But before she can finish that thought, she screams. Everyone screams. It\u2019s Calum \u2013 the member who created the security risk \u2013 wandering out of the hotel for some fresh air. He looks around, scratches his head, and laughs. \u201cHow did you find us here?\u201d he asks. \u201cYou!!\u201d they reply.<\/p>\n
Inside, the rest of 5SOS \u2013 Ashton Irwin, Luke Hemmings and Michael Clifford \u2013 are dressed with full commitment in their new look: it\u2019s acidic and bright, involving colourful make-up and chains. It\u2019s part of their ironic pop rock album, Everyone\u2019s a Star!, about the problems involved with being everyone\u2019s favourite boyband (see: their satirical marketing material); their idea was to blow up all their personalities and make themselves larger than life, sellable boyband characters. By now they\u2019re used to being in London, having first moved here from the suburbs of Sydney as teenagers<\/a>, when they were offered a supporting slot on One Direction<\/a>\u2019s 2013 Up All Night Tour. 1D\u2019s management wanted to help build 5SOS up in a country where bubblegum pop already made sense with guitars, imagining them as more famous than Busted or McFly. <\/p>\n \u201cWe were very hesitant, very scared of coming over to the UK and being associated with One Direction because we wanted to be a hardcore pop-punk act and we were really terrified of pop,\u201d remembers the natural leader of the group, Ashton (The Smart One). \u201cWe didn\u2019t really understand the music industry. We just were very beginner-level amateur rock\u2019n\u2019roll guys. We were trying to build a career for ourselves, but we weren\u2019t sure that this was going to be the right avenue.\u201d<\/p>\n That initial introduction to an enormous new fanbase was followed up by the cheeky and infectious \u201cShe Looks So Perfect\u201d in 2014 \u2013 a musical sibling to 1D\u2019s \u201cWhat Makes You Beautiful\u201d, both tween pop classics that reassure insecure girls that they are gorgeous. It went straight to UK No 1 and gave them another push into stardom. <\/p>\n Did they have a perspective as kids on how famous they became so quickly? \u201cNo, not at all. All I remember was it just started to get hard to leave buildings,\u201d says Ashton matter-of-factly. In some countries, they\u2019d be in a hotel and there\u2019d be thousands of girls waiting outside. Other times it\u2019d be \u201ctumbleweed\u201d, which was a disorientating experience in another way altogether. \u201cI just think we handled it the best we could for kids from a rural area in Sydney,\u201d Ashton continues. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m grateful for One Direction, because we were looking at them dealing with it times a thousand. They were our mentors in the sense that they were graceful, well-spoken and good at dealing with being extremely famous, and leaders of their teams at a young age.\u201d He looks to his bandmates and adds, \u201cIt\u2019s probably one of the reasons we\u2019re still together, because of those early lessons in how to walk the walk in this music world, and with having such an intense audience.\u201d <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n 5SOS at the Brit Awards 2014 (Getty Images)<\/p>\n A pink-haired Michael (The Mischievous, Quirky One) jumps in. \u201cIt was so inspiring to watch one of the biggest acts of all time from the inside when we were at a very impressionable age,\u201d he says of the 1D-fuelled \u201cpandemonium\u201d. \u201cWe were like, \u2018Let\u2019s work our asses off forever until we can get as close to what that was.\u2019\u201d I\u2019m told before our interview that out of respect to Liam Payne\u2019s family, 5SOS won\u2019t be answering any questions about the late 1D member\u2019s death, particularly given that they spent a period being so close to the band. <\/p>\n The pay-off for joining boyband world was inevitably being considered as a boyband, something that, in the early days of their careers, 5SOS railed against. That label, Ashton thinks, was a bit of \u201cpsychological prodding\u201d from the press and public, and so they responded in a \u201creactive\u201d manner. \u201cAll we ever thought about was songwriting and these noble, pure pursuits of creativity,\u201d he says. \u201cWe fought back against it because we were kids with a dream of being in a group that has a substantial impact on pop culture, but not a cheesy one.\u201d <\/p>\n It\u2019s the curse of Peter Pan. It\u2019s like, \u2018I hope one day someone takes me seriously.\u2019 What an awful burden to put on a kid<\/p>\n Ashton Irwin<\/p>\n Michael jumps in again: \u201cThe connotation around a \u2018boyband\u2019 was that it was manufactured and fake.\u201d Ashton continues that thought, suddenly more serious: \u201cAnd it also felt emasculating. It felt like, how are we ever going to grow up? It\u2019s the curse of Peter Pan. It\u2019s like, \u2018I hope one day someone takes me seriously.\u2019 What an awful burden to put on a kid.\u201d <\/p>\n At the height of their fame, in 2015, they were on the cover of Rolling Stone, which called them \u201cthe World\u2019s Hottest Band\u201d. The writer captured them living it large in Los Angeles, partying with their peers, and enjoying the associated sexual attention from young women you might expect. Though not truly crude, it obliterated any possibility of a squeaky-clean image, alienating a portion of their teen fanbase. Unusually, the most controversial element of the profile was Ashton reportedly saying, \u201cWe don\u2019t want to just be, like, for girls. We want to be for everyone. That\u2019s the great mission that we have. I\u2019m already seeing a few male fans start to pop up, and that\u2019s cool. If The Beatles<\/a> and The Rolling Stones<\/a> and all those guys can do it, we can do it, too.\u201d <\/p>\n It was read by some as an anti-fangirl sentiment, a dismissal of the same people who had raised them up. This was not the intention, Ashton says today. \u201cYou just hoped they bring their boyfriends or something \u2013 you don\u2019t want the men to have the ick\u2026 It\u2019s not to say we don\u2019t appreciate our female fanbase \u2013 it\u2019s 80 per cent women,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe looked at bands like The Beatles<\/a> and The Rolling Stones and all these massive bands that had predominantly female fan<\/a> bases for the first 15, 20 years of their careers and when you\u2019re still playing 25-30 years down the line, it\u2019s amazing to have all the sexes involved in your concerts.\u201d <\/p>\n Calum adds, \u201cI feel like there are parallels between boybands and fangirls used with a negative connotation as well. I think women are the best type of fan.\u201d Michael practically shudders, looking up under furrowed brow: \u201cWe\u2019ve played to a room of men, and it\u2019s the worst thing. Please never again.\u201d They all laugh at the memory. \u201cA lot of things were taken out of context,\u201d Michael explains of the interviews they did in their younger years. \u201cFor us, we were just like, how do we expand [after having been] written off as a boyband for no reason.\u201d<\/p>\n In the past few years, band members have branched off to work on their own solo projects, which has only focused them further. Luke (The Internal One) says that being able to channel their own influences and thoughts into their solo material (\u201chaving an outlet that isn\u2019t the band to write and get all those s***ty ideas out\u201d) has made the band more pure. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018What does the band need right now?\u201d It\u2019s why their new album is so good, he thinks. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n \u2018Everyone\u2019s a Star!\u2019 artwork (5SOS)<\/p>\n If the public has pinned them as a boyband who want to be edgy, they decided they would caricature themselves as just that on Everyone\u2019s a Star! It\u2019s bold, catchy pop-rock that wears its influences just as loudly (The 1975 and Fontaines DC). Self-aware phrases like \u201cmake that monkey dance\u201d and \u201cimaginary boyfriend\u201d land impressively on the addictive, dark-mode Backstreet Boys track \u201cBoyband\u201d. Their line \u201cLove me when I\u2019m skinny and we never, ever age\u201d reminds me of Ashton\u2019s Peter Pan comment. This is probably the only dignified way a boyband can age under those circumstances. <\/p>\n \u201cWe want to use this label [boyband] and glorify its power and say: well, yeah, we\u2019re a boyband but we\u2019ve had a 15-year career and we\u2019re still thriving today and actually have enough songwriting skill to write a song called \u2018Boyband\u2019 with irony and tell our story in a poetic sense,\u201d says Ashton. This is about their collective story, they say, being able to zoom out as adults and view their early days in the band when they couldn\u2019t comprehend what was happening. Lyrics explore the way they craved attention, the problems they had with being objectified and perceived, and the feeling of the spotlight drifting away. \u201cTake me to heaven, cure your depression, make me your number one obsession,\u201d they sing on \u201cNo 1 Obsession\u201d, a lightly hysterical bop with guitars in the vein of mid-career Fall Out Boy.<\/p>\n Going to the places where you\u2019d like your music to be heard is very important when making contemporary music<\/p>\n Ashton Irwin<\/p>\n From the title track (\u201cSomeone call the dealer \/ feeling like a god\u201d) to \u201cNot OK\u201d (\u201cLucifer in every line \/ every night\u201d), it\u2019s a pop record that delves into the underbelly of celebrity partying. Balance, Ashton says, is critical to living in LA, the predominant home base for the band, where friends and late nights are easily accessible, if not encouraged. \u201cBut the conjuring of songs is found when diving into the depths of free will,\u201d he adds. \u201cFor me personally, when writing, I\u2019ll have better, longer nights out: I\u2019ll be looking for vocabulary, sounds, rhythms, whatever. Going to the places where you\u2019d like your music to be heard is very important when making contemporary music.\u201d These songs on Everyone\u2019s a Star!, in particular, are meant to be partied to. \u201c\u2026 but yeah, the balance of staying afloat through the various things that happen in your life, which I don\u2019t really want to talk to you about\u2026\u201d Ashton trails off and laughs. \u201cIt\u2019s important to observe yourself.\u201d <\/p>\n He is speaking for himself, not the others. He and Calum are single men; Luke and Michael are married with kids, so one half of the band is living a very different life than the other, Ashton says. \u201cWe\u2019re single,\u201d echoes Calum, pretending to shed a tear. Ashton continues Calum\u2019s joke: \u201cYeah, so you\u2019ve got a lot of loneliness, you\u2019ve got a lot of fulfilment, and they\u2019re colliding.\u201d Then he becomes more serious again. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not a bad thing or a comedic thing or whatever the f***, it\u2019s just really how it\u2019s happening right now. These guys have different relationships to us, so as a writing group, on the record, you\u2019re getting this collision of concepts and ideas and feelings.\u201d <\/p>\n A couple of hours after I leave them, 5SOS will be trapped inside perspex boxes in central London to get stared at by fans. It\u2019ll be an obvious comment on their previous status as box-fresh boyband dolls, a product to purchase and play with. But this campaign is all about having more fun with themselves and their music than they have in years. \u201cIf you have repressed emotion or repressed energy and you haven\u2019t had a good time in a long time?\u201d says Ashton with a smile. \u201cYou should think about having a good time.\u201d <\/p>\n \u2018Everyone\u2019s a Star!\u2019 is out now on Republic <\/p>\n![\"5SOS](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-470680449.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\u2018Everyone\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/EVERYONES-A-STAR-Artwork.jpg\")
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