Finn Wolfhard

For as long as he can remember, Finn Wolfhard has been deeply moved by both listening to and making music. As a little kid, it happened when mainlining his parents' old Beatles records, and as he matured, it was sparked by endearingly imitating beloved rock bands such as The Replacements and Guided By Voices. For Wolfhard, who began acting at age 10 and went on to star in the Netflix sensation Stranger Things plus two Ghostbusters reboots, these creative outlets were a way for me to establish control for myself and a little bit of peace. Music for me has always been something that I can control. And while I'm really grateful for acting and for a long time, it really provided me that peace, it's just a different thing now that I'm an adult and that it's a career. I still enjoy it a lot, but when I am by myself and get to play guitar and write a song, it's a different kind of feeling I'm after.

Happy Birthday: A Personal Challenge

Now, after several releases with the bands Calpurnia and The Aubreys, Wolfhard unveils his first solo release under his own name, Happy Birthday. A dizzying rush of nine songs, the album grew out of Wolfhard's personal challenge to pen 50 songs by the end of 2022. He admits, "I ended up writing a lot of terrible stuff, but a few of those songs I was really proud of went to the Aubreys. I started realizing a general theme in a lot of the other songs involving my identity, anxieties, nostalgia, childhood, and loneliness. All of that was a part of a bigger puzzle. I knew I wanted to make a record, but I didn't know with which songs."

Collaboration with Kai Slater

Enter producer/multi-instrumentalist/Lifeguard member Kai Slater, to whom Wolfhard was introduced by mutual friend and Calpurnia/The Aubreys producer Cadien Lake James. He said, "you've got to meet this kid. He's around your age and he's just a genius." So, I went to see Lifeguard play and I was super inspired by how commanding their presence was and how great they sounded, Wolfhard recalls. Kai mentioned his solo act, Sharp Pins, and I then fully fell in love with his record Turtle Rock. It was so lo-fi, but it had such melodic songs that really inspired me. That ended up solving the puzzle, because I realized what would really speak for the album and represent it the best, production-wise, was to record it lo-fi and on tape so that it was raw and handmade.

Recording Process

Wolfhard proposed coming to Chicago to do exactly that, and he and Slater hit the ground running for sessions in the latter's home as well as another familiar location. Lifeguard's practice space was where I recorded my first Calpurnia album, Wolfhard says. It was such a cool process to go back there now that I'm not a teenager anymore. I felt like it was the perfect way to do a first solo record because there were no tricks or digital stuff. It was bare-bones; we just used what was in the room.

Album Experience

That approach makes it feel like we're getting a true glimpse into Wolfhard's brain throughout Happy Birthday, which opens with the hazy, 91-second title track and concludes with Wait, a song so intimate and homespun that in the background you can hear floorboards creaking as percussionist Eli Schmidt rushes over to turn off a tea kettle he accidentally left boiling.

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