Thinking back on the last two years of his life full of album releases, filming schedules and tour dates, Finn Wolfhard requires squint-inducing concentration to keep it all straight.<\/p>\n
\u201cJesus, a lot has happened,\u201d he says, looking surprised. That\u2019s an understatement.<\/p>\n
In that time, the 23-year-old not only finished filming the Netflix hit show \u201cStranger Things,\u201d which catapulted him to global stardom, and promoted the final season upon its premiere. He also released his feature film directorial debut (\u201cHell of a Summer,\u201d co-directed with Billy Bryk, which hit theaters in April 2025). Then, he starred in another movie (A24\u2019s creature feature \u201cThe Legend of Ochi<\/u><\/a>\u201d), directed a posthumous George Harrison stop-motion music video<\/u><\/a>, wrote, recorded and put out his first solo album (\u201cHappy Birthday\u201d), and embarked on a 22-date tour before recording a new album.<\/p>\n On a video call from his family home in Vancouver, Canada, where he lives with his parents and older brother, he\u2019s chatting about the release of that record, the eclectic, guitar-driven \u201cFire From the Hip,\u201d which dropped Friday. <\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s a nice day?\u201d he offers when I ask what\u2019s happening in Vancouver. \u201cI don\u2019t know. I\u2019ve been in my basement studio all day, so I don\u2019t \u2026 I think it\u2019s nice.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s been down in the basement doing press calls like this, he explains, undoubtedly a familiar routine after so many years in the limelight. He wears a baseball cap and an oversize brown sweater, tugging on the sleeves while he ponders.<\/p>\n Even if Wolfhard is exhausted by the press marathon, he doesn\u2019t show it. He\u2019s excited for the chance to be known on his own terms. He never fails to express gratitude for the projects that afforded him recognition and opportunity, but he\u2019s ready to \u201ctake control of the narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI spent my whole childhood standing on marks that other people told me to stand on and saying lines that other people told me to say,\u201d he says. \u201cWhy wouldn\u2019t I want to make my own stuff?\u201d<\/p>\n Being in control also means being the face of the operation. Before \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d and \u201cFire From the Hip,\u201d Wolfhard released a total of two records and an EP, plus a whole bunch of singles, with his previous bands, Calpurnia and the Aubreys. Being in a band was a natural fit for Wolfhard, who thrives in an ensemble where he can \u201chide behind the band name.\u201d<\/p>\n Touring last year was his first time seeing his own name on the marquee.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just straight up me, and if I suck, I suck,\u201d he laughs. \u201cIt\u2019s not like I can be like, \u2018Oh, man, we\u2019re having disagreements in the band.\u2019 It\u2019s like, no, that\u2019s you. So there was a little more pressure early on.\u201d<\/p>\n Finn Wolfhard released \u201cFire From the Hip\u201d on Friday.<\/p>\n (Victoria Stevens)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n Stepping into the spotlight required Wolfhard, who admits he shies away from conflict, to own both the pressure and the power of being the one audiences came to hear.<\/p>\n When he got sick and had to cancel a show in Portland, Ore., he remembers feeling crushingly sad \u201cletting down\u201d his fans and bandmates \u2014 who, of course, assured him it was outside of his control and urged him not to be so hard on himself.<\/p>\n Wolfhard introduced many of the songs that ended up becoming \u201cFire From the Hip\u201d to his bandmates while they were still on tour, and he says playing them live \u201ccultivated the spirit\u201d of the eventual recordings. Despite his collaborative ethos, there was a moment during the process where he had to learn how to put his foot down in real time.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember suggesting something and people being like, \u2018Ah, I don\u2019t know if I want to do that.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018No, you don\u2019t get to do that to me. It\u2019s my record,\u2019\u201d he remembers. \u201cIt was very innocent \u2014 I don\u2019t think there was much ego on either side. But I think I maybe set up too collaborative of an experience that day.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think I sometimes make it feel like a democracy, which it is in a lot of ways,\u201d he adds. \u201cBut also, in the end, it is up to me.\u201d<\/p>\n That thought is echoed in the album\u2019s cover art, an image of two miniature Finn Wolfhards facing off, donning colonial garb and brandishing weapons. It\u2019s meant to represent dueling impulses inside of him, he explains.<\/p>\n Wolfhard, a true-blue music nerd, has been described online as an archetypical example of the \u201cchild of a Gen X cool dad,\u201d in the same vein as Olivia Rodrigo. (His dad, a former screenwriter turned lawyer and Indigenous rights researcher, does sound cool, but it was his mom who first introduced him to the Beatles. His parents apparently met<\/u><\/a> over a Stone Roses record.)<\/p>\n That sensibility is evident in his musical influences \u2014 \u201cI wanted everything [on drums] to sound like the first two Wilco records,\u201d he says \u2014 and in his approach to recording. \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d was recorded almost entirely on four-track cassette tapes, while \u201cFire From the Hip\u201d uses 24-track reel-to-reel.<\/p>\n The album runs the gamut from its cheeky, surf-rock opener \u201cI\u2019ll Let You Finish\u201d (yes, that is a reference to Kanye West\u2019s infamous speech at the 2009 VMAs) to more \u201990s alt-inspired tunes to a surprising dose of straightforward country-folk.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/4jdJTKvdtAo\/hqdefault.jpg\")
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