The Ting Tings were turned off experimental music after they saw a guy playing a cardboard instrument. The ‘Hands’ group made their second album in Berlin, and although they originally considered taking their music in an experimental direction, were quickly put off by some of the city’s more avant garde performers. Singer Katie White said: “There was all the experimental stuff, like a guy with an instrument made out of cardboard. It had the opposite effect on us: it just made us want to go and write some proper, catchy songs.”

The band - which is completed by multi instrumentalist Jules De Martino - also admit their wanderlust had got the better of them by the time they finished a two year tour of the world, and they were burned out. This led them to write the chorus line in their new single, ‘Hands’: “put your hands up if you’re working too hard,” but Katie added they chose that line as it seemed to also reflect the attitude of people around them. She explained: “We were feeling pretty sorry for ourselves. While we’d been away, everybody we know had been feeling the same thing. I’d be like, How’s my uncle? Oh, he’s not well, he’s got something wrong with him, but he’s still working till ten every night, because his company’s nearly gone bust. Everyone seemed to have gone into meltdown, or lost their jobs.”