Their breakthrough singer "That's Not My Name" was released under a local label called Switchflicker Records. "When our last band was dropped by a label we felt very rejected and unwanted. No one would pick up the phone and even friends we thought we had made forgot about us overnight. We both felt invisible. Unknowingly our emotions were coming out in our new songs and TNMName was just one of many we wrote," De Martino said about the inspiration behind the song.

British radio outlets began giving it heavy rotation and The Ting Tings' name propelled higher with the second single "Fruit Machine". Later in 2007, the band were signed to major label Columbia Records and "Great DJ" was released as the duo's debut major-label single in March 2008, followed by the reissue of "That's Not My Name". They appeared at Glastonbury Festival and toured around universities in U.K.

The Ting Tings became the opening act of 2008 Shockwaves NME Awards Tour, hitting the roads with The Cribs, Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong and Does It Offend You, Yeah? among others. Their first album "We Started Nothing" was released in May 2008. "The first album was called that, but we didn’t even think we were going to be professional. We had been dropped before. We thought we were not going to get signed, and our musical lives were over. We were trying to be creative. When you stop trying to be a band that gets played on the radio you tend to come up with some experimental stuff that sounds more original. I think it was that nudge that created it," White explained.

"That's Not My Name" had reached number 1 in the U.K. Singles Charts while "Shut Up and Let Me Go", "Great DJ" and "We Started Nothing" were used in American television series and feature movies such as "Gossip Girl" and "Slumdog Millionaire". They performed at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards with Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and DJ AM.

The year 2009 was filled with tours to spread around their influence, including coming back to Glastonbury in June to play on The Other stage. They also toured the Unites States to support Pink. The best news came in late 2009 when The Recording Academy announced them as a Best New Artist nominee of 52nd Grammy Awards.

The Ting Tings then began to work on their sophomore effort in the basement of a former jazz club in the Friedrichshain area of Berlin. "Berlin was one of the first places we played," De Martino said. "We really liked it when we first ventured out there, and we went there a few times during our tour and it felt like a really easy city for artists to live and work in. Coming out of the studio at one or two o'clock in the morning, one of the things about Manchester was that you would have to plan your night to go out, and in Berlin it was easier to unwind. It has a great art and music scene."

Speaking of the concept of the album they wanted to present the world the second time around, De Martino said, "We wanted to make a record that had that much variety that if you played it you could almost shut your eyes and think: 'Is this the same band on each song?' We just had no fear and wanted to make a record that was like an MP3 compilation." The album was self-produced and the first single "Hands" was released in October 2011. Upon its release in U.K., the single debuted at number 29 on the UK Singles Chart.

During their gigs later that year, they performed a number of new songs including "Silence", "Hang It Up", and "Hit Me Down Sonny". White then confirmed that the album was to be called "Sounds From Nowheresville" and was set to be released in U.K. in February 2012 and Stateside the next month.