For this edition of Kyle Meredith With… Kyle sat down with 5 Seconds of Summer (sans Ashton Irwin, who couldn’t make it), to discuss their latest singles, upcoming album — 5SOS5, past solo projects, and all about them being a newly independent band, plus so much more.
LISTEN NOW: Kyle Meredith With... 5 Seconds of Summer on Major Chords, Solo Albums, and the Upcoming 5SOS5
While 5SOS don’t technically define themselves as independent artists, “because there’s four of us, and we’re all kind of collaborating with each other,” at the root of it, it’s what they are since parting ways with Modest Management.
Saying, “we’re in a place where we feel kind of reliant on ourselves, to make the music, and to release it and to promote it and kind of come up with the ideas for like the videos, just everything.”
Speaking of, 5SOS have been hard at work on their latest album — 5SOS5, set to be released on September 23, 2022. Which Kyle was curious about, asking if the album just becomes what it is, or do they first ask, what do we want this album to be.
Offering their best answer, they said, “going into this album musically, we sort of stumbled across something different for us, and I think the first song we put out ‘COMPLETE MESS,’ which is why we put it out first, was the first thing we made… and that was a really beautiful moment that really dominoed the rest of the songs and the rest of the album.”
And while they worked together on what they call a very “introspective” album, both Luke and Ashton had themselves individual experiences doing the same, as each released a solo album during the time the spent at home during the pandemic. Wondering whether those projects had any influence on their upcoming album, Meredith asked Luke.
“I mean I think it had a lot of different affects, I think for me… it was such a weird time… in that hardcore time when we were just at home all the time, I needed to do something. And I think once I’d sort of made something on my own… and written some of those songs about some different topics… and just exploring a different area, it allowed me to understand myself more, and understand my role in the band when we went to go back to making music as a band.”
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Kyle Meredith With... is an interview series in which WFPK’s Kyle Meredith speaks to a wide breadth of musicians. Meredith digs deep into the artists work to find out how the music is made and where their journey is going.
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