The leap from mainstream actor to indie musician is a precarious one. A few stick the landing, but art in general requires a certain hunger, which often seems to dissipate upon tasting your first million dollars in Hollywood. Maybe the music’s perfectly nice, but ultimately placid (Michael Cera). Perhaps it’s offensively overproduced (Jeremy Renner). Or maybe you go the Corey Feldman route (an ego trip gone horribly wrong).
But when I heard Finn Wolfhard was releasing his solo debut album, I stifled the yawn. Alongside starring as Mike Wheeler in Netflix’s Stranger Things since he was 13, Wolfhard has been putting in serious time in bands for several years. First, there was Calpurnia, and then The Aubreys, both of which involved friend Malcolm Craig. Even more exciting is that Wolfhard has worked with plenty of the people he looks up to, whether it’s learning the ropes with Twin Peaks’ Cadien Lake James, or performing on stage with hometown hero Mac Demarco.
Born and raised in Vancouver, there’s a healthy representation of Canadian indie in his list of favourite records, introduced by his parents on long car rides to nearby Seattle or Portland. Perhaps more surprisingly, there’s also a strong connection to Chicago bands, courtesy of Stranger Things co-star Joe Keery, who studied and gigged around the city in the early 2010s.
“I still live in Vancouver,” Wolfhard explains. “Malcolm and I, we really want Vancouver to have an active, community-based music scene. When I’m back home, I strive to go to a bunch of DIY shows and see the bands out there. But the Chicago scene is so inspiring because it doesn’t feel like there’s much competition there – it feels like everyone’s making stuff and plays on everyone’s records. There’s something really special about it.”
Now, Wolfhard’s apprenticeship has paid off with a solid solo debut, Happy Birthday. Many of his inspirations listed here shine through on the record, and he’s refreshingly unpretentious about his passion for music. “All these albums are the start of new tastes coming into my life – and also albums that I can go back to and love,” Wolfhard explains. “These are albums that, from childhood, really made me want to make music.”
Finn Wolfhard’s debut solo album Happy Birthday is released on 6 June via Night Shift. To begin reading his Baker’s Dozen, click ‘First Selection’ below
