5 Seconds of Summer are back on home soil in Sydney, Australia. Four years have passed since Luke Hemmings, Michael Clifford, Calum Hood and Ashton Irwin last toured the country on their TAKE MY HAND World Tour. A lot has changed in that time.
It’s been a year since the band were last here promoting their sixth album, EVERYONE’S A STAR!, which ushered in a new era both sonically and visually. They’ve reclaimed the “boyband” title — a label once thrown at them as an insult, but now worn on their own terms.
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Ahead of their CLUBSOS show — an invite-only party for their top Spotify fans in Sydney — we sat down with the band during their tour to reflect on their Australian return, embracing nostalgia and what’s in sight for their future.
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Rolling Stone AU/NZ: Last night was your first show in Sydney in four years and your first time back since you were here on promo. How do you know you’re playing to an Aussie crowd?
Michael Clifford: Shoeys. Yeah, shoeys.
Luke Hemmings: It’s immediately nostalgic for us. I think it’s hard to tell from the audience’s perspective how they feel, because there are some people that have been there since 2015 and before. We’ve been playing shows in Sydney. Our first show here was in 2011, I think, and there’s some people that are new to the band. So to come back ’round, we played that venue 11 years ago, and we’ve played lots of Sydney shows since then. They’re not as big, but to come back around now with more albums for a band like us to play to that many people again, where there’s new people there, was crazy. But lots of moustaches, lots of mullets in the crowd, lots of beers, and that’s how you know you’re in Australia.
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You’re wrapping up the EVERYONE’S A STAR! Tour in two months before heading on a festival run in 2027. But what’s next after that? More music, solo projects?
Ashton Irwin: Next year will be all about festivals, about collaborating. We’ve actually never played this many festivals in a row ever, so it’s exciting to actually show up and play alongside other bands and be a part of that global community. Obviously, we want to make more music, but next year is about playing all these different kinds of audiences, taking CLUBSOS out there, taking our festival set out there, like what you saw at Lollapalooza, but global. We’re even going to India next year in January. It’s going to be crazy, and we’re just doing all this new stuff. The adventure continues. Keep unc-ing it up.
Hemmings: Yeah, we’ll keep unc-ing it up. I think the plan is to go solo, break up, and then publicly feud as a band, and then a reunion tour.
Calum Hood: Indirect tweets.
Irwin: It’s a four-phase plan. I’m looking forward to breaking up the band.
Hemmings: We haven’t done the reunion tour; that’s uncharted territory, and I think that’s important to talk about.
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Something that I really love about your show is how openly you look back on where it all started, rather than shying away from it. I think a lot of artists, and actors too, can feel a little embarrassed or even cringe at their early beginnings. What do you think has allowed you to reflect on that time so fondly?
Irwin: Because we were awesome off the bat. We just knew it right from the get go. That’s just how it was. A lot of other people suck, but we don’t suck. How do you think we won Boyband of the Year 83 times? I mean, it’s not a fluke. It’s not just an accident. We were destined for it.
And while we’re on the topic of your early days, I have to ask, why do you keep including “Heartbreak Girl” as a surprise song option, when you ‘hate’ playing it on-stage?
Clifford: We’re masochistic.
Irwin: I think we just want to make sure all the heartbreak girls out there will heal. It’s charity, isn’t it? We just want to make sure for all those heartbreak girls out there if you’re listening: we can take away your hurt, and we meant what we said.
Clifford: I think part of what we’ve tried to do is embrace our cringe and accept it.
Irwin: That’s what you want to call poetry, mate.
Clifford: We try to embrace it, what we’ve done. It’s time we face the music.
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The consequences of your actions?
Clifford: The consequences of our actions.
Hemmings: Yeah, it’s time we own up to songs like “Heartbreak Girl.”
Clifford: Atone for our sins.
Hemmings: No, but we give them options to vote for.
I mean I will say, I’m surprised “Start Over” won as the surprise song at your Sydney show.
Clifford: I know.
Hemmings: It’s such a shit song too.
Irwin: No, it’s crazy.
Hood: We for the first time ever had “Unpredictable” on there.
And no one voted for it!
Irwin: Yeah, no one. Literally no one.
Clifford: No one voted, dude.
Hemmings: We didn’t know how to play “Unpredictable,” that’s how confident we were.
Clifford: That no one was going to pick it.
Hemmings: We’ve been asking for years, we literally don’t know how to play it. It was on the list, but “Start Over” won.
Clifford: I feel like 9% of people voted for it.
Hemmings: “Start Over” is a goddam heater and I’m glad we got to play it.
Clifford: Amen.
Hood: It is cool that in a world full of nostalgia, people are still choosing to hear our new songs. So that’s really rewarding for us. But we celebrate all different walks of life of songs.‘
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Spotify’s Turn Up Aus campaign is all about championing local music. Who are some Aussie artists you’re rinsing on your Spotify playlist?
Clifford: Calum Hood.
Hood: Michael Clifford.
Hemmings: Who?
Clifford: He’s not Australian.
Hemmings: Wait, what were the last two you just said?
Clifford: Shut up. Don’t acknowledge him.
Hemmings: They must be up and coming. Are they on SoundCloud?
Irwin: I just want to shout out myself. “Ashton Irwin”, look it up. It’s pretty awesome. But if you didn’t know, Calum Hood has a solo album.
Clifford: Ninajirachi.
Hemmings: Jimmy Barnes, forever and always.
Clifford: A bit of 1970s.
Hemmings: Ian Moss, “Tucker’s Daughter.”
Irwin: Such a banger, I love that track.
Hood: Empire of the Sun, Presets are really good.
This interview has been condensed for clarity.
