ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
The other day, Spotify sent me on a journey. The algorithm served up this mellow, folky pop song called "Down."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DOWN")
THE TING TINGS: (Singing) I fell into the water where the rushes sway. I'll never fall again. Down, down, down. Diddy down, down, down. Diddy down.
SHAPIRO: I looked at my phone to see a band's name that I recognized in a font that suggested Memphis or Nashville in the 1970s. The band was The Ting Tings.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SHUT UP AND LET ME GO")
THE TING TINGS: (Singing) Shut up and let me go. This hurts, I tell you so. For the last time you will kiss my lips, now shut up and let me go.
SHAPIRO: Almost 20 years ago, their debut album was everywhere, and at least for me, their sound defined the summer of 2008.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SHUT AND LET ME GO")
THE TING TINGS: (Singing) I ain't faking this. I ain't freaking. I ain't faking this. Shut up and let me go. Hey.
SHAPIRO: Since their big break, they've released a few other albums. And their latest project, "Home," is a hard pivot from the sound they're best known for. The Ting Tings are Katie White and Jules De Martino. Welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
JULES DE MARTINO: Hello.
KATIE WHITE: Hello.
SHAPIRO: Where did this new sound come from?
WHITE: It was 2020 lockdown. We had our child, and we didn't know if we were going to make another record as The Ting Tings. We actually called ourselves De Martino and White, which are our surnames...
SHAPIRO: Oh.
WHITE: ...And just started writing songs, thinking, no one's probably going to hear them. We're probably not going to tour it. We're just madly in love with our child, locked in with COVID. And that way of writing, which took the pressure off and just took the weight of maybe how people would have expected us to sound.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOME")
THE TING TINGS: (Singing) Old road home.
WHITE: But I feel like we got to that place again where we just wrote songs that we loved, songs that just we wanted to grow old writing.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOME")
THE TING TINGS: (Singing) Oh, my God, I made a mistake. Get back home, take what it takes. I don't know which way to turn. I've tried to solve, and I've tried to learn.
SHAPIRO: Your daughter is now 4 years old. Do you feel like parenthood makes its way into these songs?
DE MARTINO: Yeah, totally. We were - 3 o'clock in the afternoon and you got a sick baby, or you got someone crying, or you need a - mouth to feed, or - it's a real distraction. And it was the best distraction we could of had because it was - took us away from overdoing it, overplaying, overthinking. Walk away, deal with the real life of having a baby, and then two days later, go, everything's fine.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOME")
THE TING TINGS: (Singing) And sit on the wooden chair, the one that you sat on and told me if there's trouble, go home.
WHITE: What I think is a really nice feat on this album is Jules played, like, the whole album. And actually, our first album was like that, as well. Even though it was seen as, like, a pop thing, we came from a very - like, we lived in, like, an old cotton factory in Manchester, surrounded by artists, and we lived there for five years. And we wrote and recorded that album ourselves, as well. But I always feel like people wouldn't naturally presume that because it went so big. They think, oh, it must be like this manufactured record that came from a big label and lots of producers and lots of writers. And it wasn't. It always just been us sat in our bedrooms writing songs.
SHAPIRO: I know it's hard to get away from hits that massive, and it seems like TikTok won't let you. "That's Not My Name" has kept coming back. People use it as the soundtrack to videos of their pets. Then celebrities from The Rock to Drew Barrymore started posting it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THAT'S NOT MY NAME")
THE TING TINGS: (Singing) They call me hell. They call me Stacey. They call me her. They call me Jane. That's not my name.
SHAPIRO: Does the longevity of a song like that make it easier or harder to try something new?
WHITE: I don't know. I think where we are in our lives now, we're super proud of it. It's just constantly being used all around the world. And that makes it so we can make music that we want. We don't have to kind of modify our music to try and get signed and, like...
DE MARTINO: Fit in.
WHITE: Yeah, or pay a bill because we have to - you know, we have to just make any music to pay the bills. We're not. We're so lucky we can sit here...
SHAPIRO: Yeah.
WHITE: ...And spend four years making an album. And for us, this is what it sounds like when a band can get to five albums.
SHAPIRO: Yeah.
WHITE: Not a lot of bands do.
SHAPIRO: And so, as you are thinking about taking this new album on tour, what do you think the reaction will be from your longtime fans as you ask them to take this new journey with you into such a different sound?
DE MARTINO: Well, we played three shows, and we put a nine-piece band together, and it was - there's no going back. We do put five songs we obviously use - "That's Not My Name," "Shut Up And Let Me Go," "Great DJ," "Be The One" and "We Walk." And we do them in this new style. And we start, and we go...
SHAPIRO: Oh, really?
DE MARTINO: Yeah. Yeah.
WHITE: It's so fun.
DE MARTINO: It's amazing.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THAT'S NOT MY NAME")
THE TING TINGS: (Singing) Four-letter word just to get me along. It's a difficulty, and I'm bitin' on my tongue. And I keep stallin' and keepin' it together. People around, they got to find somethin' to say now.
WHITE: In a couple of weeks' time, we're going to record on tape, like, those five versions with the band, and then maybe put it on, like, a deluxe album in, you know, a couple of months after our album's out. 'Cause it's just fun to do.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THAT'S NOT MY NAME")
THE TING TINGS: (Singing) They forget my name, name, name, name. They call me hell.
SHAPIRO: Katie White and Jules De Martino are The Ting Tings, and their new album is "Home." It's been great talking with you. Thank you so much.
DE MARTINO: Thank you.
WHITE: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THAT'S NOT MY NAME")
THE TING TINGS: (Singing) That's not my name. That's not my name. That's not my name. They call me quiet, but I'm a riot. Mary-Jo-Lisa, always the same. That's not my name. That's not my name. That's not my name. That's not my name. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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