5 Seconds Of Summer’s fourth studio album will drop on Friday, March 27, but the buildup has been anything but “calm.”
While speaking with ET Canada, drummer Ashton Irwin discusses how he and his bandmates — Luke Hemmings, Calum Hood and Michael Clifford — had to change up the way they promote their new record CALM due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“It has been so strange,” he shares.
“We usually would be on planes every day at the moment, going to as many places as we can and speaking to as many people as we can, and obviously having dozens of human interactions every day to talk about our record and what it means to us and basically convince these people that they’re going to like it.
“It’s been a total change. I think the only positive thing is people are willing to engage on their devices a little more than usual.”
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Even though the band’s album promotion has been restrictive, the 25-year-old says that creating this record was very “freeing.”
“We didn’t really over-analyze it. We stuck to our abilities and we just put the time in, to hone in on our songwriting,” he says.
“It went by really quick and then we waited to release it for a long time, which was weird ’cause almost imminently, we got on the next record.”
“So, we’ve been thinking about album number 5 for about a year already.”
But, before the fifth album comes their fourth, which Irwin says features their “most diverse pack of songs” yet.
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“We have a song called ‘Red Desert’ and that’s about following your instincts and your gut feelings towards things. It’s probably one of the first songs as a band that we’ve written that’s kind of been out of the box concept for us,” he explains.
“There are other songs like ‘Wildflower’, which are just epic, positive, upbeat-feeling pop songs, which I love as well.”
Of course, Irwin can’t wait to debut some of their new tracks on stage.
“This album is built for a live environment so it’s something that we’re looking forward to once people can play shows again.”
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With album No. 5 already in the works, the drummer says that 5 Seconds Of Summer can’t wait to keep progressing their sound by giving their fans even more new music.
“We’ve always wanted to be a band that keeps releasing records as often as possible. I think the way the world’s going, we’ll be able to release music more often in the next two years,” he shares.
