You're never there, you know?
And I've lost a few of them because of
the cold hard mistress that is the road.
Imagine that you're sixteen and in a band.
Your phones ringing,
so you answer it.
It's Niall Horan from One Direction.
5 SOS,
are coming on the road with us
in U.K and Ireland
and Europe baby!
That wasn't a hypothetical for Australia's own 5 Seconds of Summer.
They're the only Australian act in history
to debut at number one with their first release on the U.S charts.
They've sold out multiple tours, played Madison Square Garden and their single...
So popular it supposedly increased sales of American Apparel underwear by 10%.
And that's merely a snapshot of the success that they've had.
It's been five years since I last spoke to them when they were in year ten.
How you doing today boys?
Good.
So I started where we last left off.
Do you remember
how you broke the news to your classmates that you were going on tour with One Direction
and you might not be coming back to class?
It wasn't like a big celebration going away party I don't think.
I don't remember it at all like that. I think you weren't really coming to school at all at that point.
I was hanging in a couple days a week.
All my eggs were in the 5 Seconds of Summer basket.
Cared about nothing else.
It was kinda like we were in our own little world or something.
Of like teenage, no one gets this but us
in the van and no one understands that is something really cool and really special that we have.
Did you finish high school?
No.
Pretty personal question.
Credit to Luke, he tried.
For the first year of touring,
when I was about sixteen and I did maths and business studies on the road.
Cause his mum was a maths teacher.
My mum came on the road but it got too busy.
I got half my HSC.
And ahhh
-Look at me now. -Half graduated.
-Yeah I half graduated. Callum didn't make it that far. -Galliant effort.
Michael didn't and Ashton did.
I mean, what did your mums think about that at the time?
Was it an easy sell?
Like 'Nah we're gonna be the biggest band in the world.'
They were as supportive as a
sane mind could be.
You know cause we're sixteen years old, fifteen years old at this point
and we're like we're moving to London and we're gonna become the biggest band in the world.
And you hear that
-as a parent you're like... -To be fair, if I was a parent, no way!
There's not a chance.
'Hey guys.'
'Sup?'
How did you guys first get together and actually make music
or jam together or do covers?
I did a few covers on my own.
I think I was 14 when I put my first one up
on Youtube.
I remember Michael came up to me and said 'Should we do a cover together?'
We should like make a band.
And then he was like, I have this friend Callum as well
who I also knew because there was like 40 people at our school.
And I was like yeah I know that guy.
He plays an instrument?
And we played a Secondhand Serenade cover in front of the school.
'Stay Close Don't Go' before both of our voices had even broken yet.
So it was very high.
You skipped years of giggings at pubs,
-and you went straight to arena shows. -Yes.
We kinda had to get our act together pretty quickly.
You're right in the sense that we kinda did everything backwards, cos we had no music out.
What was that experience like the first time you walked out to fifty thousand screaming fans?
We were terrified. Obviously.
I think I blacked out when we walked out on stage.
To have a year or two years
opening for the biggest band, was like
you know, proving to a crowd that might not know you,
-why you should like them. -Man we still play
headline gigs as if we're supporting another band.
I'm sure life hasn't always been easy on the road for you guys.
What have been some of the tougher moments that you as a band have had to experience or go through?
I was seventeen I think,
on this huge
world tour.
I remember it was getting towards the end
I was just like you know, I'm having a tough time trying to figure out my own head, what's going on.
A lot of bands would kinda break up or
or end it because it gets
too much or too hard or whatever.
And Ashton was like, you're gonna have times like this and you're gonna feel bad
but it's where you kind of get back up and that's why it helps to be in a band with your brothers.
You're living a life that's in the public eye
and most teenagers can do things and go through things in their life
without things ending up in a tabloid or on the internet.
For you guys, what's it like waking up to a bad headline about yourself?
Do you panic?
I've had a couple about me.
What's your favourite bad headline?
I don't even wanna talk about it anymore.
I woke up at three in the morning and as us millennial's do,
check your phone to see what's going on.
And the worst mistake of my life, I couldn't get back to sleep.
Cause it was a bad, you know, it was a bad one.
I mean, there's not much you can do about it.
-Once it's out there. -But does your gut fall?
Oh of course, you know.
Social anxiety.
Depression. The whole thing.
You and your band mates are kinda the only ones who
really know
who you are.
So as long as your family, your close friends,
the people you truly care about know who you are then
it's fine.
This is the part where we tell each other that we love each other.
Yeah to be on the road with a girlfriend or a loved one, or whatever it might be
is not easy.
You're never there, you know?
And I've lost a few of them because of
the cold hard mistress that is the road.
Yeah, tell us about that cold hard mistress.
No, obviously, I mean that was kinda a joke.
But, you know.
Keeping it going on the road can be hard
and if doesn't work when you're on the road then it's not gonna work.
Yeah I mean going on stage when you're not feeling good
that's that kind of the job aspect
comes in I suppose and it's not all fun, you've got to put on a show for people that are coming to see you.
I heard that what you wanted for you year Luke was for people to understand
you as a person or 5SOS,
as the people behind the band.
For fans in particular
you get a body of work like an album that's kind of who you relate
the person in the band to being like.
It's a weird time in your life anyway,
nineteen to twenty-one from the last album.
So it's important for people to hear the lyrics and the stories
and to understand where we are
as people.
As, I guess men now.