Finn Wolfhard has officially gone solo. After fronting Calpurnia and The Aubreys, the Stranger Things star is stepping out under his own name with Happy Birthday, an album of tape-saturated indie rock that pulls from Elliott Smith, Ben Lee, Daniel Johnston, and some garage-punk loudness for good measure. The actor spoke with Kyle Meredith all about it, listen now.

Wolfhard wrote 50 songs in a single year, then cherry-picked the most personal ones to record alone — initially planning to hide behind a band name. “But then I kind of decided to just go fully in and just do it under my name,” he says. “Because, you know, it’s a personal record.” It’s also a deeply nostalgic one. On tracks like “Crown,” he finds himself longing for simpler times: “When you’re a kid, everything’s done for you/ Looking back, that was actually such a luxury.”

Now that Stranger Things has wrapped, Wolfhard’s looking back on nearly a decade spent growing up inside one of the biggest shows of the 21st century. “I got to experience a once-in-a-lifetime thing while also just figuring out who I was,” he says. “It was weird. And beautiful. And very, very public.” The show may be over, but its influence lingers — not leastwise because of the relationships he made with the cast members.

Listen to Finn Wolfhard chat about all this and more or watch it on YouTube. Please take the time to like, review, and subscribe to KMW wherever you get your podcasts, and keep up to date with all our series by following the Consequence Podcast Network.

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