Sydney suburban garages in 2011 gave little indication of an impending Billboard takeover. The quartet began by uploading raw acoustic covers to YouTube, tapping into the burgeoning social media fandom ecosystem before major labels took notice. When Capitol Records signed the group in 2013, the objective was clear: marry the guitar energy of Green Day and Blink-182 with top-40 pop mechanics.
The strategy paid off with immediate global reach. The She Looks So Perfect chart debut in early 2014 shocked industry gatekeepers by topping the official singles charts in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand while breaking into the US Billboard Hot 100 top 40. The song accumulated more than 600 million Spotify streams by 2026, establishing their initial brand: irreverent, loud, and relentlessly energetic.
Yet pop-punk singles burn hot and fade quickly. Aware of potential genre fatigue, the group immediately pivoted with "Amnesia," an acoustic power ballad penned alongside Good Charlotte’s Benji and Joel Madden. The Amnesia single success broadened their demographic overnight, securing heavy adult contemporary radio spins and netting over 550 million streams on Spotify. It confirmed that Luke Hemmings’ raw, front-and-center vocal tone could carry an emotional ballad across global markets without leaning on brash teen-rock aesthetics.
