In my mind I wanted a name that was a bit like the All Time Low album So Wrong, It’s Right. When that came out, their fans changed the name to suit them, so it would go, “So Wrong, It’s . . . Catherine” or, “So Wrong, It’s . . . Michael.” I thought, Wouldn’t it be amazing if we had that, too? At the time, we had no idea we would even get fans, it was all a bit of a fantasy.
At first I thought we should be called 5-Second Summer, but it didn’t feel right, so I went for 5 Seconds of Summer, or 5SOS. The next day Calum, Luke, and I were sitting in Science class together and the teacher was talking about neutrons and protons or something. That’s when I said to the others, “Listen, I think we should go with the name 5 Seconds of Summer.”
The class ended and I texted them later that day. I wrote, “Hey guys, I’m making the band 5 Seconds of Summer.” (I think I still have that message on my phone actually.) Not long afterwards, I made the Facebook page, I made the Twitter page, and then we were up and running.
GO OUT ON A HIGH NOTE
LUKE:
When we came up with our first song, it was amazing. Calum wrote it, and it was called “Gotta Get Out.” I remember thinking, This is awesome! It was great for the time – it was a pop–punk tune, with a great guitar intro, and it was better than anything I had written.
We didn’t know that he could write that well. I don’t think Calum even knew that he could write that well – but he could. He was coming up with really cool riffs and tunes. I remember at that time we only had one mic stand at Michael’s house and one mic between us, so Calum and I were having to switch every time we sang. It was so basic, it was insane.
CALUM:
I found it quite easy to write songs and I would do everything on a rubbish little guitar in my bedroom. When I wrote my first ever song, I started with a few lines and then the rest of it came together in around two hours. It just came out of me. It was a new thing for me, so I guess I wasn’t putting too much time into it. When I had finished the song I felt weird as s**t. A while later, I went into the music room with the other guys and played them “Gotta Get Out” and they seemed to like it a little bit.
The main thing for me was that it was cool knowing I could write songs – songs that meant something. I could never really express how I felt or put it into words, even to my family, so songwriting was how I expressed everything, and it was a massive deal for me. I pretty much fell in love with it.
MICHAEL:
When Calum came to us with “Gotta Get Out” I was amazed by the way it was so hooky. We’ve written better songs since then, but to start out and have that as our first track was pretty cool. I remember playing it on my acoustic guitar for my music teacher in class and he said, “Wow, if you guys keep having songs like that you’re gonna be big.”
A TICKET TO ANOTHER WORLD
MICHAEL:
This is going to sound crazy but, in December 2011, I somehow talked a guy who owned the Annandale Hotel pub in the city into giving us a gig. Our first show! It was ridiculous. The Annandale had a history. It was an iconic venue, kinda like the old 100 Club in London where the Sex Pistols played, or CBGBs in New York where punk started. Then when we announced it on our Facebook page, 300 people said they were going to turn up, even though we’d never done a show before.
That’s when we came to the realization that we weren’t prepared at all. We sat down and talked it out. I said, “So, guys, what are we going to do for the gig?” We didn’t have a drummer, but because the three of us had been making music together we thought we’d just get someone in to help us for the night.
Then we went through the possibility that I could play drums and someone else could play bass. In the end I was like, “OK, we should stick to what we’re good at, which is Calum on bass [even though he’d never played one before], Luke on guitar and me on guitar. That means we just need to find another person to play drums.”
At first we asked this guy Matt, who came from school, to play drums for us, but he said, “No, I don’t think I can make it to the gig.” Then I remembered this dude called Ashton who I’d met at a party. He was a friend of a friend and I knew he was a pretty good drummer, so I got onto Facebook and messaged him with a note saying: “Hey, man, I don’t know if you know our band, 5 Seconds of Summer, but we’re doing this gig in the city soon – do you wanna play?” He came back straightaway saying, “Yeah, man. I’d love to!”
CALUM:
I had a problem. At the time, my football was going really well and my family were keen on me playing. I used to train with a coach called Marshal, and around the time that 5SOS were getting together, he said to me, “Do you want to go training in Brazil? My friend runs a place over there.” At first I wasn’t sure. I knew that Brazil was a crazy football country and that they produced some amazing footballers over there, like Neymar, but I also knew it was a big step for me. Brazil was miles away, the other side of the world, and I’d barely traveled anywhere by that time in my life. I didn’t know how I would handle being so far away from home.
Eventually, Marshal talked me into it and once I’d said bye to my parents, I was out there for a month. The whole experience was unreal – the people, the culture, the food – it was all incredible. I was staying about three hours out of São Paolo and I played a lot of football every day. It was pretty mental and so cool to be in Brazil, but after a while I did start to get a bit homesick. Communicating was pretty hard too, as nobody spoke much English. I love going to different countries and meeting different people, especially now with the band, but back then I was out there on my own and it did get a bit overwhelming.
Music was also taking over my life at that time, and I’d decided I wanted to do the band over football. Even though nothing had really happened and we’d only scored one gig, I kept thinking back to our last 5SOS rehearsal before I’d flown out of Australia. That day it felt as if we were on the verge of something exciting. Everyone was really excited about the gig, which was due to take place two days after I got back.
HERE’S ASHTON
ASHTON:
It meant so much to me to be drumming in 5SOS that I rode my bike for 10km to get to Michael’s house for our first practice. It was such a long way and it took me ages. When I got there I was hot and sweaty, and I think the other guys were a bit weirded out by it, but I didn’t mind. I was sick of messing around with bands that didn’t care, that didn’t have larger-than-life ambitions. I just wanted to make something of myself with music. I needed to find some people who wanted to commit to a band and give everything to it and give up everything for it and go anywhere to do it.
When I got there, only Michael and Luke were around, Calum was still in Brazil and, man, did I have questions. “Do you have original songs? Are we doing any covers?” But the others didn’t seem to care. They were sitting there playing video games. I was definitely no expert, but they seemed so clueless about all the work they had to do to be great at the gig and it really bugged me. Finally, after an hour and a half, we went into the garage at Michael’s where there were guitars and an electronic drum kit.
Anyway, I listened to the songs and I loved them. There was some great stuff there. I was like, “Wow, they’re really good.” There was a song called “Gotta Get Out” that was cool. There was another track called “Conversations” and one called “Heartbreak for Two.” They were quite heavy, quite metal. And straightaway I thought, These guys have got it, we could do something great here. So I went home and I was really excited. I remember saying to Mum, “Wow, I’ve met the guys and they’ve got 12,000 followers on Twitter and we’re doing a gig – you need to come . . . Can you drive me in?”
LUKE:
Ashton was a great drummer – as soon as he started playing he seemed tight, he hit really hard. The only off-putting thing was the fact that he was wearing a horrific purple shirt and some three-quarter-length shorts, which looked a little weird. He was also sweating buckets because he’d ridden his bike all the way from his house, which w
as miles away.
After Ashton left, me and Michael got together and had a talk about what we thought. Michael was like, “He’s cool, he’s really good on the drums. We should get him in the band!” He was right. After that it was only a case of getting him to learn the songs. He was definitely the last piece of the puzzle.
MOVE TO THE BEAT
CALUM:
The month of 5SOS’s first ever gig was an important time for me because I had to think about a lot of things. I got home and told my parents that I wanted to quit football and take the band more seriously. They weren’t very happy and it was a pretty tough week in my life. Mum and Dad gave me everything to play football when I was a kid, so for me to say, “I don’t want to do it anymore . . .” well, that must have been a bit of a shock.
Looking back, that was a tough decision. I knew the chances of making it would be slim. It was difficult for my parents to handle because they’d encouraged me so much and supported me whenever I played, so I definitely understood how they felt.
I was so glad that I’d made that decision, though, because when I went to see the other guys they’d already tried out Ashton for the band. He was such a good drummer, but when I met him I was actually a bit intimidated because he was so big; he was older than me and a great musician, but he was cool. The third time I hung out with him I stayed over at his house and once Michael had left for the evening, I was like, “S**t, I’m by myself with this guy I hardly know.” But we got on really well and we became great friends.
So with Ashton on drums and Michael and Luke on guitars, it was up to me to pick up the bass. In the final practice before our first gig, I used an acoustic guitar and just played the bass lines on the top string. The first time I actually played bass was when we got on stage at the Annandale Hotel.
I was like, “This is so cool!” But I was absolutely terrible at playing, I had no idea what to do. I soon fell in love with it, though. Afterwards I really got into bassists like Mike Dirnt from Green Day.
MICHAEL:
That first gig was so bad, though! When we got to the venue, the 300 people who said they were going to turn up didn’t arrive and there were only 12 people there, plus our parents. But on stage it just felt really good to be able to play music. It felt right.
I don’t even think we had a set list of songs that night. We played one or two of our own songs, like “Gotta Get Out,” but we mainly played covers. We’d finish one song and then we’d shout out to the audience, “What do you want us to play next?” Then we’d take a request. We played “All the Small Things” by Blink-182. We even did a version of “Rolling in the Deep” by Adele. I was playing the wrong chords, it was pretty awful.
I looked terrible, too. I wore white shoes, black jeans, and a bright, white long-sleeved shirt, so I was matching my shoes with my shirt, which wasn’t something I was meant to do. I looked like an idiot. I was confused.
ASHTON:
I remember that all our parents turned up to that show and they were asking questions like, “What is this?”; “Why are we at this dingy pub?”; and “What is my son doing?” It must have been weird for them.
We did four or five songs on electric guitars and then the boys did their acoustic thing. That’s when I came off stage and watched them play from the back of the room. They played songs they had jammed together at school and I hadn’t heard some of them before, but they sounded great. Compared to how we are now they weren’t that good, but back then it was awesome.
As I stood back and watched, I could tell that Calum and Luke’s voices were amazing together; Michael wasn’t singing that much back then, but it was a powerful performance. I still say to this day that it was the best gig of my life so far because it just happened, even though we had barely rehearsed. But it all came together, like it was meant to be. That night was the real birth of 5SOS.
LUKE:
The 12 people who turned up to our gig were really dedicated because the Annandale Hotel was a very difficult place to get to. It was a pub and there wasn’t a train station nearby, so the fans who did show up must have made a huge effort. When we finished we all went outside to meet them and say “Hi,” and because everything had gone so well Calum decided that we should ask Ashton to join the band full-time. He even got down on one knee, as if he was asking him for his hand in marriage. It was pretty funny.
What was crazy to me was that we had what felt like thousands of fans online, even though only 12 people turned up to our show. People were watching our covers and talking about them. Our Facebook and Twitter pages were getting hundreds of new likes and follows every day – sometimes even thousands. To play your first gig and all those people liking you online? That’s just amazing. We had no idea that it would get so much bigger, so quickly.
WHAT CAN’T YOU LIVE WITHOUT ON TOUR?
CALUM:
My band – I love these guys. Apart from that, my phone. I’m absolutely addicted, which is pretty bad, I guess. I’m on it all the time. Weird thing is I’ll pick it up and not really do anything with it, I’m just scrolling. People are always telling me to put my phone down. But social media played a big part in breaking us, so it’s important to keep working with it and speaking to the fans.
LUKE:
Caffeine. I usually have some Red Bull before I go on stage every night, but I’m trying to cut down because I don’t think it’s very good for me. I’ve had so much of it I don’t think it even affects me anymore. I’ll have coffees throughout the day to keep me going – I couldn’t do this without it.
MICHAEL:
My iPad. I watch box sets like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones on it. If I find a good TV show, I’ll watch it all the time. At the moment I’m on season three of Breaking Bad and everyone keeps saying how amazing the rest of it is. By the time this book comes out, I’ll have finished it – I don’t know how much better it can get, though.
ASHTON:
I need to have a skipping rope. I like to remain somewhat fit on tour and with the rope I can do lots of things. Me and the boys have got so good at training in tiny spaces. We can train anywhere. A personal trainer taught us that we could train in a one-by-one-meter box, so whenever I can, I’m keeping in shape. I’m especially working on my lower half because I only work the top half when I’m drumming.
TAKING OFF
ASHTON:
More and more people started watching us. I remember when we recorded a cover of the Wheatus song “Teenage Dirtbag”; it was the perfect tune for us. It was the sound we loved – the boys wanted to be a Green Day, Blink-182 kinda band, and “Teenage Dirtbag” allowed us to do that. Everyone was saying, “Yeah! There’s four of you, you’re a complete band now.” And that’s when the image started to come together.
What our online fans were latching onto were the four characters in the band. They were liking the personalities behind the music. I was the loud one and I was very outspoken at the time, and I was probably the most motivated in the band – I got everyone to practice, to make sure we got everything right. I could also drive, so I’d spend all my money on petrol to get everyone to rehearsals. I even snuck Calum out of school on a few occasions.
Luke was the baby, but he was the talent as well – he had the voice. Michael was the darker one – he was the punk spirit behind the band. And Calum? He was the songwriting force. He would come to rehearsal and say, “I’ve written this song, I don’t know what it’s like . . .” And then he would play a brilliant riff. That’s what happened with our first ever single, “Out of My Limit,” which we later put on iTunes.
LUKE:
I guess it was around that time when we first got a manager. His name was Adam, and he’d tried to contact us through Facebook and our school, but he didn’t have much luck. When he finally got an email to the band, he told us that he wanted to organize a tour for us all over Australia. We would be playing Sydney and Melbourne one weekend, then the next weekend we’d be playing Brisbane and Adelaide. It sounded incredible.
&n
bsp; The plan was this: Monday to Friday we would go to school, like all the other kids, but on Saturday and Sunday we would be playing shows all over the country. I don’t think our parents were too happy about it. Everyone was saying, “Oh, it’ll be like the Annandale Hotel shows, nobody will turn up.” But the first time we put gig tickets online, the website crashed. All the tickets were gone in five minutes. We were on the phone to each other, getting so excited, saying, “What?! How did that happen?” Those venues only held two or three hundred people, but to sell them out was such a big deal for us.
MICHAEL:
God, that tour was so weird. The first time I’d ever got on a plane was to fly to Melbourne, and I was going there to play a sold-out show to 250 people. I was only 15, so it was a pretty surreal experience. In my head, we were just little idiots, four weirdos, and it didn’t make sense that all these people wanted to come and see us.
When we got to our first city, everything was so brand new. At the time we were all staying in the same hotel room. They were like apartments. We’d get this one big room and there would be four bedrooms in it. We used to pull the four beds into one room so we could talk and joke around all night. We loved it.
Hey, Let's Make a Band!: The Official 5SOS Book Page 3