Michael Clifford is officially the last member of 5 Seconds of Summer to release a solo record.
It wasn’t an intentional move. While fellow 5SOS members Luke Hemmings and Ashton Irwin got to work on their own projects during COVID, Clifford leaned more into producing. But as he started to amass more music, the 29-year-old songwriter had a decision to make: leave those songs on a hard drive forever or summon the courage to release them to the world.
So began the start of his debut solo album, SIDEQUEST. As Clifford tells Rolling Stone AU/NZ, he’s unsure if there was one particular moment that inspired him to release his own music.
“It was the fear of having made all of this and it just not existing, I think I was like, ‘Man, I’d be doing a shame to myself and anybody who would want to hear something from me,’” he explains over Zoom from Los Angeles.
“I have inspiration and I have stuff here that I could put out in the world and every part of me was like, ‘Don’t do it. It’s too scary. Everyone’s gonna hate it.’ And then it was this wrestle with myself where I was like, ‘You know what? If there’s at least one person who likes this and can enjoy this, I’d be pretty stoked.’ I wanted to go through that process, and just like the other guys have done now, really experience how different the process is because it makes you really appreciate what you have, you know?”
Much like the other 5SOS members, Clifford wanted SIDEQUEST to be something that fans wouldn’t ordinarily expect.
Known as the pop-punk kid from Sydney when5SOS were on the rise in the 2010’s, the Quakers Hill-born artist knows it would have been easy to deliver something from that nostalgic world. But Clifford isn’t a kid anymore. He got married a few years ago, and welcomed a baby girl into the world with his partner in 2023.
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With his solo record, Clifford wanted to explore that maturity and push the boundaries.
“It would have been really easy for me to make something that was like a nostalgia album, you know what I mean? That would have been really easy for me to throw together some pop-punk songs and go for it… I was really focused on what could push this sound and genre in a direction that feels a little bit unexpected and do something that feels nostalgic but also feels like it’s going forwards in time as well.
“I think that was also part of the reason why it took me so long to create this. I take a ton of inspiration from electronic music and guys who work incredibly digitally and I think it’s important to take notes from these kids who are making songs in BandLab on their phone, you know? Like, really keeping in mind that that the world is moving forward quicker than I think pop-punk was able to keep up with.
“When I write a song, it’s always gonna come from that place. I’m an alternative emo kid at heart. That’s just like where I write from. But how can I take that and have it not be something that’s been recycled and done before?”
When he started SIDEQUEST, Clifford aimed to go on this venture solo in every sense of the word. Writing, producing, mixing, mastering — he wanted autonomy. Clifford forgot that after being in a band for over a decade, though, the thing he loves most is collaboration. And as his 5SOS family have all shared in their own solo work, this project has helped him become a better songwriter for the band.
As the album title suggests, Clifford’s main priority is 5SOS. Outside of a headline show at LA’s Fonda Theatre next week (“that’ll be fucking crazy, and I’m more terrified for that than anything”), he will turn his attention back to the beast that is 5SOS.
“I keep repeating it, but it’s like your favourite superhero movies where you go and you watch the solo films and then when they come together, that’s the thing that everyone was like, ‘Oh my God, did you see that?’ I’ve been such a massive fan of all of us individually…. Ash and Luke were some of my top played artists of last year, and I’m sure Calum [Hood] will be in my top play this year. It’s so cool and it’s such a good time to be a fan of 5 Seconds of Summer because there’s just so much lore and fucking depth… you can really explore who each of us are just through our catalog now and through the way that we’ve each done this.
“I remember Ash telling the story of one guy who said like, ‘You guys will be fine as long as nobody does a solo project!’ And hey, it fucking proved him wrong, whoever that guy was.”
Hood hinted at new 5SOS music earlier this year when speaking to Rolling Stone AU/NZ, with many fans expecting it to be the follow-up to their self-titled 2022 album. While he wouldn’t divulge any new details, Clifford is clearly very excited about what’s to come.
“I’m so proud to be a part of a band that’s able to do stuff that’s scary, and I’m also proud to even just know the guys because they also release dope fucking music,” he says.
“I think that’s the thing that’s most exciting about the next 5SOS record – nobody has a fucking clue.”
Michael Clifford’s SIDEQUEST is out today.
