THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Some of you may know Finn Wolfhard’s music from his previous indie bands Calpurnia and The Aubreys. He’s also quite well known for being Mike Wheeler from Stranger Things. For as long as he can remember, he has been deeply moved by both listening to and making music. This is the first time he has released music under his name.
Happy Birthday is a dizzying rush of nine songs that were culled from Wolfhard’s personal challenge to pen 50 songs by the end of 2022. “I ended up writing a lot of terrible stuff,” he admits, “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.”
For Wolfhard, the album is another accomplished step forward in his evolution as a musician, songwriter and citizen of planet Earth. “If I were to walk away and listen to it in 10 years, I think it would feel like the beginning of a specific style and voice,” he says. “It can be interesting being a younger person in any kind of industry, because even though I’ve been acting for a long time, I’m still only 22, and things start to take shape at different times in your life. I hope that when I look back on this record, I’ll be proud of the melodies and the songwriting. I want to be accepting of myself at that time. It was OK that I felt like that and made a record about it and then moved on to new experiences.”
