Why the Ting Tings Deleted Their Second Album and Their Label Didn't Protest

Milan Abad

It's been a while since we heard from the Ting Tings, the buzzy London duo whose drum-primal hit "That's Not My Name" made Katie White and Jules de Martino, well, household names.

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Signed to Columbia Records in the U.S., the twosome released their debut We Started Nothing in 2008, spent much of the next two years touring (playing festivals and opening for the likes of Pink), then quietly retreated to Berlin where they composed an album's worth of dance-centric tracks -- and scrapped them all. 

The Guardian gives the play-by-play in a Saturday feature on the band, detailing how they spent nine months recording in a German jazz club, only to get spooked after a visit by label executives. "[The label guys] were literally going: 'Waa! Dance is huge on the radio at the minute! This is gonna fit right in!' ," White says in the article. Adds De Martino: "We'd never had anyone tell us how big this or that track was going to be... because when we were making the first album we were in Salford, drunk and partying. All of a sudden everyone's there with notepads going: this is fucking huge! And we're like, what do you mean huge? We haven't talked about that." 

The duo reacted by deleting all of the songs and starting over. And in what might seem like a surprising show of faith, they had Columbia chairman Rob Stringer's support, who advised them to see their success as liberating, telling the duo, "I don't care if we earn a penny." 

The Ting Tings' second shot at their sophomore album, Sounds From Nowheresville, was recorded in Spain and has a March release date. In the U.S., they'll also embark on a two-month tour, kicking off March 20 in Tempe, Ariz.   

Check out "Hang It Up" from Nowheresville below and let us know: did you miss the Ting Tings?