Michael Clifford

Background

Michael Gordon Clifford was born on November 20, 1995. He grew up in the Sydney suburb of Quakers Hill, New South Wales, Australia. He is the only child of computer business owners Karen and Daryl Clifford, who lived outside of Sydney. Clifford went to Norwest Primary School, where he met future bandmate Calum Hood in third grade. Clifford attended Norwest Christian College for his high school education, where he met bandmate Luke Hemmings in Year 7. He admitted that he disliked Hemmings before they became friends and formed the band. Clifford met future bandmate Ashton Irwin through mutual friends, he later admitted in an interview with “People” magazine that he “spent a lot of time away from school,” and his irregular attendance eventually led to him dropping out of high school when he was enrolling in a TAFE course.

Clifford first learned to play the guitar when he was eight years old, thanks to the video game “Guitar Hero.” Clifford took singing and piano lessons as a child before abandoning them because he hated them. Clifford began taking guitar lessons when he was eleven years old after his parents purchased him an acoustic guitar. Clifford began playing the violin in high school when he joined his school’s church band. Clifford, Hood, and Hemmings began uploading song covers to Hemmings’ YouTube channel in 2011. The trio was eventually joined in their videos by mutual friend Ashton Irwin, forming the current 5 Seconds of Summer lineup. After months of posting song covers together, the band began to pique the interest of major music labels and publishers, and they initially signed a publishing deal with Sony/A.T.V. Music Publishing. Clifford has since released four studio albums with the band, all of which have achieved international success: “5 Seconds of Summer” in 2014, “Sounds Good Feels Good” in 2015, “Youngblood” in 2018, and “Calm” in 2020.

Clifford, in collaboration with Gibson, unveiled the Michael Clifford Signature Melody Maker guitar at the NAMM Show in January 2019. He cited his first guitar, Joan Jett’s Melody Maker, as his main inspiration for the guitar, which was released for purchase in May 2019. He stated that the goal of his Melody Maker was to “pay homage to the Joan Jett Melody Maker” and that he hoped the guitar would inspire someone in the same way that Jett had inspired him. Clifford is the youngest guitarist ever to have a custom guitar made in his honor. He announced in June 2019 that he had collaborated with Nightfood Ice Cream to create a custom chocolate flavor for the brand. Clifford has expressed an interest in gaming aside from the band, which he has since pursued. His Twitch account, where he livestreams game sessions, has over 150,000 followers. He also held a charity Twitch livestream during the Australian bushfires in January 2020, with all proceeds going to the Australian Red Cross.