Once upon a time, a band was formed in 2011 in Sydney Australia, with a solo member posting a cover of “Please Don’t Go” by Mike Posner. This band is 5 Seconds of Summer. 5 Seconds of Summer consists of four members including Calum Hood, Ashton Irwin, Luke Hemmings, and Michael Clifford. Begging in 2011 with only Luke Hemmings posting covers online they soon added Michael and Calum and forming the band 5 Seconds of Summer, a name Michael came up with in class one day. The band went on as a 3-member band for some time only adding in drummer Ashton almost a year later when they realized the needed a fuller sound. All four members are vocalists, Luke being the lead vocalist and on guitar, Michael also on guitar, Calum on bass, and Ashton on drums.
They grew in fame for being a band that people seemed to connect with and one that was down to earth. They were a group of 4 teenage boys that were not scared to be themselves and act a bit crazy and weird. Their sound could be described as almost in-between One Direction and All Time Low. They released their First EP, Somewhere New in 2012 and their first self-titled album in 2014.
Each member having a distinct style and staying true to themselves has helped them easily became a well-liked band with a pop/pop-punk sound. The band built their following up and even toured with One Direction for two of their tours. They seemed to be at the height of their fame after the second tour with One Direction and had thousands of fans worldwide. They released their second full album titled Sounds Good Feels Good and went on tour for the album, with a few EP’s in between. They were selling out the venues, doing hundreds of interviews, and had a huge fan base.
Then something unexpected happened, they kind of just stopped. They didn’t drop off the face of the earth they were still posting photos online but there was no new music coming from the band. Everyone in the “5SOS Fam” was patiently waiting for a new song to be released, and everyone began to wonder what happened to 5 Seconds of Summer. They were still active on social media and we were seeing what they were doing in their everyday lives but there was no new music. Calum got a dog named Duke, Michael got a Girlfriend, Luke grew his hair out, and they all got their American license and moved to LA from Australia.
Then one day a blurry green and red photo of a face was released with text on top saying “want you back”, with some other white text around the photo. That was the start of the return of 5SOS. It was over 800 days since they had released music and finally, something was in the works. A week later it was announced that a new song would be coming out and a week after that we had a new song. On the 19th of February 2018, 5 Seconds of Summer was back. Not long after they had announced a tour going back to their roots and playing small, contained venues.
Calum, Michael, Luke, and Ashton were back making music, playing shows, and teasing a 20 song album. They went back to their roots changing their sound from their last album and retreating back to a smaller band after a loss of good part of their fanbase in their over two-year break. With a more mature look and attitude the band is going back on tour and slowly releasing their music live as they play the shows. With new songs like Want You Back and Valentine, you can see the more grown up and changed 5 Seconds of Summer but not so much they aren’t still their old selves. We can’t help but look forward to their upcoming album and see what sound they are really going for with this album since what that they have released so far is all very different. We hope as fans that in the future we’ll have more content, a new album, and a more extensive tour.
Dear 5SOS we still love you and can’t wait to hear what’s next
– A longtime fan