By Zachary Swickey
Cheerleader pop duo the Ting Tings first stole our hearts with their 2008 debut We Started Nothing but it took them four long years – including the scrapping of an album of radio-friendly material in 2010 – to present to us their follow-up, Sounds from Nowheresville, in February.
In an interview with Spinner, frontwoman Katie White explained the effect the band's success has had on her.
"To be honest, I stopped Googling our band when – I think it was on YouTube a year ago – people were having a discussion about how abnormally long my arms were and I was thinking 'I'm gonna get arm issues!' so I stopped," White said.
While the Ting Tings’ debut was well-received by critics and fans alike, the group decided to take a different approach on their sophomore effort.
"We realized we wanted to make an album like a playlist. We felt like it would reflect the way that culture is at the moment, where you're almost greedy,” White continued. “If somebody says to me, 'Oh, check out this new band,' and there's no YouTube video, I feel cheated."
The band had initial plans to release their follow-up in 2010, but decided the material they had recorded sounded too much like generic pop and opted to trash the majority of the tracks – a process they had already gone through with their debut.
"We scrapped a few, which seems to be a big deal to people. We did that on the first album but no one knew or cared. That's how we work. We're kind of quite brutal,” said White.
Considering the nostalgia factor at last weekend’s Coachella, it comes as no surprise that '90s girl bands were a major influence on Sounds from Nowheresville.
"We would literally sit and be like, 'I really liked the Spice Girls and TLC when I was like 15, they were my favorite '90s girl bands. Should we attempt it? Should we do this?' And it was that kind of, 'Should we? No, we probably shouldn't, but we're going to anyway,' feeling that's quite interesting as a writer,” explained White.
It wasn’t too hard for the pop duo to write an album inspired by girl groups from the '90s, but they have a zanier idea that might require more creative effort.
"We half want to do some kind of country album. Just literally sit there and go, 'right, we've got four weeks, let's just write songs and put it out.' We find it fascinating. We hear it constantly on the radio, our driver's just listening to country music. It's amazing 'cause it's so alien to us,” revealed White.
But when fellow producers Sarah Muller, Daniela Capistrano and myself headed out with John Norris 