“It just feels really important to show people what I’m made of, especially at this stage of my life,” says Finn Wolfhard. You probably know him as Stranger Things’ Mike Wheeler, but he closed the door on that chapter with the end of Season 5 at the start of the year. The same month, he went into the studio to record his second solo album, ‘Fire From The Hip’, a rich, joyous collection of guitar-driven anthems that are delivered with a smirking sense of freedom.

Finn’s been in bands since he was a teenager. He formed Calpurnia in 2017. They released one EP before splitting the following year, after things stopped feeling fun. He kept making music with the band’s drummer, Malcolm Craig, though, and The Aubreys released their debut album in 2021. Originally, he was going to put out his debut solo album ‘Happy Birthday’ under a different name, but the record, which dealt with longing, loss and uncomfortable coming-of-age, felt too personal to be anything other than a Finn Wolfhard record. That, and coming up with new band names is hard.

“There’s a lot of comfort in hiding behind a project, but just going out and representing myself was important,” he tells Dork. It’s the same with ‘Fire From The Hip’. “Releasing music under your own name does make things more personal and vulnerable, but when a song connects with someone, it’s more of a victory. And that’s a really cool feeling.” It’s something he’s experienced before – how could you not when you’re leading one of the biggest shows in streaming history – but as meaningful as Stranger Things was for Finn, he was “a small piece in a bigger puzzle”. With this music, it’s all him.