5 Seconds of Summer FaceTime Zane Lowe on Apple Music to chat about how they've been spending their time during quarantine, staying hopeful on rescheduling their tour, sticking to the release plan for their new album, CALM, respect for Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, missing coffee, and more.
5SOS Tell Apple Music About Using This Time To Reflect After Releasing Their New Album ‘CALM’ and Focusing on Positive Aspects of Releasing Music For Fans…
Michael: I think we're actually lucky to have this time to be able to reflect and do some things that can keep us moving forward. I think as long as you're not just sitting around and being like, "Oh my God, this is the worst thing." And I think as long as you're doing things that make you feel like you're being productive, and I think staying productive is the most important thing during this time. Luckily, we've had an album to release, so we've been doing that. There was no second thoughts from us. There was two sides to it where it was, the fans, obviously it would've been [sad] for them not to have it and it felt unfair not to give fans an album they'd be waiting so patiently for. And then also, we were ready for it to come out. We really wanted people to hear it, no matter the circumstances. And we tried to look at all the positive aspects of putting it out and yeah, it wasn't really a thought whether we wouldn't put the album out. People have been waiting for it. Another reason why we released it as well is just because it's a source of light and positivity for some people, and especially amongst these times, I think it was important to release music. We need music more right now than, I think, ever. So yeah, might as well, hey?
5SOS Tell Apple Music About Tour Stories with One Direction and More…
Ash: We've been on some strange co-tours. Well, if you just think about who we are, and our influences, and even from the songs we've picked and obviously our influences are different from who we've toured with. We started our career touring with the biggest band ever, One Direction, and that was honestly I think we could write a whole book about that experience. I don't know if we're allowed to but they have a fascinating career, man. I think we saw their first arena shows, and we saw their very last stadium shows together, and we saw the dressing rooms together, and we saw them apart, and we saw them from top to bottom, and it was an incredible thing to admire, and see, and watch them conquer the world like they did. Particularly touring the U.S., but then we toured arenas with them and then we did their stadium tour, and watching them grow into stadium performers was insane. What an insane thing to watch, and we sold about four records at the time and we had a 20 minute set and all we were doing was getting out there to play 20 minutes and then we just got to watch them play a two hour powerhouse set. It was all fascinating, and I feel like we have so many experiences and such diversity with our touring now.
5SOS Tell Apple Music “Wildflower” Is The Wildcard on the New Album…
Luke: I think it's definitely one of the boldest and the brightest on the album, it's definitely a, excuse the pun, a bit of a wildcard on the album, and I think those big harmonies we're going to start doing a lot more and it's just a different way we're trying to expand what we can do as a vocal group, and I love the way Wildflower does this. Because Red Desert does it in more a darker way and Wildflower's unapologetically bright and bold, and I love that about it.
5SOS Tell Apple Music About Picking Up Production Skills During This Time…
Luke: I've been doing trying to do more production stuff. I think we all have been trying to do like more production. I've been writing a lot on my own, which I usually do. But trying to transfer that into an actual track with a full song as one person, which is very difficult, and now it makes me respect people that do it, like Kevin Parker, for whole albums. It's hard when you don't have people to bounce ideas off. If you're in a band and you have people to bounce ideas off, and you've had a creative relationship for 10 years now, you need that when you're making music to be like, "Is this good luck? Are we on the right path here?" But if it's just you, you're just kind of like, "Oh, well I guess I just have to trust whatever I like," and just go with this.
5SOS Tell Apple Music About Unreleased Songs From CALM…
Luke: We have like a couple of songs that didn't feel quite right. There's one that we did. We did one extra song that came out the other day as kind of a deluxe thing where if you buy ... like a dollar of each album sale goes to COVID-19 fund. So we have a few other things. But I don't know, it's difficult to answer. It'd have to be under the right circumstances to be ... either be a really low-key side project, or it'd have to be something discussed. Because I feel like 5 Seconds of Summer at this point is such a precious thing to a lot of people, and to us. It's definitely going to happen at some point, I suppose. I think that's what we're trying to take ... with every album, we take a piece back of what we can do, and what we can do as a band, and what new skill can we bring into it? When I say I've been producing, I'm not very good at that. But it's a skill to pick up. Every time we go back into doing something, you just kind of take a little bit of a piece back from maybe someone else you were relying on. And as a band, we can continue for another 10 years if we have all those skills just as a four piece.
5SOS Tell Apple Music What They Can’t Wait To Do After Isolation…
Michael: There's just so many little things that I feel like took for granted. Especially with being home, I'm such a home body anyway that I would have thought, "Wow, quarantine, forced to stay inside?", I'm like, "This sounds great." But when it happens you're like, "Oh, is this actually something that I'm actually enjoying. Like I could be out there." And especially at a time like this where we're trying to release something that's just so insanely important to us in a time that we literally can't get together. I mean, we could be but we shouldn’t.
Ash: I think diversity and crowd is so important to shake your perspective, to have important conversations face to face, human connection is obviously what we're driven by. I live with another producer who actually produced Red Desert on our new record, and he's the only person I see. So all we do is talk about music, every day. Morning to evening, all we do is talk about music, and I love that, and we're both students of what we do, but I miss going to hang out and just talk shit with people. I miss friendship, I miss the time off, I miss hanging out with band without doing music.
Luke: I miss, this is going to sound silly because that answer was very, i agree with both of those answers, but I miss going to a coffee shop and getting a coffee to be honest. I miss that kind of stuff. But do you know what I've noticed? I miss a good old fashioned handshake. Because you see people now, and I don't know if you happen to run into someone if you're on a walk, or what's happening, or whatever. But then want to say hi to someone, and you can't shake a hand. You're so awkward and just go, "Hey.”
