How would you feel if someone important to you all of a sudden mispronounced your name or called you by a different name? A name that was nothing at all like yours? Would you cry all night long? Or throw your anger right at their face and give them a hard time?

For Katherine Rebecca White (Katie) and Julian De Martino (Jules), an unbearable moment like this proved to be a life changer: The creative duo turned it into "That's Not My Name", the song that rocketed their band, The Ting Tings, into the charts all over the world.

They also secured a place for themselves in the hearts of hundreds of Indonesians when they performed their song at the Axis Jakarta International Java Soulnation Festival, joining other international musicians including Arrested Development, Atlantic Star and Run DMC at Istora Senayan in October.

And now just about everybody has heard their name.

"It's quite funny to think about it. I mean, there were times when people could barely remember and would forget our names," Katie says.

"But now people keep asking us about the story behind our band's name like 20 million times. Sometimes it's annoying to face the same question over and over again, but on the other hand it's really such a compliment."

So what exactly is the story behind The Ting Tings' name?

"The Ting Tings actually came from my friend's name, when I was still working in Mill. The pronunciation in Mandarin also means The Old Stage," Katie explains.

"I guess it represents us and what we've been trying to do, somehow. And I can see people seem to like it."

When Katie formed her first girl-pop band, Total Knock Out (TKO), back in 2001, she was already an accomplished drummer, guitarist and keyboardist. But it was only through The Ting Tings that the world got to experience the full effect of Katie's childlike voice and cool outfits.

Although Katie and Jules formed The Ting Tings in Hackney, London, around Christmas of 2007, their musical collaboration dated much further back.

"We met when I was hired to write songs for TKO, Katie's first band. But we lost contact until we bumped into each other again in Manchester and found out that we were both worshipped Portishead. After that me, Katie and another friend formed our first band, Dear Eskimo," Julian says.

The band didn't last long and a conflict with a recording label meant they had to split. But the experience didn't kill their desire to keep dancing.

Katie went to work as a waitress in a bar and Jules continued his job producing tracks for local musicians in a music community, The Islington Mill, in Manchester.

During this period, they listened to lots of sounds that influenced the birth of The Ting Tings and their first hit song, "That's Not My Name".

After a while they secured their first gig in The Mill, where many various A&R come to seek new music and one thing led to another. Before they realized it, in 2008, "That's Not My Name" had topped the UK charts.

With their simple upbeat music with witty lyrics delivered in Katie's naughty teenager voice, reminiscent of 1990s girl duo Shampoo, The Ting Tings have endeared themselves not only to Asian music fans, but internationally.

Several of their songs, including "Shut Up and Let Me Go", "We Started Nothing", "We're Not in Kansas Anymore" and "That's Not My Name", have been chosen for the soundtracks of TV series such as Gossip Girl, 90210, Ugly Betty, Royal Pains and Numb3rs. Their music also featured on the runway at the high-profile Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.

Having amassed this kind of cool portfolio, the two aren't complaining.

"Why should we?" Katie says.

"To be able to perform on the other side of the world is something that I've never imagined before and I feel glad.

"But I guess everything has its pros and cons. I mean you grow up, and you work hard, giving it your best shot and somehow it works! And when it goes well, it gives you a nice feeling."

Jules, who kept his sunglasses on throughout the interview, nodded in agreement.

"If you asked us what our biggest accomplishment was, I'd like to say it was the moment when we were finally able to finish recording We Started Nothing *their debut album*," he says.

"Because we really started from nothing, we just play music. I mean we've never finished anything at all before and once you do finish something; you have hundreds, thousands of people enjoy your song and sing it out loud in front you. That's quite a good achievement, isn't it? And it all began by starting nothing ."

Of course, sometimes the pressure gets to them and they have been known to drop a few F-bombs during performances.

"Hmm, for me, it happened during our performances in the stage, especially when I was too f**king hot, tired and sweaty," Katie says.

"I mean, we have to play several roles. I have to sing, play instruments and he also has to manage between instrument and equip-ment and the stage as well, because there are only two of us to do everything.

"Then I started to whine, *Jules, why can't we have another member so the stage-performance won't be so tiring?' and he always said, *Yeah let's do that for our next show or next album.' Of course, it has yet to happen." she adds with a laugh.

Well, being tired and sweaty may just be the price you have to pay for getting what you've always wanted.

Watching The Ting Tings perform live, singing a cool song like "Traffic Light" (the only "quiet song" compared to other tracks in the album), with Katie trying to connect with her audience by testing her instant Indonesian language skills - "Jangan banyak bicara, ayo kita ngedance!" (Shut up and let's dance!) - seems to prove that all their perspiration has paid off.

Their cheerful sound sets them apart from other big names from Manchester, such as Oasis, The Verve, Badly Drawn Boy, The Stone Roses, or even David Gray.

"If you've been to Manchester City, it's a lot different than Jakarta, where people here can go out and walk in the hot sun everyday," Jules says.

"There, we have cold weather and grey, colorless atmosphere. This situation has influenced typical Manchester sounds, which tend to be a bit gloomy, dark and melancholic.

"Ours is quite different. As you can hear, The Ting Tings sound rather awake, stomping and upbeat with easy lyrics and songs you can dance to.

"But we're still happy to be part of Manchester's music scene. To know that there's always a space for kids like us is pretty nice."

As happy as Jules and Katie are to get onto the map of Manchester's sounds, they preferred to find somewhere else to record their second album: Berlin, Germany.

"We found this old, used jazz club in East Berlin that was really cool and gives you a boost every time you enter it," Jules says.

"I think that's what we need if we want to create our second album, especially when you want to do something different. We made the first one in Manchester and its better to have a different location for the new one. Even though we haven't spent much time there, because we still have to finish the tour!"

Many musicians such as U2, have credited Berlin as a muse for their masterpieces (such as for their album Achtung Baby). What made Berlin so special for The Ting Tings?

"The place has an enchanting way of alluring people to create something," Katie says.

"You can find big or small art-scenes in every corner of the city, with its unique costumes and different faces. We've already met so many different people while playing in the clubs there, who are so genius and cool in doing their music. And we want to work with them.

"I think *the distraction' that Berlin offered is something that we need now. It somehow helps you to develop your music organically. There, we can just remove the pressures of the industry from our minds and create something that we really like.

"And we can behave like four year olds, live life a little bit and hope everyone still loves our music, hahahaha."

And if you do still love their music, then please shut up, and let's dance!

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