5 Seconds of Summer Singer Michael Clifford Says ‘We Are One of the Best Boy Bands Ever,’ Though Ashton Irwin Puts Them in ‘Top 22’

Leave it to 5 Seconds of Summer to pull up to a casual lunch with Billboard at West Hollywood’s century-old low-key favorite restaurant Barney’s Beanery in a white stretch limo to flex their pop star muscle.

First things first, host Tetris Kelly asked the most pressing question possible: do they hate it when people refer to them as 5SOS (pronounced “five sauce”)? “That’s what it’s meant to be, said lead guitarist Michael Clifford, rocking bright pink hair and a black and grey tartan-patterned serape over a white collared shirt. “5 SOS is wrong.”

Also crucially, why Barney’s? “Because Outback Steakhouse said no,” drummer Ashton Irwin joked about the American chain of Australian-themed steakhouses started by a Floridian. Honestly, though, given the title of their upcoming sixth studio album, Everyone’s a Star! (Nov. 14), and the fact that lead singer/rhythm guitarist Luke Hemmings recalled waiting in a line to get into Barney’s once and hearing the band’s Billboard Hot 100 No. 24 hit “She Looks So Perfect” on karaoke inside is the Beanery was the only choice.

Hemmings explained that the new album’s uptempo, bright vibe is a pivot from the group’s more “introspective… ethereal” self-titled 2022 studio album. “For us, after an album like that you want to do a 180 [degree] flip,” he said, noting that every time they hit upon something that felt “crazy or different” in the studio they leaned into it. “It feels like our best work and it feels like every album before has been leading up to it.”

Believe it or don’t, after attending a show by fellow Australian’s AC/DC — who have so many iconic hits featuring beloved, easy-to-remember hooks — bassist Calum Hood said the group rallied around the phrase “everyone’s a star” as an organizing principle for the LP. Not overthinking the lyrics and letting the energy and words just flow, as well as dipping into genres such as big-beat techno on the thumping first single “Not OK,” helped the band relax and really follow their muse this time around.

They also just say it out loud on the driving pop rocker, “Boyband,” where they sing, “Boy band, boy band, make that monkey dance,” which led Irwin to ask interviewer Kelly if he thinks they are a traditional boy band. Given their One Direction-like eschewing of the traditional boy band group choreography, Irwin wondered, “like, what are we?”

“We just choose not to dance,” Hemmings explained. “We can dance very well.”

“I think we’ve been fighting the stigma of ‘boy band’ for a long time and I think people got confused,” Clifford explained. “We want to be called a boy band… from the beginning that was the confusing part… we are one of the best boy bands ever. We’re actually like, I think, we’re up there in the list of greatest boy bands.”

Hemmings agreed, though he put them in the “top 20 at least,” as Clifford slipped into Spider-Man mode to intone, “with great power comes great responsibility,” and Irwin joked, “top 22 at least.” Kelly then asked the fellas to name their favorite boy bands, with Irwin keeping it local with Australian duo Savage Garden, Hood picking U.K. act Blue, Clifford opting for the “classic” One Direction and Hemmings picking Backstreet Boys.

The guys also discussed the viral “unc” memes about Hood, built their own boy band supergroup and professed to still be blown away by being the first band to have their first three albums debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Watch the entire interview above.