After a decade in the spotlight, Finn Wolfhard is here to reintroduce himself. The Vancouver-born artist and auteur is taking on his most personal role yet: a (somewhat) mature, heart-on-sleeve, jangly indie rocker.
Under the glow of the Parisian sunshine, Finn Wolfhard is finally taking a moment to stand still – well, sort of. Though the young actor and musician is currently rushing around the cobbled streets, a bloodhound locked in on his hunt for some good coffee, this trip is a rare opportunity to slow down in between projects. “I find it very hard to stop and experience the present,” he explains. “Travelling is my way of trying to ‘live in the moment’, y’know?”
After a decade in his breakout role as Stranger Things’ Mike Wheeler, the show’s finale closed off a huge chapter in the 23-year-old’s life. Over the coming months, he’s set to release his sophomore record, ‘’, before embarking on an accompanying tour – all the while trying to squeeze in some acting work. “I can be very impulsive, always looking ahead and planning my next move, because it helps me cope with my anxiety,” he explains. “It can be a good thing, because it distracts me, but it can also stunt my ability to process things.”
While it’s a cliché for actors to whisk themselves abroad on exotic trips, Wolfhard’s jaunt to Paris isn’t one of flashy indulgence; it’s a chance to finally take stock of where he is in life right now. Living his life in the spotlight since the age of 13, Wolfhard has begun to feel a disconnect between his inner self and the mask he puts on for the public. “The album title is inspired by the Barry Lyndon dual shoot-out scene, but I’m on both sides, battling myself,” he laughs. “That’s how I feel a lot of the time. There’s this public persona version of ‘me’, but then there’s the normal ‘me’ that’s just walking around listening to music. Those different sides can feel at odds with each other.”
Right now, Wolfhard has relaxed a touch, settling into his “nerdy” self. At heart, the mop-headed star is a charmingly dorky cinephile, happily prattling about the magic of the theatre. He even part-owns a cinema in Vancouver, “a dream come true” that allows him to watch movies after closing time with the staff. While he’s a bit jittery, a by-product of his anxiety, it’s offset by an almost Peter Pan-like optimism. Wolfhard’s music feels wise beyond his years, however. His brand of ‘70s jangly rock, hazy Americana and anthemic garage rock riffs could have been carved out by someone two generations his senior – though his quirky Canadian voice and Gen Z “dude-bro” informalities balance things out.
Wolfhard knows he’s got some growing up to do. In his own words, working away from home has resulted in him “missing out on some important life stages”. It’s something that makes him “sad, in a lot of ways”. He’s quick to clarify that he’s “thankful to have experienced so many things at such a young age,” but can’t help wondering what slipped by the wayside.
“Developmentally, I didn’t get the same experience that a lot of kids my age did,” he reflects. “I think there are some things I experienced later in life, and some things that haven’t even happened yet, because I wasn’t a ‘normal’ kid.” Even now, his fluttering lifestyle, jetting between continents, means that he can’t even have a ‘normal’ adulthood. And it’s something that he’s finally opening up about on his new record.
While 2025 debut, ‘Happy Birthday’, allowed a peek into his personal life, with cuts like ‘Eat’ reflecting how his anxiety can sometimes get so crippling he forgets to eat, ‘Fire From The Hip’ probes deeper. It sees him writing his own script for once, donning his 18th century gunslinger garbs to get a little existential – and a little vulnerable, too. “Now that I’m not a 12-year-old boy on Netflix, I can open up about more things that I’ve experienced,” he explains. “The first album was more abstract, but this time my lyrics have definitely gotten more personal.”
One such case is ‘Nice To Meet You Again’, a track that feels like a boy-next-door serenading you on his patio in the late summer evening. It tugs on your heartstrings as it ponders the impossibility of maintaining relationships – both romantic and platonic – while working away for months on end. “Because of my job, I’m constantly disappearing, so when I come home everything has changed,” Wolfhard frowns. “It makes it hard to have a partner, because you’re travelling so much. You get back and you feel like you need to reintroduce yourself.”
“Sometimes you come back home after six months, and your friend can feel like a new person. That’s what’s tough about leaving all the time,” he continues. “And the same goes the other way. I come back, and people will think I’ve changed, and their life is also entirely different, too.”
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Finn Wolfhard record without a little side of goofiness. From the get-go, this record is rammed full of pop culture throwbacks, with opener ‘I’ll Let You Finish’ culminating in a nod to Kanye West infamously snubbing Taylor Swift during the 2009 VMA awards. Elsewhere, the soft acoustic twang of ‘Maggie’ has a whiplash-inducing reference to how George W. Bush was reading to a school class when he got told about the 9/11 attacks (“you read to kids just like George Dub,” the cheeky rascal croons).
That’s not the only George that gets a shout-out on record, either. Silver fox George Clooney gets a name drop on ‘Common Side Effects’, a track inspired by Wolfhard’s first and only time doing mushrooms. “I’m not a huge drinker or party boy,” Wolfhard explains. “But one day in Atlanta I was just feeling really shitty about myself, so I took some mushrooms because I thought it’d make me feel better. I thought ‘I’m gonna feel super cool, just like George Clooney!’”
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Instead, the singer was forced to endure a list of ‘Common Side Effects’, including “difficulty speaking” and “restlessness” – something the jittery artist laughingly notes he already struggles with on a good day, let alone when it’s enhanced by a substance. “I just felt the same, if not, a little worse,” Wolfhard smirks. “Everything just looked and felt a bit weird.”
Talking about the ordeal now, you can tell that it feels like a weight off of the star’s shoulders. When you’re playing a key role in multi-million dollar franchises like Stranger Things, Ghostbusters and IT – roles that all rely on an uncanny ability to maintain a young, mischievous, and ultimately innocent persona – when that pressure is on from the age of 13, it’s hard not to feel conscious of how the public could perceive everything you do.
“Ever since I got cast in Stranger Things, I’ve been pretty aware of what people say about me, even if that means being able to go online and see people say I suck at acting,” he says. “Obviously, everyone knows that if you become a child actor, things can go awry pretty fast. Thankfully, I always knew that I wouldn’t have a problem [with alcohol or drugs]. I’ve never had a super addictive personality. So don’t worry!”
‘Fire From The Hip’ is also an embodiment of Wolfhard’s “impulsive” nature. One creative way of conveying this was recording straight to tape, all in one live session. “I feel like impulsivity is a big part of my personality,” he notes. “I can be very impulsive with the things that I do, and my mouth often moves faster than my brain. That’s what this album represents; just shooting without thinking much about it.”
While there are some overdubs, the main arrangements on record were all recorded live, in the moment. “I wanted people to feel like this album wasn’t manufactured,” the musician explains. “I wanted it to feel super organic, continuing the trend that I had on the first record. I love that homemade feeling, just recording in a studio with my best friends.”
“It’s not as easy as pressing a space bar on a computer, but there’s something quite ‘romantic’ about that,” he continues. “Tape teaches you to accept that you can make mistakes, that it’s okay and normal. Digital spoils you; if you fuck up, you can fix it. In that sense, tape has a very human quality to it.”
“If there’s ever a re-release of this in the future, we have tons of recordings of the band celebrating at the end of a good take,” he recalls, with a flicker of a smile. “I think the reason why I didn’t include any is because it can sometimes feel a little self-indulgent, but I love those recordings.”
Through this record, Wolfhard hopes that he can recapture some of the emotions that his favourite tracks evoke within him. He pinpoints one particularly significant song he’s been spinning lately, Faces’ ‘Glad and Sorry’. “I’d listened to Faces before, but I’d never heard that song until my friends in Twin Peaks covered it live,” he says. “Now, whenever I put it on, it’s like the equivalent of putting on a certain smell in a sample set of colognes.”
A sample set of colognes? “Y’know… You spray it and it’s something you’ve smelled before. It instantly puts you in a certain mood, makes you feel good, and puts you back in the frame of mind as the last time you heard it. What’s better than that? If anything I write has that impact on somebody, I’ll be happy.”
Although, the painfully humble Wolfhard is reluctant to believe that’s even possible. He adds that he feels like a “prick” boasting about his music, or even just listening to it. “I only re-listen sometimes,” he pre-emptively defends, as if we’re about to judge him for it. “I just wonder how something might sound, and whether I’m in a different place than I was when I wrote it. Like, I’m very proud of ‘Choose The Latter’ from my last record whenever I hear it, but I only listen again if it’s been a while.”
While Wolfhard has had a slew of indie musical projects in the past, like Calpurnia and The Aubreys, we wonder how his 13-year-old self might feel about the tracks he’s put together now. With the actor-slash-musician branding it as his most “fearless” and “confident” feat to date, we wonder if his more impressionable self would be proud. “I think he would be over the moon, knowing I recorded a whole album with my best friends,” he says. “I think my younger self would be really happy with the work that I’ve been doing, which honestly, is what it all should be about.”
It’s a comfort to know that his older role models – Stranger Things’ Maya Hawke and Joe Keery (AKA Djo) – are pretty proud of him too. “I showed Maya and Joe some songs, and they seemed pretty excited about them,” he says warmly. “I’ve learned so much from them, and I really look up to them. Joe is a real mentor figure to me. He actually introduced me to the band Twin Peaks, who are my friends now. I saw Joe the other day, actually, and we played on stage together. It was the best.”
“While we were filming, Maya and Joe were part of a songwriters club with a few different musicians, where they had to write a specific amount of songs a month,” he recalls. “It was inspiring to see. I also challenged myself to write 50 songs in a year. I didn’t make it, but it was a good exercise.”
Before delving back into the world of music, however, Wolfhard is keen to tick off some personal life events first. And he’s making sure he isn’t alone for them. While he’s set to swing by a Paris cinema later tonight, tomorrow will see his best friend flying in to join his European adventures. It’s set to be a well-overdue burst of bonding time with his nearest and dearest best pal. “Our childhoods were obviously very different, but we’ve known each other since the fifth grade,” Wolfhard smiles. “For the first time ever, our lives have matched up; he’s back from university, and I’ve got a break before going on tour. So we’re both going on this ‘gap year’ trip together.”
“Some people lose their fucking minds because they surround themselves with people that only tell them what they want to hear,” he continues. ”I’m really lucky that I have friends that are super real with me, so there’s never any worries about ‘ego’ or anything.”
Looking to the future, Wolfhard has his sights set on the director’s chair. Having directed the claymation video for a recent re-release of George Harrison’s 1973 track ‘Give Me Love’, as well as his own movie, 2023’s Hell Of A Summer, he’d love to tick off another feature-length production. “I spent my entire teenage-hood trying to write Hell Of A Summer,” he shares. “I originally only started acting because I wanted to direct one day, so I’d love to be able to make another film. But, honestly, I hope I can just keep learning things; about music, about acting, but also about myself.”
Before parting ways, we wonder how Wolfhard manages to create in spite of his nervous disposition. He sometimes misses meals due to his frantic, intrusive thoughts, yet he’s rising further up through the Hollywood ranks every day. “If I hadn’t gotten Stranger Things, I don’t think I would be as comfortable in myself as I am now,” he admits. “But, honestly, my whole life has been a mission to prove my anxiety wrong. I always jump in the deep end, and even though it sometimes bites me in the ass, it’s always worth it.”
As seen in CLASH 134. Order your copy of HERE.
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