Aussie rocker breaks silence over band break-up rumours: 'This question is coming up a lot'
After weeks of whispers and mounting panic, Calum Hood has finally broken his silence— emphatically denying that pop-rock sensation 5 Seconds of Summer is on the brink of collapse.
The usually reserved bassist, 28, who will drop his first solo album this week, jetted back to Sydney for the big reveal.
Calum, who toured the globe with 5SOS for 14 years, performed an intimate debut set at Pleasure Club in Newtown on Thursday for Nova's Red Room.
He is the fourth and final member of the Aussie boy band to unveil a solo project, and said he understood the raft of solo releases had set alarm bells ringing for fans.
It is practically unheard of for so many members of a chart-topping band to pursue solo careers while the group is still together.
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But Calum insists the Aussie hitmakers are not only sticking together, they're 'quite thriving.'
'Emphatically, 5SOS is not over and actually, quite thriving,' he said.
'This might be a bit weird to people but we revel in doing things people think we shouldn't do.'
He admitted that bandmates Luke Hemmings, Ashton Irwin, and Michael Clifford — who have all released solo material since 2020 — had provided a 'good blueprint' for his own foray into the solo spotlight.
Clifford released his debut solo single in April ahead of the release of his album Sidequest next month, while both Hemmings and Irwin have dropped two records each since 2020.
Calum's solo effort, a synth-heavy, atmospheric collection of tracks, took over two years to create as he grappled with the all-too-common artist anxiety.
'You know me, I'm an anxious boy anyway, but I never had that with the band; I was never anxious about releasing 5SOS songs,' he confessed.
His new tunes are pure 'sad boy' vibes, exploring heartbreak and the brutal reality of distance on relationships when you're constantly touring.
Calum Hood has played several solo gigs to promote his solo album release but said that his full-time gig with 5SOS is calling him back
One track, Dark Circles, even delves into the 'fantasy' of a world without 5SOS.
'Obviously it's a question that's coming up a lot with all these solo things happening. Is the band OK?' Calum pondered, before quickly reassuring fans: 'The answer is the band is great, but (for that song) it was on my mind that if sh*t hit the fan, it would be devastating for me. I've spent half my life in the band, it has shaped who I am.'
'There's a big joke amongst the fans that "Oh, he's actually talking", which is really funny.'
'In the band, I guess I'm the more reserved one but I actually have a f***ing lot to say!'
While Calum has played several solo gigs to promote his album release, he warned fans not to expect a solo world tour anytime soon.
He hinted that his full-time gig with 5SOS is calling him back.
'It was such a big deal for me just to release this music,' Calum said.
'When there is another record, if there's space and the time allows and it feels good, then we will see what happens about touring.'
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Adler says many arts organisations have tried to abstain from the issue of the war in Gaza, despite demands by many artists that they take a position and defend the artists' right to speak. 'The tensions between the boards, the management and the artists have only increased, and one arts organisation after another has either publicly buckled or privately preemptively buckled on the pretext that art is not political,' Adler says. Sign up to Five Great Reads Each week our editors select five of the most interesting, entertaining and thoughtful reads published by Guardian Australia and our international colleagues. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Saturday morning after newsletter promotion 'Of course, insisting on silence on the conflict in the Middle East issue is a deeply political position – it's just one that suits particular interest groups. 'The problem for arts organisations is that artists – not all artists, but many artists – want to speak to the issues of the day. So when arts managers and their boards fail to protect the right of artists to speak, a principle that should be sacrosanct, one has to question whether they have lost sight of the fundamentals.' Adler says there are some free speech frontiers that no publicly funded arts festival or organisation would cross, but the conflation of criticism of Israel with antisemitism, and the conflation of support for Palestine with support for terrorism, has made organisations shy away from defending artists' freedom of expression. 'I think there are lines for all of us; certainly in my current role, or when I was a publisher, I am not going to offer the microphone to people who are involved in hate speech or incitement to violence or racism. I don't think that's a question of free speech. 'No decent person wants to be accused of antisemitism, of any kind of racism. But once criticism of Israel is conflated with antisemitism … you've successfully manufactured the catalogue of silenced artists we have witnessed in recent years.' As with Creative Australia in response to the Sabsabi controversy, the State Library of Queensland announced an independent review following the withdrawal of Wyld's fellowship, the terms of which are still being prepared. It's the latest in a pattern of reviews and consultations in the wake of contentious decision-making. Earlier this year the State Library of Victoria unveiled a 'Ways of Working' framework, developed after it canned a Teen Writing Bootcamp in 2024. Freedom of information requests subsequently revealed that library management had scrutinised the social media posts of the three authors who were due to lead the workshops for content related to the Israel-Hamas war. In a statement the State Library of Victoria said it was 'crucial that we are a place of freedom of expression and respect for all', and that the 'sector-leading' framework established 'mutual obligations between the Library and anyone who works with us'. Since January, writers and artists engaged by the library have been obliged to agree that when making public statements, they 'clearly state that these views and opinions do not reflect or represent the views or positions of State Library Victoria, or any other person, company or organisation' from the moment a contract is signed. Jinghua Qian, one of the writers involved in the 2024 bootcamp, remains sceptical. 'If you contract someone for a one-hour panel or workshop, do you have the right to limit, police and punish them for their creative expression outside of that booking?' Qian wrote on Bluesky. For some creatives, these decisions expose contradictions in institutions that have tried to diversify their audiences and offer a platform to previously under-represented voices. Days before De Kretser's Stella speech, Nam Le, the newly crowned book of the year winner at the New South Wales Literary awards, asked a Sydney audience whether the 'goal of multiculturalism should be coexistence or cohesion'. 'If cohesion, how do we make sure that 'social cohesion' doesn't become 'social coercion' – a means of preserving the status quo, of preserving power?' Le asked, in a speech delivered by his manager. Like De Kretser's, Le's words would only become more pointed as the week progressed. 'What good is harmony if it only and always exists on terms dictated by power? If it's built on injustice, or enforced civility – enforced silence?'
