5 Seconds of Summer is back with new music, and are previewing their forthcoming new album via their new single, "Complete Mess."
"Complete Mess" is the first song to be entirely written and produced by the band, and showcases Michael Clifford's production and the band's songwriting. Recorded at Rancho V in Joshua Tree, Clifford's own home studio and Dragonfly Creek in Malibu, the song's title actually references a fan-favorite t-shirt Luke Hemmings used to wear. But the lyrics, go much deeper as they sing, "Call it a lesson when I feel you slide away/ And I'm missing out on half my life/ Oh, you make me complete, you make me complete/ You make me a complete mess."
In a statement, the band's Calum Hood explained of the band's new song, "I think it's one of the first true representations of the band at its most honest. We feel very uplifted by it. It's a good song to be able to reconnect to our fans after such a longtime of not releasing music."
Luke added, "Nothing was overthought while we were writing it. It felt right. It was the first thing that popped out of us. It came together very quickly and exemplified what each of us do best musically."
And the group's Ashton Irwin agreed, "We’ve been trying to make this song for ten years. We love collaborating with other music creators, but we've never felt like we've achieved the full vision of the band while working with people outside the band. For this record we realized if you want something done that truly represents how you feel, you've got to do it yourselves. We wanted that expansive sound that we naturally gravitate towards when we play together, so we had to learn how to record that. It was important for us to carve out our own place in the pop world and embrace what we're really good at. 'Complete Mess' is the first illustration of us taking full ownership of the DNA of the group."
5 Seconds of Summer's new album will be their fifth and follow 2020's Calm. Michael said of what to expect of the upcoming project, "We wanted to find out who we were as a band in that particular moment and the best way for us to do that was to write with just the four of us. This new music is so authentically us. It's exactly the kind of music we want to be making right now and this is the exact direction we want to be headed."
Fans will be able to see 5 Seconds of Summer live from Las Vegas as they band is performing during this year's Daytime Stage at the iHeartRadio Music Festival on September 24th. Tickets for the show are currently on sale — fans can visit AXS.com to purchase tickets.