MC: Let’s talk about your new album: Sounds Good Feels Good. What do you hope to accomplish with it? Do you feel any pressure to succeed again and exceed the first album?
Irwin: I’m quite confident in the fact that we all love the songs and care about the songs so much that it doesn’t matter if it goes good or bad.
If we love the songs, love the album and love the whole thing, I think the fans will like it and that’s what’s most important.
MC: When you’re writing songs, how do you know when it’s 100% done? Is there a moment when you say, “This is it,” or do you keep adding to it to make it “perfect?”
Irwin: We keep adding and adding and adding to our songs, and taking away as well. Minimalizing songs and sounds is a really important thing to realize as a musician. Less is more sometimes. We do that right up to the deadline before we hand the album in. We keep working on it ‘til the day before.
MC: You guys have said you want to write about things that you’re currently going through and facing in your lives. What’s your mindset when tackling new songs? Do you write for radio, live shows, your fans?
Irwin: I mainly write about my upbringing, my childhood, where I’m from, what I wanna do, where I wanna go, who I wanna see, who I wanna meet…
We’re very honest songwriters. And a lot of times people are surprised by that actually, which is cool. We’re always growing as people and songwriters. We’re fine with sharing everything that’s good. We’re very passionate about it. We’re fine with writing meaningful songs for people––we don’t just go into a studio to write a song just for the sake of writing a song ‘cause we’re in a band. We want meaningful and lots of it.
MC: Talk about the importance of having a great work ethic. What do you do to help motivate the band?
Irwin: We’ve always been really motivated and driven to be successful just because of where we’re from. As kids we all wanted to escape our shitty town and play music to as many people as possible all over the world, and I think that’s what’s gotten us to this point.
MC: Young men your age face a stigma of being “another boy band,” which you’re trying to change with your musicianship.
Irwin: I would disagree. If we end up getting called whatever the fuck you want, I don’t really care. We make the music we make. I’m not out here saying, “Oh we’re not a boy band; we’re a rock band.” You gotta find that out for yourself. If people wanna know what we are, they can come see us live.
The fans know what we are. I’m not gonna argue with people about what we are ‘cause that would go against what we believe in and that is: being who you are is great. What’s the point of being an artist if you’re worried about what people think about you and what people wanna call you. I think that’s a waste of time.
MC: Where do you see the band going and how are you gonna get there?
Irwin: We’re very ambitious as a band––we always have been––and we always wanna go to the next level. We wanna see what we can create. We wanna create something that’s memorable for years and years. We wanna have a moment in time where we made young people think about who they are, what they wanna be and make them feel good about themselves. Be a voice for our fans. That’s important to us.
It’s important to leave our mark on the fans’ lives. And give some meaning to them, and that’s how I believe we’ll go to the next level as a band. We’re after longevity—not for hit songs.
See 5sos.com
