5 Seconds Of Summer on their addiction to board games (and boots) GQ Magazine (Ft. 5 Seconds of Summer)
The fact that that 5 Seconds Of Summer, a pop-rock band from Sydney, have been battling with Dua Lipa for the No1 spot in the UK album charts this week tells you everything you need to know about just how wildly popular they are. The latter was supposed to be a shoo-in, but by the middle of the week the four-piece were steaming ahead to the tune of 7,000 sales with their fourth album. Today, the Official Charts announced that the band narrowly beat Britain's pop queen to the top spot, marking their second No1 album here in the UK.
5 Seconds Of Summer, you see, who often go by the abbreviated 5SOS, inspire One Direction levels of devotion and have done since they supported Harry Styles et al on tour in 2013, a gig that brought them worldwide recognition before they’d even released a debut single.
Since releasing that 2014 debut single, “She Looks So Perfect”, which also went to No1 here in the UK, the band have racked up hundreds of millions of streams and played arena gigs across the world. Still in their early twenties, 5SOS – made up of Luke Hemmings and Michael Clifford on vocals and guitar, plus Calum Hood on bass and Ashton Irwin on drums – have grown up on the road, an experience that forms the thematic basis for their brand-new album, CALM. In honour of the new record, we caught up with Hemmings and Clifford to go back to their beginnings, from the earliest days of the band to their most extravagant purchases.
The first time you all met…
Luke Hemmings: The first time I met Calum and Michael was at year seven orientation day. My first impression was pretty nervous because I didn’t have any friends at that point and they had already been at the school for a couple of years. Ashton and I first met at a movie theatre. Some guy was actually giving me some shit and he defended me, so straight away I thought he was a nice guy. The next time I met Ashton was at our first band practice. That was over at Michael’s house and I was blown away by how good of a drummer he is. When we started I was only 15 years old, so we obviously didn’t realise at that point what a long journey it would be for us, but it did feel like we had something special, even back then, for sure.
Michael Clifford: I met Calum when I was in second grade, Luke when I was in seventh grade and Ashton when I was in ninth grade. Calum was my best friend from day one. Luke and I hated each other and fought over girls. Ashton was like our big brother; he drove us around and would give us advice.
The first time you played in front of a live audience…
LH: The first gig we ever played was at a pub in Sydney called the Annandale Hotel to approximately 12 people. It smelled like a mixture of stale beer and piss in there. We thought we were maybe going to have 100 or so people there, but it turned out we may have overshot… It was the best/worst gig of my life. I’ll never forget it.
MC: It was 3 December 2011. It was also the first official day of 5SOS. It was such a special moment in time that we actually re-created it in our new video for “Old Me”. We go back and visit all of the landmarks that were important to us growing up.
The first time you got drunk…
MC: The first time I got drunk was with the other guys in 5SOS for my 16th birthday. I think I drank my parents’ port. It was not good. I’ve never drank port again. But I went through a phase where I got drunk a lot, though I’ve kinda grown out of that now. Occasionally I’ll have a cider or a gin drink (shoutout to Ryan Reynolds for turning me on to that), but I don’t really get wasted any more.
The first time you fell properly in love…
MC: When I met my fiancée, Crystal. I’m an incredibly lucky man to have learned what true love is. It’s funny how once you have it, everything else in life just sorta clicks into place. You look back and everything “before” makes sense, like lessons you had to learn to get to the version of yourself that can responsibly handle and accept real love. We’ve helped each other grow into the best versions of ourselves and we continue to learn and grow every day.
5 Seconds Of Summer, you see, who often go by the abbreviated 5SOS, inspire One Direction levels of devotion and have done since they supported Harry Styles et al on tour in 2013, a gig that brought them worldwide recognition before they’d even released a debut single.
Since releasing that 2014 debut single, “She Looks So Perfect”, which also went to No1 here in the UK, the band have racked up hundreds of millions of streams and played arena gigs across the world. Still in their early twenties, 5SOS – made up of Luke Hemmings and Michael Clifford on vocals and guitar, plus Calum Hood on bass and Ashton Irwin on drums – have grown up on the road, an experience that forms the thematic basis for their brand-new album, CALM. In honour of the new record, we caught up with Hemmings and Clifford to go back to their beginnings, from the earliest days of the band to their most extravagant purchases.
The first time you all met…
Luke Hemmings: The first time I met Calum and Michael was at year seven orientation day. My first impression was pretty nervous because I didn’t have any friends at that point and they had already been at the school for a couple of years. Ashton and I first met at a movie theatre. Some guy was actually giving me some shit and he defended me, so straight away I thought he was a nice guy. The next time I met Ashton was at our first band practice. That was over at Michael’s house and I was blown away by how good of a drummer he is. When we started I was only 15 years old, so we obviously didn’t realise at that point what a long journey it would be for us, but it did feel like we had something special, even back then, for sure.
Michael Clifford: I met Calum when I was in second grade, Luke when I was in seventh grade and Ashton when I was in ninth grade. Calum was my best friend from day one. Luke and I hated each other and fought over girls. Ashton was like our big brother; he drove us around and would give us advice.
The first time you played in front of a live audience…
LH: The first gig we ever played was at a pub in Sydney called the Annandale Hotel to approximately 12 people. It smelled like a mixture of stale beer and piss in there. We thought we were maybe going to have 100 or so people there, but it turned out we may have overshot… It was the best/worst gig of my life. I’ll never forget it.
MC: It was 3 December 2011. It was also the first official day of 5SOS. It was such a special moment in time that we actually re-created it in our new video for “Old Me”. We go back and visit all of the landmarks that were important to us growing up.
The first time you got drunk…
MC: The first time I got drunk was with the other guys in 5SOS for my 16th birthday. I think I drank my parents’ port. It was not good. I’ve never drank port again. But I went through a phase where I got drunk a lot, though I’ve kinda grown out of that now. Occasionally I’ll have a cider or a gin drink (shoutout to Ryan Reynolds for turning me on to that), but I don’t really get wasted any more.
The first time you fell properly in love…
MC: When I met my fiancée, Crystal. I’m an incredibly lucky man to have learned what true love is. It’s funny how once you have it, everything else in life just sorta clicks into place. You look back and everything “before” makes sense, like lessons you had to learn to get to the version of yourself that can responsibly handle and accept real love. We’ve helped each other grow into the best versions of ourselves and we continue to learn and grow every day.
Comments (0)
The minimum comment length is 50 characters.
Information
Users of Guests are not allowed to comment this publication.
There are no comments yet. You can be the first!