Latest news with #5SecondsofSummer
Forbes
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Saturday Conversation: Michael Clifford On Finding His Own Voice
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JULY 16: Michael Clifford speaks onstage at The Drop: Michael Clifford at ... More GRAMMY Museum L.A. Live on July 16, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo byfor The Recording Academy) The Michael Clifford you got to know in the multi-platinum Australian band 5 Seconds of Summer has grown up on his solo debut, Sidequest. A husband and a father now, Clifford tackles all that comes with those responsibilities – the love of being a dad, the vulnerability, the questions and more. The result is an honest, but musically playful look at the good, bad and scary of growing up. I spoke with Clifford at length about the album, finding his own voice as a solo artist and much more. Steve Batin: I wanted to get your perception on this. I've talked about this with so many artists. As soon as you have a kid, it doesn't matter what happened in your life before that. None of it matters because you realize it's just all about them; protecting them, making them happy and most important what they think about you. Michael Clifford: Dude, it really changed my whole outlook. Also, there's something interesting that I've found, once you have a kid, I'm like, 'Man, everything else is easy. I can do anything because being a parent is the hardest and most fulfilling thing that you can do.' So, it is definitely interesting because anything else can come my way. And I'm like, 'Yeah, it just pales in comparison to the emotion and feeling of a kid.' Baltin: Yeah, Serj Tankian is a friend, and he put it to me this way: as soon as you have a kid, everything you've ever thought you've known about being in love forget it because it all changes. You'll never love anything as much as you love your kid. Clifford: You also have to rest in peace the old version of you that you had before you were a parent, which is super interesting to me and coincidentally falls in line with this album that I've made. I made a lot of the music before being a dad and then after being a dad I had to go back and re-approach everything again. Not because I wanted to make a record about being a dad, there's maybe one song that is about that on my album. But I wanted to just approach it with a new perspective of where I was at in life now and it's a totally different place than where I was and it helped me embrace something more childlike in myself that I feel like I've been trying to force myself to grow up or something. It almost did the opposite to me, it's doing the most adult thing that I could ever do in my life I was like, 'Wait a second, that's my place for that, but everything else, like in music, I need it to be just as fun and full of that childlike wonder as I can tap into.' 03:08 Baltin: James Bay was also saying he made his last album before he had a kid. And then he went back and realized that there was stuff in there about being a dad. He didn't know he had written about it. A lot of times as an artist, because music is so subconscious, you're writing about things you're thinking without knowing they're there. So, it's interesting that you say that because I love your vulnerability on the record. When you listen now do you think the idea of being a dad was part of that? Clifford: Absolutely, I think I am a chronic overthinker. I overthink everything in my life, especially music and parenting. I'll dissect every moment and everything to see if I've done it right. So, for me, there was a ton of correlation with both of those things. And they're the two things that are the biggest parts of my life. So, yeah, a common theme in my album and just honestly, who I am as a person is can I even do this thing that I'm trying to do And other people give me confidence and make me think that I can, but maybe I just have to give it a go and with the song like 'Cool,' it was the first song that I that I said, 'Okay, this one is done and this one I can hand over and let out into the universe.' That was just such a trip because I've been delivering songs and signing off on songs in the band since I was 15, 16 years old. And now here I am. I've been doing this for 13, 14 years. And I'm struggling to even be happy with the music and feel like it's ready to be put out into the world. So, in a lot of ways, for me, this record had to go at some point. I had to let it go and have other people tell me when the thing needs to be done by, because if it was up to me, I'd just keep editing it and it'd live in a Dropbox forever. Batin: When you're with the band, you have other guys that you can bounce ideas and songs off of. When it's in your name, it's a whole different kind of pressure. Clifford: I was getting to the point where every single sound and every song I was just overthinking. There was so much where I didn't understand the concept of everything that I put out and everything that everyone hears. I was like, 'I no longer can hide behind my friends. It's me now. And everything that you hear on it has to be a representation of me and that just riffled me.' That was a big journey for me, finding out sometimes you just have to go with your gut and go with what feels right instead of what analytically in your head you can do. I was just running in circles Baltin: When you go back and listen to it now are there songs that surprise you? What Luke [Hemmings] said to me that was so interesting when we talked about his EP last year, he talked about the fact that in writing it, it was almost like coming to grips with his teenage feelings and it was like trying to protect someone that you can't protect anymore. You spent all this time as a teenager having success and you craft this image for the world. And then now as an adult, you're a dad, a husband, and there's a freedom in letting all that go and saying this is who I really am. I no longer have to protect that image. Clifford: That's interesting. That's well said for him. And I think that's been a theme for him, even when we made our fifth record, I was feeling that there was like a lot of reminiscing from Luke on the past and he was trying to find the right words to say, and I love how he put that. That was a great quote. I think going into being solo artists for all of us in the band we have this thing that we all do together. Then when we go and do our own things they're so different. And they're so uniquely us in whatever way. For me, I was just trying to find what's that for me? I don't know what that looks like for me. I don't know what that sounds like, or what words are right and represent me. Finding out that was I think the biggest part for me because ultimately, I'm not the person who sings the most in my band and I had to find out what's my voice in in this space of life. Who am I? I think finding that for me was a big theme in my record. Baltin: Who was it that you found in this? Clifford: I have no idea and what I love about what I've made is the songs are all so different and they're coming from so many different places and like ideas that I feel like this is part of who I am. I'm complicated and have a lot of parts of myself and I'm not necessarily one person. I'm a sum of all my experiences and all of these different journeys that I've taken in life. Baltin: Was there one moment that really meant a lot to you in finishing this record? Clifford: For me, having Porter Robinson, who's my number one favorite artist of all time, listen to "Kill Me For Always" and do his thing on it and believe in me, really helped me get across the finish line. His co-sign meant a lot to me.
Express Tribune
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
5 Seconds of Summer's Michael Clifford shares personal family update
5 Seconds of Summer guitarist Michael Clifford, along with his wife Crystal Leigh, have announced they are expecting their second child, expanding their family to four. The surprise was shared via a joint Instagram post captioned 'Table for 4 please', accompanied by photos of the couple with their young daughter Lua and colorful belly stickers spelling out 'BABY.' Clifford and Leigh married in a private ceremony on January 11, 2021, and welcomed their first child, Lua Stevie, on October 30, 2023, in Georgia. The timing underscores a heartfelt growth in their family life, two years after their daughter's birth. The announcement was met with excitement from fans across social media, including on Reddit, where followers expressed enthusiasm and shared well-wishes. Although the couple has kept maternity specifics private, Crystal Leigh's baby bump was visibly highlighted in the Instagram photos, signaling a pregnancy well into its early stages. Clifford originally announced his engagement to Leigh in early 2020, and they have since maintained a relatively private personal life outside of family milestones and music career developments.
Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
New music: Michael Clifford, Alex G, GoGo Penguin, Visiting Rachmaninoff
Michael Clifford Sidequest (Hopeless) More than a decade ago, the Australian pop-punk boy band 5 Seconds of Summer emerged as charming genre-revivalists. The 2014 career-making single She Looks So Perfect was all palm-muted power chords and gang vocals, a familiar sound for fans of the Warped Tour scene. In the years since, the quartet evolved into a full-on arena pop-rock act, taking turns at releasing solo material. Next up is lead guitarist Michael Clifford, the edgiest of the bunch, with a spirited solo debut album that feels truer to the band's earliest material than their most recent. Ten energetic, introspective tracks form a tight album that explores self-doubt, fame and romance. The songs are pop-punk in spirit but deviate from the formula with a stadium-sized production: experimental electronics, big synths and versatile vocals. And it is an emotional journey. The lovesick opener Kill Me for Always, featuring Porter Robinson, sets the stage, with its scintillating mix of electronica and bass. The sound of Cool acts as the strongest evidence of Clifford's former boy band roots. It's self-deprecating and self-aware. In an album stuffed with energetic songs juxtaposed with existential lyrics, the best track arrives at a midpoint high in Enough. 'At 3 a.m. awake again / I can see all of the damage you've done,' Clifford sings through an evocative rasp. 'With friends like you who needs a loaded gun.' Sidequest sets out to prove it's both a culmination of the last decade of Clifford's life and a deviation from it, as he steps into his own sound. Thankfully, for fans, it succeeds. The debut album reflects Clifford's maturation and self-agency, despite the insecurities and doubts that creep in throughout. ★★★½ out of five Stream: Enough; Cool — Rachel S. Hunt, The Associated Press Alex G Headlights (RCA) Fame is a double-edge sword. Though it comes with obvious perks — money, opportunity and praise — it can also prompt a kind of existential reckoning. Now what? Is this all there is? Am I changed because of it and, if so, for better or for worse? This is the kind of wrestling Alex Giannascoli, better known as the influential indie rocker Alex G, performs on Headlights, his 10th album and first on a major label. Although Giannascoli achieved success early in his career — collaborating with Frank Ocean on his critically acclaimed 2016 album Blonde and joining the R&B superstar on tour — he has, until recently, been more frequently labelled a cult indie figure than a household name. But the 32-year-old has risen to prominence in recent years, particularly after his 2022 album, God Save the Animals, which marked a distinct shift from his austere, lo-fi sound to more robust production and instrumentation. He has since collaborated with the pop star Halsey on her latest record and scored filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun's horror hit, I Saw the TV Glow. That trajectory informs Giannascoli's contemplative poignancy on Headlights. 'Some things I do for love / Some things I do for money / It ain't like I don't want it / It ain't like I'm above it,' he admits on the Beam Me Up, his whirring guitars strumming mesmerizingly against airy background vocals. Many of his lyrics are poetically inscrutable, but there are also moments of explicit frankness about ambition, self-doubt, transition and success. With Headlights, Giannascoli continues further down his God Save the Animals sonic pivot to higher fidelity, recording in studios in lieu of his home for a more ornate sound. ★★★★ out of five Stream: Beam Me Up; Bounce Boy — Krysta Fauria, The Associated Press GoGo Penguin Necessary Fictions (XXIM) GoGo Penguin is a trio from Manchester, England, helping with the ongoing development of the possibilities of a jazz trio. (The name came about as a need to find a name for the group quickly at the start of its career. The members decided on GoGo Penguin based on an apparently ugly stuffed penguin bought by one of the band members.) The band stopped performing for several years recently, owing to personal losses and health issues. The jazz world celebrates their 'rebirth.' The trio is Chris Illingworth on piano, Nick Blacka on bass and Jon Scott on drums. Its sound is distinctive, incorporating influences from various rock and classical elements as well as the solid jazz foundation. Common features include what is described as a minimalist piano style, but even more dramatic is a pattern of a repeated foundational riff that becomes a relentless continuo. It drives the rhythm forward in fascinating patterns as the melody and harmonies swirl around it. The opening track, Umbra, is an example of the trio's style that sets the album up beautifully. What We Are and What We Are Meant To Be also takes the gentle melody and delivers it in a driving rhythmic underpinning. Unlike earlier releases, for the first time there is a guest vocalist, Daudi Matsiko, on Forgive the Damages, and an eight-piece string group called the Manchester Collective on several tracks. Luminous Giants and State of Flux put all the pieces together while maintaining the trio's signature sound. This album is a wonderful example of a trio developing an intent and experimentation while maintaining the sound and style for which they have been known. An ugly stuffed penguin might have led to its name, but GoGo Penguin is beautiful. ★★★★½ Stream: Naga Ghost, The Turn Within — Keith Black Visiting Rachmaninoff Alexander Melnikov, Julia Lezhneva (Harmonia Mundi) In this thoughtful new release, pianist Alexander Melnikov performs Rachmaninoff's Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22, a set of 22 short variations penned in 1902-03 and based on its namesake composer's Prelude in C minor (Op. 28, No. 20). What is particularly noteworthy is that Melnikov paid a visit to Rachmaninoff's last summer home. located at Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, recording the work on the 20th century composer's personal Steinway piano, thus inviting listeners into his unique soundworld. Melnikov's artistry allows him to craft each variation as its own distinct entity; each proving no match for his virtuosic technique. Following his dramatically rendered opening theme, the pianist then launches into the work with gusto. Particular highlights include such quicker-paced variations as the third and eighth, as well as the slower, more expressive offerings as Variation XVI, Lento, which flows into Variation 17, Grave, the latter highly introspective. Also featured is a selection of Rachmaninoff's 15 Romances, Opp. 21, 26 and 34 with Melnikov joined by renowned soprano Julia Lezhneva. This provides satisfying musical contrast as well as the opportunity to hear the luminous artist plumb the depths of each piece. Her deeply felt interpretations of No. 9, Again, I am alone, and No. 10, Before my window, both excerpted from Op. 26, are additional album highlights, further showcasing the singer's innate expressiveness and steeped-in-Russian soul. ★★★★ out of five Stream: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22; 15 Romances, Op. 26, Before my window — Holly Harris
Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
New music: Michael Clifford, Alex G, GoGo Penguin, Alexander Melnikov
Michael Clifford Sidequest (Hopeless) More than a decade ago, the Australian pop-punk boy band 5 Seconds of Summer emerged as charming genre-revivalists. The 2014 career-making single She Looks So Perfect was all palm-muted power chords and gang vocals, a familiar sound for fans of the Warped Tour scene. In the years since, the quartet evolved into a full-on arena pop-rock act, taking turns at releasing solo material. Next up is lead guitarist Michael Clifford, the edgiest of the bunch, with a spirited solo debut album that feels truer to the band's earliest material than their most recent. Ten energetic, introspective tracks form a tight album that explores self-doubt, fame and romance. The songs are pop-punk in spirit but deviate from the formula with a stadium-sized production: experimental electronics, big synths and versatile vocals. And it is an emotional journey. The lovesick opener Kill Me for Always, featuring Porter Robinson, sets the stage, with its scintillating mix of electronica and bass. The sound of Cool acts as the strongest evidence of Clifford's former boy band roots. It's self-deprecating and self-aware. In an album stuffed with energetic songs juxtaposed with existential lyrics, the best track arrives at a midpoint high in Enough. 'At 3 a.m. awake again / I can see all of the damage you've done,' Clifford sings through an evocative rasp. 'With friends like you who needs a loaded gun.' Sidequest sets out to prove it's both a culmination of the last decade of Clifford's life and a deviation from it, as he steps into his own sound. Thankfully, for fans, it succeeds. The debut album reflects Clifford's maturation and self-agency, despite the insecurities and doubts that creep in throughout. ★★★½ out of five Stream: Enough; Cool — Rachel S. Hunt, The Associated Press Alex G Headlights (RCA) Fame is a double-edge sword. Though it comes with obvious perks — money, opportunity and praise — it can also prompt a kind of existential reckoning. Now what? Is this all there is? Am I changed because of it and, if so, for better or for worse? This is the kind of wrestling Alex Giannascoli, better known as the influential indie rocker Alex G, performs on Headlights, his 10th album and first on a major label. Although Giannascoli achieved success early in his career — collaborating with Frank Ocean on his critically acclaimed 2016 album Blonde and joining the R&B superstar on tour — he has, until recently, been more frequently labelled a cult indie figure than a household name. But the 32-year-old has risen to prominence in recent years, particularly after his 2022 album, God Save the Animals, which marked a distinct shift from his austere, lo-fi sound to more robust production and instrumentation. He has since collaborated with the pop star Halsey on her latest record and scored filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun's horror hit, I Saw the TV Glow. That trajectory informs Giannascoli's contemplative poignancy on Headlights. 'Some things I do for love / Some things I do for money / It ain't like I don't want it / It ain't like I'm above it,' he admits on the Beam Me Up, his whirring guitars strumming mesmerizingly against airy background vocals. Many of his lyrics are poetically inscrutable, but there are also moments of explicit frankness about ambition, self-doubt, transition and success. With Headlights, Giannascoli continues further down his God Save the Animals sonic pivot to higher fidelity, recording in studios in lieu of his home for a more ornate sound. ★★★★ out of five Stream: Beam Me Up; Bounce Boy — Krysta Fauria, The Associated Press GoGo Penguin Necessary Fictions (XXIM) GoGo Penguin is a trio from Manchester, England, helping with the ongoing development of the possibilities of a jazz trio. (The name came about as a need to find a name for the group quickly at the start of its career. The members decided on GoGo Penguin based on an apparently ugly stuffed penguin bought by one of the band members.) The band stopped performing for several years recently, owing to personal losses and health issues. The jazz world celebrates their 'rebirth.' The trio is Chris Illingworth on piano, Nick Blacka on bass and Jon Scott on drums. Its sound is distinctive, incorporating influences from various rock and classical elements as well as the solid jazz foundation. Common features include what is described as a minimalist piano style, but even more dramatic is a pattern of a repeated foundational riff that becomes a relentless continuo. It drives the rhythm forward in fascinating patterns as the melody and harmonies swirl around it. The opening track, Umbra, is an example of the trio's style that sets the album up beautifully. What We Are and What We Are Meant To Be also takes the gentle melody and delivers it in a driving rhythmic underpinning. Unlike earlier releases, for the first time there is a guest vocalist, Daudi Matsiko, on Forgive the Damages, and an eight-piece string group called the Manchester Collective on several tracks. Luminous Giants and State of Flux put all the pieces together while maintaining the trio's signature sound. This album is a wonderful example of a trio developing an intent and experimentation while maintaining the sound and style for which they have been known. An ugly stuffed penguin might have led to its name, but GoGo Penguin is beautiful. ★★★★½ Stream: Naga Ghost, The Turn Within — Keith Black Visiting Rachmaninoff Alexander Melnikov, Julia Lezhneva (Harmonia Mundi) In this thoughtful new release, pianist Alexander Melnikov performs Rachmaninoff's Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22, a set of 22 short variations penned in 1902-03 and based on its namesake composer's Prelude in C minor (Op. 28, No. 20). What is particularly noteworthy is that Melnikov paid a visit to Rachmaninoff's last summer home. located at Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, recording the work on the 20th century composer's personal Steinway piano, thus inviting listeners into his unique soundworld. Melnikov's artistry allows him to craft each variation as its own distinct entity; each proving no match for his virtuosic technique. Following his dramatically rendered opening theme, the pianist then launches into the work with gusto. Particular highlights include such quicker-paced variations as the third and eighth, as well as the slower, more expressive offerings as Variation XVI, Lento, which flows into Variation 17, Grave, the latter highly introspective. Also featured is a selection of Rachmaninoff's 15 Romances, Opp. 21, 26 and 34 with Melnikov joined by renowned soprano Julia Lezhneva. This provides satisfying musical contrast as well as the opportunity to hear the luminous artist plumb the depths of each piece. Her deeply felt interpretations of No. 9, Again, I am alone, and No. 10, Before my window, both excerpted from Op. 26, are additional album highlights, further showcasing the singer's innate expressiveness and steeped-in-Russian soul. ★★★★ out of five Stream: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22; 15 Romances, Op. 26, Before my window — Holly Harris
Hindustan Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Music Review: 5 Seconds of Summer's Michael Clifford goes solo on ambitious, pop-punk 'SIDEQUEST'
Over a decade ago, the Australian pop-punk boy band 5 Seconds of Summer emerged as charming genre-revivalists. Their 2014 career-making single 'She Looks So Perfect' was all palm-muted power chords and gang vocals, a familiar sound for fans of the Warped Tour scene. In the years since, the quartet evolved into a full-on arena pop-rock act, taking turns at releasing solo material. Next up is lead guitarist Michael Clifford, the edgiest of the bunch, with a spirited solo debut album that feels truer to the band's earliest material than their most recent. Music Review: 5 Seconds of Summer's Michael Clifford goes solo on ambitious, pop-punk 'SIDEQUEST' But he doesn't just rehash the past. Rather, the colorful-haired musician adds his own twist on 'SIDEQUEST.' Ten energetic, introspective tracks form a tight album that explores self-doubt, fame and romance. The songs are pop-punk in spirit but deviate from the formula with a stadium-sized production: experimental electronics, big synths and versatile vocals. And it is an emotional journey. The lovesick opener 'Kill Me for Always,' featuring Porter Robinson, sets the stage, with its scintillating mix of electronica and bass. The sound of 'Cool,' released as a single, acts as the strongest evidence of Clifford's former boy band roots. It's self-deprecating and self-aware. 'Confidence doesn't come so easily / When you're the guy who caught fire with the colored hair / From the band with the song about underwear,' Clifford sings, referencing the chorus of 'She Looks So Perfect.' In an album stuffed with energetic songs juxtaposed with existential lyrics, the best track arrives at a midpoint high in 'Enough.' 'At 3 a.m. awake again / I can see all of the damage you've done,' Clifford sings through an evocative rasp. 'With friends like you who needs a loaded gun.' 'Remember When' and 'Fashion' maintain the swoony cadence of Clifford's 5 Seconds of Summer work; 'Eclipse' ends the album in a crescendo. 'SIDEQUEST' sets out to prove it's both a culmination of the last decade of Clifford's life and a deviation from it, as he steps into his own sound. Thankfully, for fans, it succeeds. The debut album reflects Clifford's maturation and self-agency, despite the insecurities and doubts that creep in throughout. 'All I've done / Is it ever gonna be enough?' Clifford sings, growing hoarser, in 'Enough.' Then the question changes: 'Am I ever gonna be enough?' On 'SIDEQUEST,' the answer, quite simply, is yes. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
