequent use of one-eyed and triangular imagery are clear indications of their commitment to a demonic New World Order.
“Having my fringe in my face is my little comfort blanket,” smiles White, after both Ting Tings stop laughing. “It’s nothing to do with Satan. I saw that people had made that connection with Jay-z, and when we signed to Roc Nation they were like, ‘Whaaah! Illuminati!’”
In the highly unlikely event that the band, who play the Phoenix in Toronto on Friday, are committed to global domination, they’re going a strange way about it. Four years after exploding into public consciousness with a debut album ( We Started Nothing) of radiofriendly, ultra-catchy pop hits like “That’s Not My Name,” they’ve taken a radically different approach with their sophomore effort, Sounds From Nowheresville, a deliberately diverse playlist of the band’s eclectic influences.
“When you’re writing songs you can’t think about radio,” insists White. “We had pop hits, but we’re not a manufactured pop machine that churns things out. We’re an art-based indie band that had a couple of songs that crossed over.
“We wanted every song on this album to sound consciously different to the one before it. The second we thought of doing that, we felt creative again. It took that pressure off having to sound like the Ting Tings.”
For a band with platinum certifications and Grammy nominations, this eagerness to return to their creative roots has become a driving force.
“We made that first record DIY in the space that we had,” stresses De Martino. “Then we had to generate a record to maintain something, rather than just to create something fresh. We felt that pressure, and scrapped a lot of what we worked on for the first three months. We knew we were writing for the wrong reasons. We selfishly didn’t want to make a record that didn’t serve a purpose for us. We had to be indulgent and be artists.”
If the Vancouver show is any indication, the restated spirit of freedom is producing some great nights too. They play the hits, naturally, but the band’s new songs are the stars.
“We can’t go on stage and be choreographed. We’re feeling alive on tour, and that’s got to be the recipe for longevity.”
Concentrating on their creativity, not careers, suits White fine, too.
“We’re bad at the showbiz side,” she admits. “We’re awkward on red carpets. We’re (bloody) awful pop stars.”