5 Seconds of Summer fans on Twitter have recently come together to create two at-home concert experiences for the rest of the fans over the past weekend. Two main events were held by two different groups of fans: #NOSHAMEATHOME and #5SOSFromHome. We spoke with the organizers about everything that went down.
HOSTS OF #NOSHAMEATHOME – April 18:
- Chlo (@lonelyheartchlo)
- Steph @calmstylqs
- Alli (@CALUMVOL6)
What was the inspiration behind creating this event? What were some of your goals that you wanted to achieve?
Steph: Well I’d say the goal was for everyone who joined in to have a great night and bring everyone together.
Chlo: Totally, especially when the ‘No Shame’ tour is probably going to be canceled now.
Alli: I think it was mainly down to two things – stuck in self-isolation with thousands of others, and all three of us due to attend the ‘No Shame’ 2020 tour. With all these factors we kind of said as a joke ‘oh we should do this’ and then BAM, we posted a photo and it went pretty much lowkey viral overnight and we thought we may as well give it a shot.
Since all three of you were a part of creating this event, what was the behind-the-scenes process like? What specifics went into creating it? Was working together on this project an eye-opening, collaborative experience?
Alli: We all kind of assigned each other roles – so Steph was in charge of creating amazing ‘setlists’ for each portion of the virtual show and Chlo was very vocal in recruiting and spreading the hype around our idea. Despite the fact we only know each other over the internet we kind of clicked and managed to create something that was somewhat incredible.
Chlo: Well the three of us have been friends for like a week or two now so this really bought us together. We split up the process into three different parts really. Alli was the one making all the media (posters, trailers, etc.), Steph made setlists and I kinda just tried my best to promote as much as I could! Oh, and Alli was the one who was amazing and paid for the app to put ‘NO SHAME LIVE! AT HOME’ live!
And going into more detail with the main processes–what key features did you strive to include (certain songs or having it be presented a certain way etc.)?
Chlo: Ooh a big feature we were determined to include was putting ‘Outer Space/Carry On’ last because of the final lyric (“You know it’s gonna get better, you know it’s gonna get better”). It felt like it had a very important meaning to the times we’re living in right now.
Alli: We wanted everyone who was interested to feel included – no matter the time zone, the country, or the age. We worked hard on creating online surveys where we really wanted fellow fans to tell us what time would be best for them, what songs they would like, etc. Stuff like that was important to us because every single fan is important when it comes to events like this – we wanted ‘NO SHAME LIVE! AT HOME’ to feel welcoming and a safe place for anyone wanting to join.
Steph: We included what the listeners wanted! The support acts were very much up to them so they could enjoy the experience more.
You mentioned making sure every fan was included and how important those lyrics (and that song) are to fans. How important do you think these types of events are to the fanbase? Especially with what’s going on in the world right now and everything having been cancelled, do you feel like this brought the fandom together even more?
Chlo: We really hope so. The feedback we got was amazing. Even during the event, I was included in three group chats that were made just from participants! It’s crazy. We feel so amazing to have possibly created friendships within the fandom.
Steph: I think the fanbase being able to connect with each other was a big part of it! I know many group chats were made through this and everyone used the hashtag (#noshameathome) to sing their hearts out on the timeline together which was sweet. It feels as if the event has managed to bring so many people together!
Alli: I think it’s incredibly important, especially with what’s going on in the world around us currently. We wanted to distract fans in a way, whether it be for a couple of hours or for the night. We tried to spread the message as far as possible so no matter where the fans were they could ALL still take part. As a fandom which is so close and supportive of each other, we strived to make an event that would somewhat bring us even closer – hence why we asked for recommendations and we thought hard about what songs to include in the setlist. As most fandoms do, 5SOS fans have certain songs that we collectively hold as special and meaningful so we tried to play them so that every single person would feel at home and safe in the virtual concert we had set up.
Will there be any future events that we can look forward to? (If so, what new improvements can we expect to see?)
Alli: We currently have one planned for this weekend!! We learnt that using a hashtag and promoting as much as possible really paid off in the long run – people found friends, made mutuals and discovered new fans that they now interact with daily. We’re thinking of also hosting the event a little earlier (so that more fans can join).
https://twitter.com/CALUMVOL6/status/1251909084825206797?s=20
Chlo: The tag was an amazing feature–we felt it allowed the whole timeline to freak out together so we’ve decided to keep it going this week (under a new name) so that we can hopefully have the same response! With the hashtag #noshameathome, we even got to trend in the USA!!
Steph: It was very much requested that we did another show on Saturday with a twist of all eras of 5SOS! We now know what we’re doing a lot better than we did last time.
Alli: I think we have more of a ‘reputation’ now regarding the online concert thing so hopefully this will allow us to reach even further, trend even higher, and maybe accumulate more listeners.
Thank you guys for your time and responses, I’ll hopefully be talking to you again soon about your future events. Any last messages?
Steph: Thank you for interviewing us, it was really fun!
Chlo: We hope that people can enjoy this show as much as last week’s. We love to see people happy so this opportunity is amazing for us.
Alli: Massive thank you to every single person who took part and is taking part in future events and a massive thank you to Steph and Chlo for every little thing that they do, whether it be regarding the virtual concerts or just being there!! They’re incredible humans.
HOSTS OF #5SOSFromHome – April 17/18
- Julz (@5sosworldalerts)
- Dani (@AlloutofCashton)
What was the inspiration behind creating this event? What were some of your goals going into it?
Julz: The inspiration mainly came from Dani! As she hosted the first streaming party for the CALM album! Our goal for the first concert was to give people a distraction and something to look forward to. We both had seen many concerts being canceled and many sad emotions being displayed on Twitter. We wanted to bring people together to listen to a band we all love!
What was the behind-the-scenes process like? What specifics went into creating this event? Were there specific features (such as songs, presentation) that you strived to include?
Julz: We created a Google Form for anyone who wanted to come to the event to fill out. On this form we asked questions like basic demographics like their name, age, and where they are from, followed by their Twitter username. We then went into asking what were their top songs on each album as well as covers and B side tracks! From these questions we sorted through over 1000 responses to come up with the setlist, as well as including some of our favourites!
Dani and I spent hours creating a playlist from this information that both incorporated as many songs as we could so that it all flowed together! We ended up with 37 songs on our playlist. Dani created the tickets and wristbands for the event that were given to all of the participants. We really wanted it to feel like a true concert experience! We were worried about hacking on Zoom so we background checked each account who applied and made sure there were no spam accounts. After we had over 500 people attend within the two nights, including a quick appearance from Michael Clifford on Friday night (April 17th)!
And since you both worked on this project together, did you feel that this was an eye-opening, collaborative experience for the both of you?
Julz: Both Dani and I have been mutuals on Twitter for a while but never really friends. We came together because a mutual friend put us in a group chat together and from then on we just grew our friendship. Dani ran the first zoom on April 2nd and then I did one with Meag from @Global5SOS on April 9th. After that Dani and I began talking about putting together a big dream 5SOS concert, and managed to pull it off in less than a week.
The overall collaboration was really good considering Dani is from New York and I am from Toronto! We spent countless hours on FaceTime and Zoom testing things out and talking things over. Both of us can agree that the overall experience was very positive and very humbling! The amount of support we had was amazing! We definitely will be collaborating again in the future, we’ve created an account for more Zooms (which if you wanna take a look at here it is: @5SOSatHome).
Tapping into the reasoning for this event in the first place, how important do you think these types of events are to the fans, especially with everything that’s going on in the world right now?
Julz: We think it’s extremely important at this time. Talking to people on Twitter all over the world a year ago was something people would stigmatize as weird or uncommon. For many people in this fandom, they have friends all over the world. Having this type of event helps individuals connect to people in a different way when right now you can’t really see your real-life friends. Many people on the Zoom call after talked about how they have been struggling with motivation and having this concert gave them something to look forward to. Many fans that joined got dressed up and put makeup on just for this event.
Another common comment we had was that it gave individuals a distraction from the current situation we are all living in. This event was really a testament to how we can all come together as a community and bond over something that we love. In our case, it was music made by 5SOS! We even had people who couldn’t speak English enjoying the music and spend time together!
Will there be any future events that we can look forward to? (If so, what new improvements can we expect to see?)
Julz: Yes, we will be making more events! We haven’t started planning (we’re catching up on some much-needed sleep) but we do have plenty of ideas including a potential open mic night, hangouts, and many other 5SOS concerts! We don’t have any improvements as of right now but as we get to the planning stage we definitely will and are always open to suggestions! If you want to keep up with our future events we created @5SOSatHome for people to get updates!
Any last messages for the readers?
Dani: Just so you know we did communicate these together, we’re on FaceTime right now. But I think our only message left is that we’re all in this together and we need to stay strong to get through this.
