Wildflower

Album: Calm (2020)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Here, Calum Hood dishes out romantic come-ons to his "wildflower" as he details what he admires about her.

    I love the sound, I love the taste
    And I can see it in your face
    You've got a side you can't explain


    Once we get to the hook, Hood omits certain words, leaving it up to the listener's imagination to fill them in. "We wanted to make the chorus kind of a choose-your-own-adventure, where some words are left out and then accentuated by these big stabs of synth," Hood explained. "It lets everyone come up with their own interpretation, and fill in whatever they think those missing lyrics might be."
  • Usually, Luke Hemmings serves as 5 Seconds of Summer's lead singer, but here, the band's bassist, Calum Hood, steps up to the mic.
  • 5 Seconds of Summer's Michael Clifford, Calum Hood and Ashton Irwin wrote the song with:

    Swedish music producer and songwriter Rami Yacoub, who is a former member of the Max Martin-founded music production company Maratone. He has also worked with the likes of One Direction ("What Makes You Beautiful") and Ariana Grande ("One Last Time").

    Canadian songwriter Geoff Warburton, who is a frequent collaborator of Shawn Mendes. His credits include "There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back" and "In My Blood."
  • Swedish producer Oscar "Ozgo" Görres, who is a member of Max Martin's production team Wolf Cousins, helmed the track. OzGo has also worked with the likes of Taylor Swift ("So It Goes...") and Lauv ("I'm So Tired...").
  • The stop-start animated lyric video features 358 different photos and 529 flowers. It took over 18 hours to make.
  • 5 Seconds of Summer had originally planned a big-budget music video, but when the coronavirus pandemic sent most of the world into quarantine, the shoot had to be canceled. Instead, each band member filmed themselves in front of a green screen which they passed around from house to house.

    The trippy visual also features lo-fi psychedelic effects and playful animations that DeLuca and Eiseman learned to create specifically for the clip. "Since the song has a pretty distinct '80s/'90s tone, I came up with the idea of making an '80s/'90s MTV-style music video," said DeLuca. "The stuff I grew up on and loved. So we passed around the disinfected green screen (with the help of our teammate Kat Gallagher), and everyone filmed their parts at home with an iPhone and later sent the footage over to me. In the meantime, Sarah Eiseman and I began working on the art for the video."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Real or Spinal Tap

Real or Spinal TapMusic Quiz

They sang about pink torpedoes and rocking you tonight tonight, but some real lyrics are just as ridiculous. See if you can tell which lyrics are real and which are Spinal Tap in this lyrics quiz.

Chris Frantz of Talking Heads

Chris Frantz of Talking HeadsSongwriter Interviews

Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz on where the term "new wave" originated, the story of "Naive Melody," and why they never recorded another cover song after "Take Me To The River."

80s Music Quiz 1

80s Music Quiz 1Music Quiz

MTV, a popular TV theme song and Madonna all show up in this '80s music quiz.

Lori McKenna

Lori McKennaSongwriter Interviews

Lori's songs have been recorded by Faith Hill and Sara Evans. She's performed on the CMAs and on Oprah. She also has five kids.

When Rock Belonged To Michelob

When Rock Belonged To MichelobSong Writing

Michelob commercials generated hits for Eric Clapton, Genesis and Steve Winwood in the '80s, even as some of these rockers were fighting alcoholism.

Rupert Hine

Rupert HineSongwriter Interviews

Producer Rupert Hine talks about crafting hits for Tina Turner, Howard Jones and The Fixx.