5 Seconds of Summer on the legal fallouts of success: “That’s a f...ing trip”

From the Australian suburbs to the world stage, 5 Seconds of Summer have survived early teen pop stardom to grab control of their career with their new album.

EXCLUSIVE

GLOBAL pop rockers 5 Seconds of Summer have weathered countless changes in their decade as a band, least of all their heights, hair colours, postcodes and accents.

As they release their fifth record, with the palindrome title 5SOS5, the four Australian musicians have assumed total control over their music and business affairs.

But doing so hasn’t been without drama.

The band copped two lawsuits in the past three years, one alleging breach of contract from YM & U Group who managed the band for six months in 2021 and another alleging plagiarism in relation to their 2018 smash hit Youngblood.

5SOS members Michael Clifford and Calum laugh sarcastically when asked if pop stars being sued is now a marker of success.

From boys to men, 5SOS have now assumed control over their career. Picture: Supplied.

“That’s a f … ing trip, god damn,” Hood says.

“We don’t want to be the sued anymore, we want to be the suers.”

But legal dramas aside, the bandmates including Luke Hemmings and Ashton Irwin, find themselves at an important crossroads as they launch their self-produced new record.

The four musicians who played their instruments and co-wrote their biggest hits were mislabelled as a boy band a decade ago because they were boys, their fans were young girls and they landed on the world’s radar as the opening act on One Direction’s Take Me Home tour in 2013.

But they have survived the average shelf life of a “boy band” to sell more than 10 million albums, generate seven billion streams and counting, and sell more than three million concert tickets. They are the only band in history to have their first three records debut at No. 1 on the US charts.

Their fifth album 5SOS5 features an unlikely co-write. Picture: Supplied.

5SOS5 will be the first album they release with new label home BMG and they will launch it this week with a global livestream titled The Feeling Of Falling Upwards at London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall; they used to busk outside the venue when they first moved to London 10 years ago.

“We’ve never done anything like this before and we love challenges, we love being pushed up against a wall,” Hood says.

As well as reimagining their enviable catalogue of hits, they will showcase the new stuff including recent singles Complete Mess, Me Myself & I, Blender and Older.

The album’s genesis was in the California desert of Joshua Tree, a studio and inspiration mecca for musicians from U2 to The Veronicas.

Mr and Mrs Clifford kept their wedding quiet for a year. Picture: Instagram.

Writing new songs wasn’t their only goal.

They needed to reconnect, to reaffirm the friendship forged in their parents’ garages in Sydney’s western suburbs as they rehearsed and recorded the YouTube covers which brought them to the notice of music industry talent scouts in 2012.

When they weren’t welded to an Xbox and tubs of ice-cream, they talked late into the night about how their lives had changed – Clifford was married to his longtime partner Crystal Leigh were married last year – and those reminisces eventually found themselves fashioned as lyrics.

“We wanted somewhere that we couldn’t go home at night, to go back to our roots of sleeping in the same house for a couple of weeks and reconnecting with each other,” Clifford said.

“There were days when we just didn’t even go into the studio. It was almost more important to us to just spend the day together and hang out and talk about stuff.”

During those conversations, it was decided Clifford would co-produce their record.

After years of being told how they should sound by other producers and record company executives, 5SOS wanted to block out the noise.

“I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do it without the support of the band,” Clifford says.

“Other producers, everyone, always have an idea of what they want us to sound like and I just felt no one else could tap into what we wanted to achieve.”

The music poured out of them. 5SOS5 has a mammoth 19 tracks; they don’t see it as an indulgence but more of a gift for the millions of fans who have stayed the course for 10 years.

They weren’t completely insular in the process. Hemmings’ fiance and artist in her own right Sierra Deaton co-wrote two tracks and sings on Older.

“She’s a great friend of ours and first and foremost, she’s an amazing songwriter, so you don’t have to look too far to find the people that you need,” Hood says.

They ended up with a surprising but accidental bunch of co-writers, 80s one hit wonders Flock of Seagulls, on the song Bloodhound.

“We wrote the chorus, and then a year later, someone says, ‘Oh, it sounds like I Ran.’ And we got it checked and got told it sounds too close so we had to clear it. So that’s how that came about,” Hood says.

Luke Hemmings and Sierra Deaton are️ engaged. Picture: @sierradeaton / Instagram

After they launch the record this week and complete the ubiquitous promotional duties throughout Europe and America, 5SOS will finally return home to Australia in November for the first time in three years with their Take My Hand tour.

The run of outdoor concerts will finish with two homecoming shows at the Sydney Opera House which they joke will finally prove to their parents they have made it.

“I‘m definitely looking forward to seeing some family tears that night. I feel like it’s going to be a pretty incredible way to close out the year for us,” Clifford says.

And to massage out those Americanisms accumulated over the past six years of living in Los Angeles.

“I think we’re very overdue to just reconnect with the culture, you know? I feel like I’m out of touch with the Aussie lingo and stuff, so I’m going to get a crash course again,” Clifford says.

5SOS5 released on September 23. For all tour dates and ticket details, livenation.com.au

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