FOR YEARS I HAVE BEEN MISTREATED. MY FACE: ASSES

calumhood: Straight off the bus, into Berlin! @ashtonirwin

There’s something seriously awesome about 5 Seconds of Summer’s loyal and intensely passionate fanbase. The members of the 5SOSFam (or the New Broken Scene, or whatever you want to call it) who love the band do so with mesmerizing totality. It’s not often you’ll come across a hardcore fan that dislikes any given member of the group; if you’re in it, you’re in it for all of them.

Still, it’s not a perfect system: even with two full albums of material, the individual 5SOS members often focus their unique skills toward the greater good thanks to their democratic approach to songwriting. By doing so, some remarkable aspects of each member’s personality can get lost in the shuffle. That’s why, my friends, it’s time to talk about Calum Hood.

When talking to longtime 5SOS producer and band BFF John Feldmann about the just-released Sounds Good Feels Good, it became apparent that the band is divided into two personality groups: The outgoing spirit of guitarist Michael Clifford and drummer Ashton Irwin, and the quietly resonating talent of vocalist Luke Hemmings and bassist Calum Hood. If Luke and Calum are the ones who naturally shy away from the spotlight more, then it’s Hood who gets overlooked even more often, since Hemmings is the de facto frontman of the group.

One of the main takeaways from Sounds Good Feels Good, however, is that Calum’s bass is more harnessed than ever, and that one of the shyest members of 5SOS is taking more control of the group’s sound. On 5 Seconds of Summer’s second album, Calum subtly becomes the group’s secret weapon.