Michael Clifford: 5SOS Star Backs Justin Bieber On ‘Trophy’ Fans
Michael Clifford and his band-mates have had quite a year. Clifford and his mates have recently wrapped up a massive world tour, during which they won rave reviews from fans and critics alike. Michael and the rest of the band have been working flat out in their efforts to be recognised as a genuine pop-punk band and to shed their “boy-band” label. Clifford and his pals, Ashton Irwin, Calum Hood and Luke Hemmings earned the unwanted “boy-band” tag when they supported One Direction on tour. That tour has proved to be a mixed blessing for 5 Seconds Of Summer.
Touring with One Direction certainly gave Clifford and the band lots of much needed early career exposure, but it also meant that they were immediately written off as a manufactured boy-band by some music fans. As reported recently in Inquisitr, Clifford also revealed that he and his band-mates were on the receiving end of some major league hate from some One Direction fans. In a recent interview with Billboard Michael revealed that many Directioners were not happy that 1D were being supported by a guitar band.
“There were s***loads of people being like, ‘F*** this band, these guys are all s**t-ugly dipsh**ts. What are they doing on tour with One Direction, my perfect babies?'”
Since then, 5 Seconds of Summer have won a legion of fans around the world, and increasingly those fans are people who have already made it big in the pop-punk genre.
According to Design and Trend Clifford and his mates have an increasing number of celebrity fans including members of Fall Out Boy and All Time Low. Both Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy and Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low were asked about Clifford and 5 Seconds of Summer in recent interviews with Billboard.
Wentz followed band-mate Patrick Stump in praising Hemmings, Hood, Irwin and Clifford, and said that he expects great things from the punk-pop band. Stump has previously said that Fall Out Boy would love to collaborate with 5 Seconds of Summer.
“They’re genuinely nice guys and they’re good musicians. I’m rooting for them.”
Gaskarth worked with Clifford and his mates on their debut album and is excited to see 5SOS preparing to take on the pop-punk mantle.
“They’re such good dudes and I see a lot of us in them – they remind me of us at that age, so it’s awesome to help guide them and pass the torch.”
If all that were not enough it appears that Andy Biersack of Black Veil Brides has tapped Clifford’s band-mate Ashton Irwin to lay down some beats on his forthcoming solo album.
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Clifford and his band-mates are currently back in Australia preparing for the launch of their sophomore album, Sounds Good, Feels Good, later this month. According to Unreality TV, 5SOS have big plans to tour in support of the album during 2016. No dates have yet been announced but Clifford is promising fans that the tour will be even more “insane” than the one just completed.
Meanwhile News Australia report that Clifford has spoken out in support of Justin Bieber who posted video on his Snapchat account earlier this week warning fans that screaming at him more loudly will not make him inclined to pose for photos with them. Bieber says that he would rather “communicate” with fans. Now Michael has spoken out in support of Justin’s stance.
Michael says that some fans do not really care about the band, instead they just want a selfie with someone famous.
Michael says “[W]hat [Bieber] meant was he didn’t want to feel like a trophy when people take selfies; that’s the world we live in now and we know that, we have the exact same thing.”
“People will come to us and not give a s*** about talking to us.”
[Photo by Ethan Miller/Christopher Polk/Getty Images]
