Finn Wolfhard Shares What Music Shaped Him—and What's on His Playlist Now
With his new album 'Happy Birthday' out now, the actor/musician opens up about his musical preferences for the 'Marie Claire' series "Listen Up."
If you ever wanted to know who is on your favorite singer's playlist, or what albums inspired the latest buzzy up-and-comer the most, tune in for Marie Claire’s resident music franchise Listen Up. In this interview series, we ask musicians about their listening habits and the specific records that informed their taste—and inherently their journey as an artist.
There’s an alternative reality where Finn Wolfhard didn’t land a role on Stranger Things and become a Netflix phenomenon; instead, he’s a scenester playing house shows and 200-cap rooms in a DIY band. But in this reality, where he found stardom nearly overnight playing the fiercely loyal, D&D-loving tween Mike Wheeler, he continues to earn indie cred, thanks to his public Spotify playlists and viral music moments, like jumping on stage with rocker Mac DeMarco.
“I would like to think that if my acting career didn't randomly take off, I would be trying to be really present and cultivate a scene in Vancouver,” Wolfhard tells Marie Claire over Zoom from a Tokyo hotel room in late May.
Now that Stranger Things is coming to an end, he is working on living out that indie rock fantasy. On June 6, Wolfhard releases his first solo LP, Happy Birthday, which he recorded with cult-loved Chicagoan Kai Slater of Sharp Pins and Lifeguard. The nine-track power-pop project features lyrics more personal than his other efforts, The Aubreys and Calpurnia, as it explores how he’s coming of age and hopes to define his next chapter.
Wolfhard, now based in Vancouver, says that control is “100 percent” something he’s looking for in his creative endeavors going forward, whether in music or his newfound passion for directing (as he did with April’s horror movie Hell of a Summer.) “Acting is so great because you get a different kind of collaboration, but in the end, it's not your story,” he explains. “But directing and making records with people feels like a similar part of my brain, or my life, where it's like you're getting a group of these amazing people and you're trying to make something together. To me, that's the most fun part about making anything.”
Now that Wolfhard is in his rockstar era, we spoke to him about the records he grew up on, the merch he got from Winona Ryder, and his favorite music movie moments.
Prior to Happy Birthday, Wolfhard released singles and EPs with his bands Calpurnia and The Aubreys.
A few come to mind. The first one was The Beatles, Help!. My mom put it on her iPod for me. I would listen to “Help!” and then rewind it to the beginning and listen to it again and again, and do that for every song.
The Beatles became my life, basically—all their movies, all their old records. I love everything they've ever made, but the first four records I absolutely loved. The crossover [with their movies] was really cool. I was like, Oh, you can do both. That’s crazy. I didn’t even know that was an option, so that was something that opened my eyes.
I loved [Weezer (The Blue Album)]. That was a gigantic thing for me. I think it's so influential.
And then, to be honest, PUP’s debut album. I knew punk music in the way of, I liked the Ramones. I was 11, and I remember hearing “Reservoir” for the first time and being genuinely scared, [like], Oh, I haven’t heard music that gnarly and raw before. Hearing that for the first time opened my eyes to a whole different side of alternative and punk music and pop punk. That was also a gigantic inspiration for me and something that really opened a different side of myself, too.
There were two. The first one—that I remember buying with a $10 bill I'd gotten over the course of a few weeks mowing my parents's lawn—I got a Coldplay record. I bought X&Y at a used CD shop in Vancouver. And then I remember the first vinyl record I ever got was The Suburbs by Arcade Fire.
Blue Rev by Alvvays. That's a perfect album, no skips. Radio DDR by Sharp Pins is also no-skips, the band Women’s self-titled album, and Tim by The Replacements.
The Minneapolis scene would've been really interesting. The Twin/Tone scene was popping off. It would've been super fun to go to all those Midwest shows. One week being like, “I'm going to see The Replacements on Wednesday, and then I'm going to go see Prince on Saturday.” That's insane to me.
The Factory [Records] scene, Manchester in the ‘80, like the Haçienda days, that would've been fucking amazing.
But I even get jealous when I talk to my dad [about] living in Vancouver, 1980 to now. The amount of shows he saw is crazy. My mom saw The Clash around the corner from my house. My dad saw the Ramones. He saw the Violent Femmes in a bar with four other people. I'm like, Damn, that doesn't exist anymore because everyone knows everything. Back then, there were still some weirdly secret bands. Being able to hang around record stores and hear who's coming to town and discovering stuff would be so fun and interesting.
The cover art for Happy Birthday.
School of Rock has so many good needle drops. “Roadrunner” [by Jonathan Richman] in that movie is so good. “Stay Free” by The Clash is so good.
There are some really good Edgar Wright needle drops. In his third movie, The World's End, there's a part in it where the Happy Mondays play, and that's a great scene.
PUP at this venue in Seattle when I was probably 11—just the energy and how loud they played. And then, Twin Peaks live at Audiotree, and their KEXP sessions are legendary.
Clay Frankel, who is one of the frontmen of [Twin Peaks] and who I'm lucky enough to call a friend, did the album cover for this album. Stefan [Babcock from PUP] and Clay are the two people I've looked up to the most as frontmen. If I could get even a drop of how entertaining they both are, I'd be very happy.
This [Replacements T-shirt I’m wearing]. I have a Golden Smog as well. Winona Ryder dated one of the guys from Soul Asylum and was around the Minneapolis scene at that time. She was a gigantic Replacements fan and friends with them, and friends with [the lead singer] Paul Westerberg at a certain point. Anyway, she found out that I was a big fan, and I showed up one day, and this was in my trailer. This is her tour T-shirt from The Replacements tour, so this is my most prized possession. I wear it all the time.
“Dreams Tonite” by Alvvays is an amazing song. “Pot Kettle Black” by Wilco is a great song. One of [my collaborator] Kai’s songs, “Bye Bye Basil” off his first [Sharp Pins album], Turtle Rock. That’s a completely perfect song. Also, “1234” by Feist is a perfect pop song. I love it, and I’ll never get bored of listening to it.
There are a few moments of the record that, from the lyrics perspective, I really like and think are cool. I like the phrasing on “Everytown there's a darling.” I think that's a cool song that I was pretty proud of. “Choose the latter,” I think that's cool too. I like the opening: “If there was a choice / To be scraping by / On my own time.” I just like that line.
From the album, I would say “Choose the latter.” That's a fun, happy song that is also steeped in a lot of anxiety and asking oneself a lot of questions about identity and life. I feel like I'm always doing that. Thematically, it talks about a lot of uncertainty when it comes to the future, but that's also not necessarily a bad thing.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
