Michael Clifford, best known as the guitarist for 5 Seconds of Summer, has released his debut solo album, SIDEQUEST.
Clifford is the last member of 5SOS to go solo, but says he never planned for it. In a new interview with Rolling Stone AU/NZ, he shared that his solo project came together during the COVID-19 lockdowns. While his bandmates Luke Hemmings and Ashton Irwin launched their own records, Clifford focused on producing, until the songs he’d written felt too good to keep to himself.
“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 told Rolling Stone AU/NZ.
“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?”
Elsewhere in the interview, Clifford said he wanted SIDEQUEST to break away from the pop-punk sound that first made 5 Seconds of Summer famous. Instead, he looked to electronic music and digital creators for inspiration.
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“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?”
He also hinted at more to come from 5 Seconds of Summer. “It’s such a good time to be a fan of 5 Seconds of Summer because there’s just so much lore and depth,” he said.
Michael Clifford’s SIDEQUEST is out today.
