Actor and musician Finn Wolfhard releases new solo album "Fire From the Hip"

Finn Wolfhard released his second solo album, "Fire From the Hip," on Friday, doubling down on the guitar-driven, analog rock sound he introduced on last year's "Happy Birthday." The 23-year-old Vancouver native wrote the record around story songs and confessional lyrics that wrestle with relationships, future anxieties and the strange experience of growing up on camera. Where "Happy Birthday" was recorded almost entirely on four-track cassette tapes, Wolfhard cut "Fire From the Hip" on 24-track reel-to-reel, and the tracklist runs from the surf-rock opener "I'll Let You Finish," a nod to Kanye West's 2009 VMAs speech, through '90s alt-inspired songs and a stretch of straightforward country-folk. Fans tracking the year's releases can find the album alongside the rest of the new arrivals on the release calendar.

Wolfhard is best known for playing Mike Wheeler on Netflix's "Stranger Things," the role that made him a global star before he wrapped the show's final season. Since then he's kept building a separate career behind the mic and camera: he directed the 2025 feature "Hell of a Summer" with Billy Bryk, starred in A24's "The Legend of Ochi," directed a posthumous George Harrison music video, and toured 22 dates behind "Happy Birthday" before writing this new record.

Being the only name on the marquee is still relatively new for Wolfhard, who spent his earlier musical years fronting the bands Calpurnia and the Aubreys, releasing two albums and an EP with those groups before going solo. He's said he used to like hiding behind the band name, and that touring alone last year taught him to make final calls himself, right down to the album's cover art, which shows two miniature versions of him in colonial dress facing off, an image meant to capture the tug-of-war between his collaborative instincts and his need to just decide.

The album arrives as Wolfhard leans further into an indie rock lane alongside fellow "Stranger Things" alum Joe Keery, who records as Djo, and co-star Maya Hawke, both of whom Wolfhard has pointed to as influences on his own path into music. He introduced several of the new songs to his backing band while still on tour last year, and says playing them live shaped how the studio versions eventually came together.

For now the focus is a new tour that launches this month, including an Oct. 13 stop at the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles, a city Wolfhard says would feel different to him if he weren't a working actor there. He also has more film and directing work lined up, including projects with Matt Johnson and Bong Joon Ho, though he hasn't said when either will arrive.