Michael Clifford has read some crazy fan fiction about himself. “There’s one that’s so explicit I can’t even say it,” he tells PAPER. “You wouldn’t be able to write it down. It’s that messed up.”
Gone are the days of Tumblr and Wattpad in the early 2010s, when 13-year-old girls would muster up the most detailed, graphic depictions of their favorite boy band members as if it was their full-time job. But having gotten his start in Australian pop-punk boy band 5 Seconds of Summer, Clifford knows the phenomenon like the back of his hand.
For the 29-year-old, fan fiction isn’t just internet ephemera — it’s an aesthetic. His new solo music video for “give me a break! (feat. waterparks),” out today, takes cues from anime, Y2K fandom tropes, and the unhinged energy of those early online archives. “The concept was fanfic-meets-Death Note,” he says. “I wanted to celebrate fan fiction. There’s something beautiful about something that came straight from someone’s brain, in their bedroom. It wasn’t meant to be perfect.”
That’s the exact ethos behind Sidequest, Clifford’s debut solo album. Written during a period of massive personal change — becoming a dad, relocating, stepping outside the gravitational pull of 5SOS — the project embraces imperfection and spontaneity. “With this project, I’m just having fun,” he says. “I’m not saying no to any ideas. Sometimes I’d stop myself because something felt stupid or crazy — and now I just let my brain go nuts.”
The result is an album that feels like a scrapbook of chaotic brilliance: emo sincerity wrapped in a candy-coated glitch-pop wrapper. It follows “cool,” Clifford’s first-ever solo single, which dropped earlier this year and teased a sound that’s looser, dreamier and more introspective than his band’s stadium-filling hooks.
Still, Clifford isn’t leaving 5SOS behind. “We can do both,” he says. “There’s no weirdness, no bad blood. We still have the band and we still make music together, but now we’re also creating separately. It just gives us more outlets.”
If Sidequest is any indication, Clifford’s outlet is one where joy and vulnerability can coexist, where music videos happen in shopping carts, and growing up doesn’t mean growing dull. “There are no expectations, no past catalog to measure against,” he says. “It’s just fun again. It’s a blank slate.”
Below, PAPER chats with Clifford to discuss how the Tumblr era influenced his current work, wild fan fiction stories and becoming a dad.
Where are you calling from right now?
I’m at home in Atlanta, just hanging out. I’ve been up since 5:30 am. My daughter’s an early bird, so I’m a little delirious.
I didn’t know you were based in Atlanta.
Yeah, we’re actually moving again soon. Probably by the time this interview comes out, we’ll be back in LA. But we’ve been here for a while. It’s been fun. Completely different from LA. We were living way out in the country, which was actually perfect for becoming parents. Slower pace, more space. It was a good change.
Have you had to totally shift your lifestyle since becoming a parent?
Oh, absolutely. It’s fucking wild. There’s just no real way to prepare for how much your life flips. Not in a bad way, but it’s a complete reset. The priorities, the perspective—it all shifts. It’s incredible.
Is anyone else in 5 Seconds of Summer a dad?
Nope, just me.
You’ve gone solo (congrats), but you’re still fully in the band too?
Yeah, we can do both. Why not? It’s been a pretty natural transition, honestly. Everyone’s done their own thing. Luke and Ash had solo projects a few years ago and just dropped new ones, and now Cal and I are both doing ours at the same time. It’s felt really normal. There’s no weirdness, no bad blood. We still have the band and we still make music together, but now we’re also creating separately. It just gives us more outlets to be creative. And we’re lucky that our fans care about us individually too.
With my project, Sidequest, I’m just having fun. I’m not saying no to any ideas. Sometimes I’d stop myself in an idea because it felt stupid or crazy — and now I just let my brain go nuts. And it’s been awesome.
It’s interesting. I’m very obsessed with boy bands and girl groups, and I’ve noticed over the years that the American ones tend to break up more quickly, but British ones seem to stick together longer.
Yeah, that’s an interesting observation. I think what we’ve always loved doing is taking influences from stuff that isn’t traditional for a band like us. We started as a metal band and then became a pop rock band. But we love pulling in sensibilities from other acts and different genres — things that wouldn’t usually work for a band.
Doing solo projects is definitely more of a boy band or girl group thing, but when you apply that to a rock band like us, it becomes something really unique. And we’ve always, from the beginning, loved doing shit like that. You know, we’re a rock band, and we’re all singers and we’re all artists. It’s hard to have four singers in a band that wasn’t put together, you know? But somehow it works for us.
Maybe that’s the secret—you guys weren’t put together in, like, a Simon Cowell X-Factor way.
Yeah, exactly. Maybe we’re just glued together at this point. There’s no getting out now.
You just filmed the video for “give me a break! (feat. waterparks),” right? I saw the treatment. It looked anime-inspired.
Yeah, the original concept was fanfic-meets-Death Note. I’ve read so much insane fan fiction over the years, and I thought, “What if the things someone wrote actually started happening in real life?”
There’s definitely no shortage of Waterparks or Michael fanfic out there. Some of them are insane. We leaned into that. I really wanted to celebrate fan fiction, honestly. I think it’s incredible how fans build their own worlds and narratives.
But yeah, sometimes it’s wild to read about yourself, especially when it gets intense or weird. With the video, we wanted fan fiction to look good. We wanted the girl in the video to look like a hero too. It was all about honoring that world while making something fun and stylized.
I love the absurdity of fandom and fan fiction. I was a total Tumblr kid. You guys formed in 2011, right?
Yeah. We were deep in the Tumblr zeitgeist—that whole era really influenced what I’m making now. There’s something about that specific time on the internet that I’m still drawing from. It had a spirit that doesn’t really exist anymore.
AI has probably ruined fan fiction.
Yeah, now you can just ask it to write you something. But what I always loved about fan fiction was the imperfections. When you read something and there’s a repeated word, or weird grammar. It wasn’t polished, and that was the point. It came straight from someone’s brain, in their bedroom. That’s what made it beautiful. Honestly, that’s how I feel about music too. The more human it is, the better.
Were you reading fanfics back then? What’s the craziest one you’ve come across about yourself?
Never willingly. I’ve definitely been forced into it. There’s one I just got reminded of, but… I’m not saying it. I don’t want to put anyone’s fanfic out there like that. I do want to make a video one day where I go through a bunch, though.
The ones I like most are the ones that are almost based in reality, where it feels like it could’ve happened. But yeah, some of them are totally unhinged. There’s one that’s so explicit I can’t even say it. You wouldn’t be able to write it down. It’s that messed up.
Not safe for work.
Very NSFW.
How has fatherhood changed the way you approach writing music? Did that influence the decision to go solo?
I already had a bunch of music that was close to ready, like a full album’s worth. But after becoming a parent, I paused everything for a bit. When I came back to it, I had a totally different perspective. Watching my daughter discover the world for the first time gave me this sense of wonder again. She gets so much joy from the tiniest things. That energy helped me re-approach the album like, “Let’s just make this fun. Let’s not overthink it.” It completely changed my process, and honestly, it made the album better.
There must be emotions you can express in your solo music that you can’t fully tap into with 5SOS.
Exactly. It’s just a different thing. When you write for a band, the message has to resonate with everyone. It’s a shared expression. But solo music can be purely yours. It’s your experience, your voice, your way of saying something. You even see that in what Luke and Ashton have done solo. Those were things only they could say. When it’s just you, the voice is more direct. It’s different in the best way.
You’ve been open about mental health and navigating fame. Is there a specific memory from the early 5SOS days (2011 or 2012) that really stands out?
What I’ve been realizing while releasing solo music is that, in the beginning, there was no pressure. Everything was new. There were no expectations. We hadn’t released anything, so everything felt possible. After five albums, you start to feel a responsibility to do justice to the legacy of the band and what it means to people. It’s this thing that has so many memories for so many people. That’s not a bad thing, but it does change the creative process.
With the solo project, I feel like I’m back at the start. It’s the same as how I felt in the very, very beginning — just pure fun. There are no expectations, no past catalog to measure against. It’s just fun again. It’s a blank slate, and that’s such a freeing feeling.
How would you describe the album to your fans? Anything you want them to know before it drops?
From the beginning, I just wanted this to be fun. I want people to immerse themselves in it, to enjoy the world of it. I take making music seriously—but everything else around it? That’s just for fun. Honestly, I hope people catch the energy: this whole thing is one big side quest. Come have fun with me. Come fight me on Twitter.
Fight me on Twitter. Love it. Thanks so much for talking with me.
Thank you! Appreciate it. Take care!
Photography: Ryan Fleming