N°98 THE TING THINGS - HANDS

Five fingers make a hand so  make the leap to The Tin Things. We all know the duo from hits such as 'Shut Up And Let Me Go' or 'That's Not My Name' from their first album We Started Nothing. As said it's a duo with blonde Katie White and musical brain Jules de Martino. They both play quite a few instruments on stage but Katie is the vocalist.

It all started in 2006 when Jules wrote a few songs for the punk band TKO. TKO was Katie's first real band when she studied at Leeds university. Since Katie, Jules and a mutual friend shared a mutual intrest in the band Portishead they decided to form a tribute band called Dear Eskiimo only to split a few months later. Jules and Katie kept in touch after the split. At that time Jules worked at the Islignton Mill Studios where he wrote songs for different bands and at The Mill both of them found the love for making music again so they started The Ting Things.The first gig given was at these same studios.

'That's Not My Name' was the first single that got finished and released to present the band to the world and the song would become a hit in a few European countries. 'Fruit Machine' was released short after as a second single Both song were picked up by various DJ's to be heavily used for different mixes. This way the band got even more exposure and their career started of big time. They played their first festival in 2007 at the big Glastonbury showing their performance to a huge audience for the first time.

The album We Started Nothing was released in 2008 and their music seemed popular not only live on stage but also for different producers. A few songs were used in series such as Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill. Also movie producers used the song 'Great DJ' in the movies The House Bunny and Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire. That same song opende the 2008 Carling Cup Final. In 2009 The Ting Things started touring Australie and Asia followed by a US tour supporting Pink!.

Their second album is a recent one released early this year and containing more poppy sounding songs such as 'Hands'. They wrote the album Sounds From Nowheresville in complete isolation in Paris, France because they didn't wanted to deliver a less quality product. Katie and Jules assumed that if they'd write and record in their old studio they'd be influenced by their family and friends or even their record company which they tried to avoid.

At the moment and this summer they'll tour around Europe to play different clubs and festivals. In September the duo will try and conquer Japan playing six gigs over the complete country. I hope you like the sound; at least I do like it a lot, especially Katie's sound since she has quite a good voice.