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In-between, they’ve played Later…, been introduced by Steve Lamacq at Glastonbury as "the next big thing", and released two highly prized singles amongst other things.

In fact, they’ve been so busy, that according to one half of the garage pop duo, Jules De Martino, they’ve barely even had time to get their head round what is going on.

The Ting Tings playing at home

"Everything is moving at such a pace. February, we started the band. March, we were doing little gigs in our front room and naming the band. June, we put our little record, That’s Not My Name, which took us through the summer.

"After that, we signed a deal and now we’re in February and it’s everywhere. We can’t turn our heads without someone saying 'I heard you on this' or 'I saw you on that'. It’s madness.

"Our feet don’t touch the floor with work. We’ve finished the album and we’re really pleased with. Samplers have gone out to everyone we work with and the response has been brilliant right across the globe – it’s opened loads of doors about us being able to do whatever shows wherever. Our diaries have gone crazy."

The first band

Of course, the samplers aren’t the only reason doors have opened. There’s also the small matter of that high placing in the Sound of 2008 poll, a fact which isn’t lost on Jules, though he says that the pair took a while to get their head round the achievement.

Katie White (c) Karen McBride

"It knocked us off our feet, especially when you bear in mind that the first two are solo artists, so we were the first band really – which is really interesting and very flattering.

"You have to bear in mind that we still bear the scars from our previous band, Dear Eskiimo, and we did this not to be in another band, but because the pair of us just wanted to still be musicians, so to be voted third on that list. It’s just amazing.

"I remember we were gigging and our manager told us that it had happened – we didn’t really know what it meant, we were just grateful to get some decent press. It took about two weeks for it to sink in. Everyone kept saying about it and we were just like 'that’s bloody amazing'."

Learning from the past

These days, Jules is happy to discuss their previous incarnation, Dear Eskiimo, but it hasn’t always been like that. The pair came close to the limelight in that band and the pain that their failure still lives with them, as do the mistakes they made.

That experience, though, has helped them succeed with The Ting Tings, especially, says Jules, when it comes to being in charge of their own destiny.

"On this record, we decided that if we were going to do this, we were going to do the whole thing ourselves. When we started writing and recording, if we didn’t get a fix on a track within a couple of hours, we erased it, so there was no going back.

"There was no way it could be sat on a shelf so that management, label, anyone could find it and say 'you know what, this could go on the album'. It means there’s no two ways about it, there’s only the one way we are going in.

"We did the same when we got to signing a contract. We were lucky in that we had already started the excitement so there was a lot of labels coming to us and wanting to sign us. We just ignored them all for the first month.

Jules De Martino (c) Karen McBride

"One company [Columbia] stuck with us, they hung out and we got some respect for their work and their ethic – there was a real commitment from them that they didn’t want to disturb our art.

"It’s always a gamble when you sign, but they let us get away with murder with the contract, allowing us to keep creative control – which means no-one can come in and tell us what our records should be like."

Live and kicking

While anyone who knew Dear Eskiimo will be able to hear the progression from that band to this, the difference between them, as far as Jules is concerned, is a fundamental one that comes from the very beginnings of The Ting Tings and the original ambitions of this project.

"We formed this band on the stage, not the studio, and it was formed out of our frustration at Dear Eskiimo. How I dealt with it was to go back to my drums, which is my first instrument, and playing with the loop pedals, because Katie couldn’t play an instrument.

"Within days of watching me having fun selfishly, I remember her saying to me that she needed to play something too. She picked up my old guitar and I taught her a first chord, a D chord, and she stayed on that chord for an hour. It was awful, but we had nothing else and I was just getting off playing my drums, so we just kept playing.

The Ting Tings (c) Shirlaine Forrest

"I had an old loop that I’d recorded for a song we had in Dear Eskiimo, which I lifted and put it on my pedals, and I was drumming around to that while Katie was playing the D chord.

"As we were playing, she played a bum note, and I was like 'what are you doing? That’s wrong!' But she couldn’t get her hand round the neck of the guitar properly.

"We actually look back at that and say that that was the beginning of the band, me playing my drums to an old loop and Katie desperately trying to keep up, because we found some energy and just thought 'if we just did this twice a week and got little jobs, it’d actually be satisfying'."

'A breath of fresh air'

For all that humble beginning, it is actually their live dimension that has seen The Ting Tings get so much attention and that has given Jules and Katie such utter fulfilment in their new band.

"It’s so good to take the chance and play live. Everything we do is live, they’re all live loops, so sometimes we miss the pedal, sometimes a guitar doesn’t work, all those things that we never had before, it’s all inspirational.

"It’s a breath of fresh air and we can only keep growing. Our set is getting stronger, our visuals are getting more creative, and the whole thing is getting better and better.

"And we didn’t plan any of it. We didn’t come out of Dear Eskiimo and think 'if we just drop to a two piece and do this and that, then we’ll be successful'; it’s all born out of frustration and creativity and freedom and it’s amazing."

That's not a bad result for a band without a plan. After all, who could ask for anything more from their job? No wonder that, despite the heavy schedules and relentless gigging, The Ting Tings are having an absolute ball.

The single, Great DJ, is out on Monday 3 March. Their as-yet-untitled debut album is due for release in the early summer.