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Finn Wolfhard is an artist who perhaps needs little introduction. After all, the young multi-faceted creative spent the better part of his adolescence and young adulthood leading one of the biggest TV shows of the 21st century. As the curtain falls on Stranger Things, it might be easy to run to the knee-jerk headline — “What’s next for Wolfhard?” The answer is immediate for anyone lucky enough to witness the evolution of Wolfhard, the creative, outside of his biggest intellectual property to date. Music. 

Yet, it’s unfair to categorize Wolfhard’s “next step” as music, as music has been an undercurrent for much of Wolfhard’s career on and off-screen. Whether it be playing a loner who records original folk songs to his online audience in When You Finish Saving the World, directing the first-ever official music video for George Harrison’s 1973 classic “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth),” releasing his debut album Happy Birthday last year, or currently penning a The Replacements biopic, music has always been the glue that holds everything together for Wolfhard.

It’s a sentiment that reverberates throughout every minute of Fire From The Hip, Wolfhard’s impressive sophomore album. Over the course of 12 tracks, the emerging indie rock artist wields nostalgic folk-tinged sonics with a deft hand well beyond his years, painting a sonic portrait of emotional depth and deeply human growth. While the stirring songwriting that first reared its head on Happy Birthday is on full display here, it’s been further fine-tuned to deliver moments of sardonic wit and charming glints of reflection alongside a richer, more cinematic sound. And at the core of it all is Wolfhard, who I was lucky enough to speak to ahead of the release of Fire From The Hip.

OnesToWatch: I typically ask artists the same first question, which may seem comical as someone who has grown up in the public eye and is now, in a sense, reintroducing themselves. 

Finn Wolfhard: Wait, people know who I am? From something else?

I know, it’s crazy. So… who is Finn Wolfhard?

A musician and actor. I really like to make stuff with my friends, catchy songs, catchy music. I try to be as truthful as possible within it all.

Most of your young adult life has been entwined with Stranger Things, but while the world was seeing you navigate Hawkins, you were navigating your own coming of age. What role did music play in your adolescence, and how did it shape you off-screen? 

My life was that show and will continue to be that. People will always know me for that. At the same time, I was only a piece of it — a piece of this huge thing. Sometimes, especially when you’re a kid, you really don’t know what to make of that; it’s a lot to process. So, I was really lucky because I was able to go home and have an outlet like music, where every day I would come home and play guitar until I went to bed. My routine every day was: go on set, do school, do Stranger Things, stay on set at the end of the day, because I really wanted to learn about the process of filmmaking, go home, do my homework, play guitar, go to bed. 

It was so, so crazy, and even though that sounds so chaotic — and it was — the guitar part of that whole day would be the thing that would ground me the most. That was the only time I really had to myself. I think that’s really important when you’re with people all the time. I had nothing but amazing older people around me, and my family, but it was nice to have that solitary time to myself where I could spend time on my own, have a really good time playing guitar, and start writing songs.

I feel like we often think in terms of dichotomies; that you either have to be X or Y. But your recent and future endeavors, from directing a music video for George Harrison to working on a The Replacements biopic aim to merge your two artistic personas. Is this an intentional decision? 

For sure. I don’t know much I bite myself in the ass because of that. Maybe it sends mixed signals in some ways of who I am to people, but the truth is, I am very passionate about a few different things. But music has always been the glue. Music is the glue that keeps everything together. I’ve been playing live shows and touring since I was 14 or 15. I’ve also put in the work as a musician. 

It’s funny. People come in knowing who I am, and I’m really lucky and happy to have that built-in audience, but my job now is getting people to stay. You get people in the door, now you gotta get people to stay and really like the show or record. I think there’s a little more forgiveness if you’re younger. Now, I’m a young adult, and I really want to prove myself on all levels. It’s all intertwined, but now is the time that I’m really trying to hone music, tour the shit out of this record, and really show people I’m passionate about it.   

Would you say there’s a song or record that really jumps out as one of your earliest music memories? 

Oh yeah, so many. The two that come to the top of my head… one is “Help!” by The Beatles. That was one I played just nonstop. The Beatles are the God band. The other one is… when I first started shooting Stranger Things, my dad would drive me every day, and we’d listen to music together. One of the songs we’d always listen to on the way back from set — it would just be this great way to cap off the day — is this song called “Nausea” by Jeff Rosenstock. Jeff Rosenstock, to me, he’s just incredible. I remember that song meaning a lot to me. I haven’t met him yet, but he came to our LA show, and I remember seeing him at the back of the venue, smiling, while we were playing, and I just remember looking at him like, “This is such a crazy moment.” I love that song. 

That’s so surreal.

So surreal. Really sweet guy.  

Your sophomore album Fire From The Hip is out this Friday. How do you feel?

I feel good. It’s kind of crazy it’s coming out that soon, but I feel good. It’s kind of out of my hands at this point, like what people are going to think. I just hope that people listen to it and enjoy it. I’m just excited to go on tour and play the songs live. I kind of designed the record to play live, in front of people. 

You can definitely hear that from the record, which seems to almost run counter to a good deal of music’s current emphasis on social media impressions. There is something so special about hearing a song live, outside of a viral 15-second TikTok clip. 

Totally. And I’m sure people in my life want that. I want songs to be hits too. Of course, it would be awesome. If I were really trying to do that, I would be a pop artist. I love pop, but if I were really into it, I would be on TikTok every day doing something. I think it works for some people, but it’s just not my thing. Also, because I have such a younger, built-in fanbase, I hope that I’ll be able to show them a different perspective when it comes to live shows. 

I think shows are very different from how they used to be before COVID in a lot of ways, and I just really want to have a bunch of Gen Alpha kids in the crowds, my goal is to be able for all of them to not be stressed about getting a video on their phone. That’s obviously a huge part of shows now — I’ll take a video and be done with it, but a lot of people will have their phone up the whole show. Are you really going to go back and watch that whole thing? Maybe some people are, but the more I can promote a communal experience, the better. I also recognize that phones and social media are the backbone, in a lot of ways, of the music industry, so it’s kind of a double-edged sword.

Not to show my age too much, but outside of the one or two Instagram stories, I don’t think I’ve looked back at any videos I’ve taken at a live show. Every memory I have from a concert or festival, my phone isn’t a part of it, but what was most important was who I was surrounded by and what was happening on that stage in front of me. 

Totally, that’s so important. And you make a friend in the line or a friend in the crowd. I was really lucky, because, going back to what I was saying about ‘getting people to stay,’ I’m lucky that I have these really supportive, great, younger fans who have been great at meeting each other and really having a community. I’m really happy about that. If I can also get older fans in too, that’s great. My goal is for my music to reach all age groups. I was so lucky to be part of a show like Stranger Things that hit so many age groups. Obviously, a lot of kids love that show, but it’s also super popular amongst adults. Not to compare them in any way, but I love being able to create something that’s not just for one age group or person. If I can make music or put on a show that everyone can enjoy, that’s my goal.        

Fire From The Hip and your debut album Happy Birthday have earned you comparisons to Elliot Smith, Daniel Johnston, and The Rolling Stones, so the appeal to an older crowd makes sense. Yet, I love that it seems like it’s a sonic world you’re not just trying to escape to but also bring your younger fans into.

Yeah, absolutely. If I can somehow bridge that gap and have older music fans be like, “Damn, he can play,” or “This is fun, I’m having a good time.” And whatever preconceived notion they had about the show, now they’re just experiencing it. That’s the goal.    

You released your debut album, Happy Birthday, just over a year ago. Did you approach the recording process for Fire From The Hip any differently?  

I definitely approach making a record pretty similarly. I think the main difference is that Happy Birthday was recorded in a Frankenstein kind of way, where I recorded two weeks with my co-producer Kai [Slater] in Chicago, but there were some songs I recorded by myself, and some songs I recorded in Atlanta. It was a shorter record; it was almost a teaser of what this record is. The main difference is that this record was a little more deliberate in what I wanted the sound to be, like sonically, what I wanted the drum sound to be, what I wanted the vibe to be. Where with Happy Birthday it kind of fell into my lap a little bit when it came to, “Oh, I have enough songs for a record. This will be a great debut.” Where Fire From The Hip, even though it was a super collaborative and energetic process, I had a lot of stuff in my head that was planned.  

Between the two projects, I have to take a moment to commend your songwriting. It makes me wonder, outside of music, what inspires you?

I hate to say it, without sounding pretentious, but literature. Specifically, larger American epics. I connect to books when they’re super grand in scale and feel cinematic. The more I can visualize and put myself in the character that I’m reading about’s shoes, the more I connect to it. I kind of feel like that with the way I write songs. I really like to try to make it as visual as possible. Naturally, I feel like the things I connect to the most, or things that I read about, are things that I can picture clearly. There’s an author that’s amazing called Nathan Hill, wrote a book called The Nix. There’s Cormac McCarthy’s writing. Even, on the movie side, reading Paul Thomas Anderson scripts, reading a little bit of Thomas Pynchon’s stuff. They’re all at a huge scale, but at the end of the day, they’re all very super, specifically human and darkly comedic. I think that’s where I draw most inspiration from.        

What do you hope people take away from Fire From The Hip?

I just hope it makes people happy. It gets in people’s heads, and people are singing along to it in the car or wherever. That’s the best thing about music; it can really bring your mood up and make you feel better. So I hope it can do that for some people.