A few moments with Hong Kong-bound 5 Seconds of Summer

Hong Kong-bound Australian band 5 Seconds of Summer might be the world’s biggest new rock group – if only the grown-ups would take them seriously.

“It’s kind of a weird thought, isn’t it?” says singer-bassist Calum Hood. “Back at the start, before we’d released any music and we were just doing, like, a radio show a day, it was easy to keep on top of everything. Now we’re doing so much that it’s impossible. I kind of just let it happen.”

5 Seconds of Summer, known to its faithful as 5SOS, formed near Sydney in 2011 and almost instantly ascended to pin-up status after opening several tours for the mega-popular British boy band One Direction. (The two acts share a management firm.)

The band will call through Hong Kong for a live show at AsiaWorld-Expo on March 10.

Professional songwriters familiar with the territory have helped along the way. Joel and Benji Madden, who in the early 2000s fronted the pop-punk band Good Charlotte, penned Amnesia, a hit ballad from 5SOS’s self-titled 2014 debut. They also co-wrote four tracks on their latest album, Sounds Good Feels Good, released towards the end of last year.

“It’s a wild ride,” Joel says. “I’ve told them to enjoy it.”

That’s been easy. But now comes the inevitable inflection point: the band – also comprising singer-guitarists Luke Hemmings and Michael Clifford, and drummer Ashton Irwin – were trying to take more control of their future with Sounds Good Feels Good. Louder and a bit darker than the band’s debut, it’s a play for life after teen idol-dom.