Biography 5 Seconds of Summer

5 Seconds of Summer are an Australian pop rock band. Formed in Sydney in 2011, the band consists of Luke Hemmings (lead vocals, guitar), Michael Clifford (guitar, vocals), Calum Hood (bass guitar, vocals) and Ashton Irwin (drums, vocals). They started to gain a small following in 2012 after posting a series of cover versions of popular songs onto YouTube, then rose to international fame when One Direction invited them on their Take Me Home Tour.

5 Seconds of Summer released their debut single "Out of My Limit", exclusively in Australia and New Zealand, in November 2012. In February 2014, they released "She Looks So Perfect" as their debut worldwide release. It topped the charts in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Their self-titled debut studio album will be released in June 2014.

History

2011–12: Origin and debut

5 Seconds of Summer began in December 2011 when Luke Hemmings, Michael Clifford and Calum Hood, who all attended Norwest Christian College, started posting videos of themselves performing covers of popular songs together on Hemmings' YouTube channel. Henmmings' first video, a cover of Mike Posner's "Please Don't Go", was posted on February 3, 2011. Their cover of Chris Brown's "Next to You" received over 600,000 hits. In December 2011, they were joined by drummer Ashton Irwin, and the four-man line up was completed.

The band attracted some keen interest from major music labels and publishers, and have signed a publishing deal with Sony ATV Music Publishing. Despite having had no promotion apart from on Facebook and Twitter, their first music release, an EP entitled Unplugged, reached number 3 on the iTunes chart in Australia, and the Top 20 in both New Zealand and Sweden. Their international following increased significantly once again when One Direction member Louis Tomlinson posted the link to their YouTube video of their song "Gotta Get Out", stating that he'd been a fan of 5 Seconds of Summer "for a while". 5 Seconds of Summer were once again the subject of interest for One Direction following the release of their first single, "Out of My Limit", on 19 November 2012, this time with Niall Horan tweeting the link to the video clip.

5 Seconds of Summer spent the second half of 2012 writing and developing their sound with Christian Lo Russo and Joel Chapman of Australian band Amy Meredith, with whom they wrote two of the songs that feature on theSomewhere New EP: "Beside You" and "Unpredictable". The EP was also co-produced by Joel Chapman. 5 Seconds of Summer released their first single "Out of My Limit" on 19 November 2012, the video clip for the song receiving over 100,000 views within the first 24 hours. In December 2012, the boys embarked on a songwriting trip to London, where they have written with various artists including McFly, Roy Stride of Scouting for Girls, Nick Hodgson of Kaiser Chiefs, Jamie Scott, Jake Gosling, Steve Robson and James Bourne of Busted.

2013–present: 5 Seconds of Summer, and international breakthrough

On 14 February 2013, it was announced that 5 Seconds of Summer would support One Direction on their worldwide Take Me Home Tour. The tour kicked off at the O2 Arena in London on 23 February 2013, and 5 Seconds of Summer joined One Direction for shows in the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand, including 7 shows at Allphones Arena in 5 Seconds of Summer's home town of Sydney. Whilst on a break from the Take Me Home Tour, 5 Seconds of Summer returned home to Australia where they played a National headlining tour, with all dates selling out within minutes. It was around this time when the band began to gain popularity and become more well-known. On 21 November 2013, the band announced that they had signed to Capitol Records. 5 Seconds of Summer are currently working on their debut album.

On 5 February 2014, 5 Seconds of Summer listed their worldwide debut single "She Looks So Perfect" for pre-order on the iTunes Store. Within two days, it had reached the number one position in 39 countries, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Spain, Malaysia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

In late March 2014, "She Looks So Perfect" was released in UK. Despite only 1 day on top in British iTunes store and ending week at the end of top 10, 5 Seconds Of Summer scored No. 1 spot as the fourth Australian band in UK and the first in 14 years. In next week song drop to No. 10, which is biggest drop from top spot since McFly's ""Baby's Coming Back"/"Transylvania", who dropped from No. 1 to No. 20 also in its second week on the UK chart. On 5 March 2014, it was announced that 5 Seconds of Summer will once again join One Direction on the road, supporting them on their 2014 Where We Are Tour in the US, Canada, UK and Europe. On 9 April 2014, the She Looks So Perfect EP debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200.

On 13 May 2014, the band announced that their debut album, named 5 Seconds of Summer, will be released on 27 June 2014.[34]

Influences

The band cites Blink-182, All Time Low, Green Day, Mayday Parade, Boys Like Girls, and Busted as their influences.

Discography

· 5 Seconds of Summer (2014)

Tours

Opening act

· Hot Chelle Rae – Whatever World Tour (October 2012)

· One Direction – Take Me Home Tour (2013)

· One Direction – Where We Are Tour (2014)

Headlining

· Mini Australian Tour (2012)