5 Seconds of Summer reveal how they seized control of their music and their image with CALM record
5SOS have learnt how to run their music business in the eight years since they were signed to a global deal as teenagers. Now the man band call the shots.
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The final seconds of the latest 5 Seconds of Summer music video is a potent illustration of the rise and rise of the four Australian musicians.
In just eight years, Luke Hemmings, Michael Clifford, Calum Hood and Ashton Irwin have been catapulted from uploading YouTube covers from their bedrooms in western Sydney suburbia to filling stadiums and generating billions of streams and downloads.
5SOS, as they are known to their millions of fans around the world, recorded the video for their latest single Old Me during their homecoming visit to perform at the historic Fire Fight Australia concert in February.
“Shout out to the old me, And everything he showed me. Glad you didn’t listen when the world was trying to slow me”, they sing in a “red rattler” train carriage from their youth, adorned with graffiti.
The four men, who range in age from 23 to 25, look reflective as they watch scenes of cute teen lookalikes racing through the carriage, hanging out in a suburban loungeroom and practising their instruments in a parents’ garage. Just like they used to do.
“I remember I was a massive fan because my mum told me they were Australian. And I was like ‘That’s awesome”, says the teenage boy playing Luke in a behind-the-scenes video 5SOS uploaded to their social media pages.
The Old Me clip, directed by Hannah Lux Davis who has worked extensively with Ariana Grande, closes as the man band that is now 5SOS walks onto the ANZ Stadium stage to the roar of more than 70,000 people at the Fire Fight concert, many already true believers, some just a few guitar chords from becoming a fan.
“This is definitely up there,” bassist Hood says after their set when asked where the stadium gig lands as a career highlight.
“It’s probably the most significant because this is a place we have been wanting to play since we started and the day has come.”
Few bands in this era can dare to dream about headlining a sports stadium in their hometown. The time-worn path of paying your dues and growing an audience from pubs to theatres then arenas and finally stadiums has been eroded courtesy of the lockout eras of Australia’s capital cities.
Streaming can make you an overnight pop star, but most Australian artists still have the live gene stamped on their DNA; if you can’t put on a great show, are you even a musician?
Post their first “official gig” in front of about 20 people at the former inner Sydney rock nursery, the Annandale Hotel, the 5SOSFam grew rapidly, at first thanks to those YouTube video covers and through the release of their early EPs.
It exponentially exploded when they landed on the world’s stadium stages when they were tapped to open for One Direction on their global tour in 2014 as the single She Looks So Perfect rose to the upper echelons of the UK and European charts and hit the American top 30.
The hysterical female fans who soundtracked the quartet’s every move with tinnitus-inducing screams are now young women whose loyalty remains strong. Their boyfriends are also not-so-reluctant fans as the band’s music has evolved to the industrial-flavoured pop of their fourth album CALM (Calum, Ashton, Luke, Michael, get it?).
While 5SOS have always attracted A-list hit maker collaborators, the credit list on CALM is jawdropping in parts.
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Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello, one of the most revered guitarists of his generation, performs on their single Teeth.
U2’s The Edge, a guitarist with one of the most distinctive and recognisable playing styles on the planet, adds his wizardry to the track Best Years. Both guests are believed to have been enlisted by current go-to producer and CoVid19 sufferer Andrew Watt.
Fellow chartslayers Charlie Puth and Ryan Tedder also contribute their pop smarts to the 5SOS songwriting soup.
“Only seven years ago we were doing the 50 Songs in Five Days APRA songwriting camp and we didn’t have a f … ing clue how to write a good song. We had no idea, we’re still learning,” Irwin says. That's even as CALM’s singles to date, including Teeth, Easier and No Shame, have amassed more than half a billion streams collectively.
CALM is the band’s first release internationally with Interscope Records after shifting from the deal they signed with Capitol Records in the UK when they were still teenagers.
Geographically, the deal made sense as the four musicians are now based in Los Angeles after originally settling in London early in their career.
But Irwin and Hemmings suggest it was also a creative decision.
“We signed for three records to Capitol UK, that term finished. Because we had evolved the way we operate in the music business, the way we want our records to be marketed and the way we wanted to be spoken about, we wanted to find a new team to collaborate with in LA,” Irwin said.
“We know a little bit now about how the record industry works – not everything – and we knew we needed to be face-to-face with people, so we moved to Interscope. We had difficulty because we were hearing things in LA that we thought would be popular and were being told wasn’t popular in the UK. It was the music we were digging and knew would work in America – we think – and weren’t seeing eye-to-eye.”
Hemmings says negotiating their recording future as adults was a vastly different experience. And this time, they held more of the cards.
“At that point, when we out of the deal, it was nice to go in as adults. And we had the album finished at that point, we knew what we had,” Hemmings says.
“We were about 16 when we started and going in at 22, 23, you just know more.”
5SOS finally make good on the promise of their name with their first summer tour of Australia later this year.
“Isn’t that awesome? Finally playing summer, from the beach to the stage!” Hood says.
* 5 Seconds Of Summer kick off their No Shame 2020 tour at HOTA, Gold Coast on November 27, Riverstage, Brisbane on November 28, HBF Stadium, Perth on November 30, Bar On The Hill, Newcastle on December 2, Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne on December 4 and Sydney Opera House forecourt on December 5 and 6.
Originally published as 5 Seconds of Summer reveal how they seized control of their music and their image with CALM record