First Posted: 8/4/2014

5 Seconds of Summer is clearly shooting for more than 15 minutes of fame.

What the Australian pop-rock quartet was most known for prior to the start of 2014 was serving as One Direction’s opening act on its sold out tour. 5SOS is still supporting 1D on its North American stadium trek, which kicked off last weekend, although the band has certainly come into its own.

Last May, the band made its U.S. national TV debut with a performance of its breakout single, “She Looks So Perfect” on the Billboard Music Awards. Last week, 5SOS crossed paths with Billboard again, topping the album chart with the release of its debut LP. The album sold 259,000 copies in its first week on sale, an astronomical amount. The number marked the largest first week debut sales for a group since… One Direction? No, instead you have to go back to the band Daughtry’s first release in 2006.

“We’ve been working on this album for two years,” drummer Ashton Irwin explained earlier this year in an interview on “Ralphie Tonight.” His band-mate Michael Clifford interjected, “It went number one on iTunes in 42 countries. That’s crazy for us, yunno?”

The guys claim their hometown back in Australia is so small, that it’s primarily fields with cows. Like One Direction, it has become harder to go unrecognized in the States than back in their native land.

It sounds as if the similarities with One Direction end there. The band’s sound is more in the vein of a Fall Out Boy or Paramore band that simply attracts a slightly younger audience.

“Those are the bands we grew up listening to,” Irwin said, before adding, “We grew up listening to Green Day and Blink 182.”

“The world needs a 5 Seconds Of Summer, we think,” Clifford said. “We aren’t trying to be anyone else; we’re not trying to look like anyone else. It’s not like a competition or anything like that.”

But if it was, it sure looks like 5SOS is poised to rise to the top, as they already have on the Billboard 200 chart. Also in One Direction fashion, the band decided to capitalize on its current popularity by announcing a headlining tour a year in advance.

But again, there’s a difference. As impressive as a U.S. arena tour is for this band at an early stage in its career, it pales in comparison to the 50,000 seat stadiums that they’ll rock this month on 1D’s “Where We Are” tour.

Not that it’s a competition or anything.

-Listen to “Ralphie Tonight” weeknights from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. on 97 BHT.