FIVE-piece vocal harmony group The Overtones have just released their third album, Saturday Night At The Movies. Reportedly spotted by a talent scout from Warner Brothers, while working as painters and decorators, their previous two albums have notched up in excess of 500,000 sales. Matt Westcott speaks to Mark Franks ahead of performances at the York Barbican on Wednesday, March 5 and the Sage Gateshead on Saturday, March 8.

Matt: Does all that time painting and decorating seem worthwhile now?

Mark: WELL, it gave us a chance to earn money and rehearse at the same time which got us to where we are now. Plus I learnt how to make a great cup of tea!

Matt: How much pressure was there to come up with a second album that matched or succeeded the success of the first?

Mark: Of course there’s pressure for our albums to perform commercially but, to be honest, we just put our heart and soul into recording them and hope people like what they hear. We feel so lucky to have just released our third top ten album, Saturday Night At The Movies. It feels like a real achievement in today’s music industry.

Matt: Is it important that while respecting the past, you also look forward in terms of your music?

Mark: Definitely. We refer to our style of music as vintage pop as we’re shedding light on these old classics while putting our own Overtones stamp on them, mixing the old with the new. It’s a sound which we love exploring when writing and producing our original tracks too.

Matt: For your third album, you have gone back to covering other people’s songs. But they are not necessarily the tried and tested ones. How did you decide what to do?

Mark: Our third album, Saturday Night At The Movies, is jam-packed with classic songs from hit films like Pretty Woman, Blues Brothers, Dirty Dancing and Breakfast At Tiffany’s. Other songs feature in lesser-known films, but we were desperate to record them as they had The Overtones written all over them. An example being Runaway by Del Shannon. That one always goes down a storm when we perform it live.

Matt: Your voices are obviously the key to your success. How do you ensure that they are in tip-top condition and have you ever dreamed that you’ve lost the ability to sing?

Mark: Ha, ha. That would be a nightmare, surely? We have regular singing lessons and always make sure we warm up properly on tour. That, and drinking honey, ginger and lemon. We’re so rock ’n’ roll.

Matt: Do you find yourself practising at odd times and in odd places? Around the house, on the Tube, down the shops?

Mark: We’ve always sung anywhere and everywhere. We were once filmed on the Tube practicing a song before we were signed. After our first album came out we posted the clip on YouTube. It was fun to see how far we’d come.

Matt: You have played The Sage Gateshead before. What do you think of it as a venue, I imagine it suits your styles down to the ground.

Mark: We loved performing at The Sage on our last tour and can’t wait to come back. These theatre venues really suit our style of music, it feels like we’re putting on an a real show and we love being able to interact with the audience.

Matt: Is there anywhere you haven’t played, that you would love to and anyone alive or dead you would like to perform or record with?

Mark: Lachie is Australian so we would love to perform in his home town of Sydney. That would be amazing. Sydney Opera House perhaps? Also it would be great to collaborate with Michael Buble because he’s a real hero of ours – give us a call Mr Bubbles.

Matt: As a concert-goer, I presume getting up and dancing is part of the deal.

Mark: Of course. We always encourage our audience to get up and party. Often to the dismay of the theatre ushers. Our music is feelgood and we want you to do just that!

Matt: What is next for The Overtones?

Mark: At the moment we are just so excited about the Saturday Night At The Movies Tour. After the album doing so well, we can’t wait to perform these classic movie songs in front of an audience who are all, hopefully, singing along. All together now.