Aussie Pop/Rock Band
5 Seconds of Summer

5 Seconds of Summer is a new Australian band that started their journey to stardom on YouTube.

The group first formed in Sydney in 2011 when 3 young students at Norwest Christian College got together and recorded some cover versions of popular songs which they then posted on You Tube.

The videos immediately attracted attention with several receiving upwards of 600,000 hits and the boys started to gain a small international following through their videos and via social media.

In December 2011 a fourth member joined the group and the band now is made up of the original 3, Luke Hemmings on vocals and guitar, Michael Clifford on guitar and vocals, Calum Hood on bass guitar and vocals and newest member Ashton Irwin on drums and vocals.

They have now amassed over 5 million YouTube views, and have become social media stars on Twitter and Facebook.

The band started to attract interest from major music labels and publishers, and have recently signed a publishing deal with Sony ATV Music Publishing.

Despite having had no promotion apart from You Tube, Facebook and Twitter, their first release, an EP titled Unplugged, reached number 3 on the iTunes chart in Australia, and made Top 20 charts in both New Zealand and Sweden.

The boys continued to gain recognition for their music and performances but it wasn't until One Direction's Louis Tomlinson posted a link to their YouTube video of their song 'Gotta Get Out', that things really started happening. Louis stated that he'd been a fan of 5 Seconds of Summer "for a while".

One Direction continued to take an interest in the band and obviously are great admirers of their work and when 5 Seconds of Summer released their first single, 'Out Of My Limit' in November 2012, Niall Horan another One Direction member tweeted the link to the video clip for it.

The YouTube video clip for the new release received over 100,000 views in the first 24 hours.

In December 2012, 5 Seconds of Summer embarked on a songwriting trip to London, where they have written songs with various artists including McFly, Roy Stride of Scouting for Girls, Nick Hodgson of Kaiser Chiefs, Jamie Scott, Jake Gosling, Steve Robson and James Bourne of Busted.

On 14 February 2013, it was announced that 5 Seconds of Summer will be supporting One Direction on their worldwide 'Take Me Home' tour. The tour kicked off at the O2 Arena in London on 23 February and will take in more than 120 shows across the UK, USA, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, including 7 shows in the Aussie boys home town of Sydney.

Their new song 'Heartbreak Girl' was released on February 12th, just a few weeks before the One Direction tour got underway with their new You Tube video of the song published on the 22nd.

We're really excited about this fresh new band and believe they could be the next big thing in Australian music.

Discover them for yourself by clicking on the iTunes button below.