Dossier: 5 Seconds of Summer

In December 2011 Justin Bieber’s Christmas album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, The Wanted’s sophomore LP had achieved Platinum certification in the UK, while in Sydney, Norwest Christian College pupils Luke Hemmings, Michael Clifford, Ashton Irwin and Calum Hood were dabbling with pop song covers, notably tracks by One Direction, who had just kicked off their first worldwide headline tour.

By May 2012 – less than six months later – Five Seconds Of Summer (or 5SOS as is the quartet’s obligatory boy band acronym) had amassed 50,000 Facebook fans, 100,000 Twitter followers and more than five million YouTube views.

Artist manager Adam Wilkinson was managing Sydney’s Studios 301 when three of the 5SOS boys booked in a visitor’s tour. “I immediately liked the look of them and wanted to work with them, but I forgot their name!”

he recalls. “I took to Facebook and YouTube and finally tracked them down, eventually getting in touch with drummer, Ashton [Irwin]. The only reason he replied was because mine was the only message from a male. A couple of months later [January or February, 2012] we met up at the studio and decided to work together.”

Matt Emsell, who first met Wilkinson when when the pair shared an office building in 2010. This led to deals with Emsell’s Wonder Management, who would co-manage them with Wilkinson for the next two years, and Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Indeed, the band were batting off various label advances less than a year into the game.

Wilkinson’s decision to eventually hand over the reins to Emsell in late 2013 was wholly his decision to momentarily take a step back from artist management. To this day, he’s very close with the band and while he no longer shares any business related connection, he sees them whenever they’re in town.

“I entered the music industry because I had a deep love of music and I was finding more and more with artist management that I was in meetings and traveling more often than being at concerts or in the studio,” he admits. “I felt quite detached from my passion.”

By June 2012 arrangements had been made for 5SOS’ first tour with the help of Brett Murrihy from Artist Voice. The band sold out two nights in three 500+ capacity venues. Interestingly, it wasn’t the band’s live shows, but incredible social media activities that lead to the deal with the UK-based…………………

This article is an excerpt only of a much broader feature in the June issue of the Australian Music Industry Quarterly. To read the full article in your free copy click here