Existential Boozer: A Proustian pint with Finn Wolfhard
Soho, London, in the 1970s, was one of the most vibrant places in the world. Music was alive to the sound of diversity, and England’s capital bottled up that essence and poured it all over a small neighbourhood in the very beating heart of its city.
David Bowie, Marc Bolan, and The Rolling Stones all bounced between recording studios, gig venues and pubs, rarely leaving the borders of Soho to do so and in turn, turning every cobble in the street into a piece of cultural iconography. But while all of it was exciting, we can’t, as proper Britons, look past the pubs when it comes to the storytelling of that time.
If you were lucky enough to wander into The Ship on Wardour Street around ‘73, you would have found David Bowie or maybe even Ziggy Stardust propping up the bar in his favourite watering hole, enjoying either a light ale or a gin martini with a twist, which was rumoured to be his favourite drink. These pubs were the very lifeblood of rock and roll culture in London, and while times have changed ever so slightly, you can still soak in that feeling on a good day in modern Soho.
A hot Wednesday in June happened to be one of those good days when bona fide A-lister and future rockstar Finn Wolfhard strolled into The Queens Head in Peckham to enjoy a Proustian chat for Far Out’s Existential Boozer. Rather aptly, Wolfhard chose a Guinness, the cultural tipple of choice at the moment, and got stuck wholly into British pub culture, with sports, music and general shit-talking all on order as we welcomed him into the Existential Boozer.
With Stranger Things firmly in the rear view mirror and Wolfhard’s place in the cultural lexicon confirmed, it was time to learn what really made him tick. Proust’s questionnaire did just that, revealing some of the most personal memories of the actor turned musician, but also opening up some of the factors that inspired his upcoming second album, Fire From The Hip.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
“To be surrounded by friends and family, and honestly, like no thinking. I don’t want to think just exist, and yeah, I would love for that to be my reality all the time”.
What is your greatest fear?
“Making the wrong decision. Even though I know the idea of making mistakes is an integral part of being like an actual human being. But I guess, decision paralysis or second-guessing. I second-guess myself. I don’t like disappointing people.”
“As far as real-life things? I don’t know if I would skydive. I think if it’s one of my best friends, and it’s like, it’s my birthday. We’re going. Maybe I would do it, but something like that. I mean, I would do that way more than a bungee jump.”
Well, you don’t see the ground diving. It’s kind of like just jumping into the abyss, which is scary in itself.
“For sure”.
Which living person do you most admire?
“Man, that’s a really good question. Should I hit the classic answer, which is my dad, I guess. I love my dad. Admire him. I think he’s an amazing guy, and yeah, I would say probably him. But I also have a few friends that are older mentor figures in my life that I’ve been very lucky to have.”
What is your greatest extravagance?
“Maybe vintage clothes or something. I’ve spent a decent amount of money on vintage clothes, but even then, I try not to go too crazy. Maybe guitars. Guitars are really the only thing that I’ve really spent money on. I just have a bunch of them, but none of them are crazy collectors. None of them are, ‘Oh, this Les Paul’s 300,000′ whatever. A lot of them are just shitty Japanese guitars, but that’s kind of extravagant.”
Are there any songs on your upcoming album Fire From The Hip that have been written on any of these guitars?
“All of them, yeah. I mean, but honestly, what was so super cool was we recorded at the studio that actually In Utero was recorded at“.
Oh wow.
“Which was so cool because it just was, you could hear the drum sound, and everything was so cool. It was just cool to feel the history. I don’t know if they have much gear anymore that was there. But the studio was super cool, and they just had insane stuff lying around; they just had a 1965 Gibson SG, and it’s just so cool. It was kind of…we were spoiled when it came to the gear. So it was really funny because my engineer and the guy who mixed it, Andrew, there would just be guitars littered throughout the whole control room, and it would just be taking up so much space. He’s like ‘Finn, can you stop? Can you just fucking pick one guitar and do that for the whole album?!’ I’m like, ‘No!'”
What is your current state of mind?
“I would say optimistically worried. I’m happy and excited about things, but also worried at the same time”.
I feel like that’s the healthy place that all creatives live? On that edge…
“You need to have a little bit of worry and anxiety, but yeah, not too much for sure”.
What is the quality you most like in a person?
“Sense of humour for sure. I think comedy for me is a big way of getting through life and things, but also, you know, compassion, being able to listen to someone. I find the same qualities that I like in friends are the same, you know, that I would find in any person.”
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
“I feel sometimes I’ll be like ‘Truly!’ don’t need to be saying that. Truly. I’ll be telling a story, and someone will say, ‘Oh, that’s yeah, whatever, that’s crazy’, or ‘That sounds super boring’ or whatever it is, and I’m like ‘Truly, truly!'”
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
“Honestly, I’m not even joking right now, probably the Toronto Blue Jays”.
Big baseball fan?
“Yeah, in the last four years, it’s really come back up, and for whatever reason, I’m just right now into it and obsessed”.
I watched a baseball game in Chicago once, and the guy next to me was talking me through the rules as I was watching it and said towards the end, ‘You’ve watched a bad one here. You might as well go’.
“Was it a super boring one?”
Yeah, not a lot happened. And I get that that happens in sport. But he was just like, ‘Write that one off’.
“Honestly, if you ever get the chance, just go to a playoff game”.
When and where were you happiest?
“I mean, honestly, Disneyland is pretty fucking awesome. Disneyland is so fun. Yeah. I’m always happy at Disneyland”.
Space Mountain…?
“How can you not be happy there? It’s kind of, you’re not thinking about anything else”.
Just full throttle adrenaline…
“Yeah, I mean, I get that sometimes if I’m writing and I’m really into something, I’m really honed in on something or I have found a good stride. Writing is also really fun too”.
Which talent would you most like to have?
“I think there’s a lot. I’d like to be good at drawing. Honestly…playing drums. That’s one that’s so hard to be good at. And it’s something that you just either you have it, or you don’t”.
They always look like they’re having the most fun on stage.
“Yeah, but it’s also the hardest. You have to be in it, or else everything falls apart. So it’s definitely the most pressure in a band. But yeah, drums”.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
“Honestly, 15% less in my head. Because I’m worried about things sometimes, and I can have second thoughts or anxiety or whatever, but some of it’s not necessary. I just want the necessary amount for me”.
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
“Maybe a cat”.
That’s good. Nine lives…
“Nine lives. And then, you get a good family. You live for a long time… Sleep”.
Where would you most like to live, if you weren’t a cat and you were still Finn Wolfhard?
“I would like to live in London for a bit. I’d like to live here. I’d like to try my hand in Chicago. Canada, also. I love Vancouver, where I’m from. I don’t know if I would leave”.
That’s a great sign. What is your most treasured possession?
“I definitely have some Stranger Things stuff that I love. I have my bike from the first season, which is really cool and I have a few older signed records that I really like as well”.
Any particular records?
“This isn’t signed, but I have a first edition White Album, which I really love”.
Damn. Have you got a favourite track from that record?
“‘Happiness Is Warm a Gun’ is really good, ‘For No One’ is really good. Honestly, maybe ‘Dear Prudence’ might be my favourite on that record”.
What is your favourite occupation?
“Doctor is pretty cool, or oil painter. Someone that can just do incredible… That’s another thing, I wish I could do as well, painting”.
What is your most marked characteristic?
“I have no idea. You tell me”.
I’ve known you for about an hour now… I would say quick wit, sense of humour.
“We’ll take that! Great sense of humour”.
Who are your favourite writers?
“There’s a writer named Nathan Hill, who did a book called The Nix, which is one of my favourite books ever. I read a lot of screenplays because I’m a big film fan. So I love Paul Thomas Anderson’s scripts. I think he’s amazing, one of the best ever. I mean, those two are definitely huge inspirations, but, yeah, obviously songwriters, Lennon, McCartney, all The Beatles.”
Do you have a favourite Beatles song?
“It changes so much. I think, ‘In My Life’, it’s probably the best written, but a favourite of mine is probably ‘Ticket to Ride’ or something. That was my first introduction into The Beatles. But there’s so many obviously amazing songs off every album, it’s kind of nuts.”
Who is your hero of fiction?
“I’ll just say, for now, Jack Black’s character, Dewey Finn, from School of Rock. That the coolest thing ever”.
I’m a little bit older than you, but I still think there’s a window of our generation where that was our gateway into music.
Me too.
Dewey Finn was the guy who taught me everything I know, which is not very much… What is your motto?
All the ones that are coming into my head, they’re all joke ones. So I’ll just say…
Fire from the hip?
Fire from the hip.
One for the road, what is your favourite British band of all time? And you can’t say The Beatles…
I’ll just say five from the top of my head. Let’s see. Buzzcocks, The Clash…there’s a billion. Happy Mondays, New Order, Joy Division.
That’s five.
That’s the top five. Then also, they’re interchangeable with some other ones that I’ll remember later.
