Up next in 10
Caleb McLaughlin Of Stranger Things On Making Music, New Single “Neighborhood” & Working with Mario
Nov 30, 2021
Caleb McLaughlin has grown up in front of our eyes as one of the stars of the hit Netflix series “Stranger Things”. And with him expanding his cinematic portfolio with whispers of movies like Spider-Man No Way Home, he is also dabbling in music as well. He recently dropped his first single “Neighborhood”. The young star called into Sway In The Morning to talk about his partnership with United Masters and working with Mario.
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0:00
[Applause]
0:00
yeah man that young man he does sound
0:02
like an old soul but how can you be an
0:04
old soul when you're only 20 years old
0:07
we got caleb mclaughlin with us right
0:09
now ladies and gentlemen caleb what up
0:11
hey caleb
0:14
wait hold up man talk louder i can't
0:16
hear you say something go ahead go say
0:17
talk talk talk might check it might
0:19
check it
0:20
can you hear me now can you hear me i
0:22
can hear you yes sir there he is man how
0:24
you doing young man what's up
0:27
how are you guys thank you for having me
0:29
thank you thank you
0:31
come on man you know super mario's
0:33
family too
0:34
um i i i had to uh have you on i miss
0:37
you you know it's been a while i've been
0:39
looking at your instagram a whole lot
0:41
and just
0:42
man when i look at your instagram man
0:44
it's never really been the time where i
0:45
wanted to go back to my teens or my 20s
0:48
but when i look at your instagram
0:51
i sometimes go wow what would it be like
0:53
to be in my 20s my teens or my 20s and
0:56
hanging out with caleb in 2021 man you
0:59
seem like you have a lot of freedom in
1:01
your life am i misreading this
1:04
no no no not at all i feel like my life
1:07
is pretty good you know i grew up on a
1:10
great foundation a great family and i'm
1:12
you know
1:13
i just you know i see the world in like
1:15
you know such a positive way i always
1:17
see the light in the world so i don't
1:19
think you're you're misleading i'm not
1:20
misleading you at all not at all
1:24
that's interesting man i'm sorry tracy
1:26
you know because you know i am a parent
1:28
and at some point
1:30
you know we got to make a decision a
1:32
conscious decision of uh when are we
1:35
going to stop interjecting perhaps as
1:37
much
1:38
and then let your child get out there
1:40
and and get their wings you know tinged
1:43
a little bit from the sun you know or
1:45
let the child go out there and and and
1:48
just kind of take the lumps on their own
1:51
like how much do your parents interject
1:54
in the decisions you make in your life
1:56
right now like if if you want to go
1:58
travel do you got to get permission if
2:00
you
2:01
you want to you know tr try different
2:03
occupations
2:04
yeah yeah um i would say they didn't let
2:08
me
2:08
have that freedom until maybe like
2:11
a year or two ago
2:13
um not not that they didn't let me have
2:15
freedom but it's it's oh it's just
2:17
always been structure in my house and
2:19
we're a family so anything that we all
2:21
do we just make sure we're kind of we
2:23
always make sure
2:24
we are communicative and we're letting
2:26
each other know that what we're about to
2:28
do but now that i'm like 20 i'm a young
2:31
man they
2:32
they're allowing me to have that freedom
2:34
and they're not you know stopping me
2:35
from doing anything that i i need to do
2:37
and also i keep telling them i need them
2:39
to trust their parenting so they don't
2:41
have to worry about me like parents
2:43
worry about like oh my gosh will they be
2:45
able to do it on their own but i'm like
2:46
don't forget you raised me you have to
2:48
trust your parents and you guys are
2:49
great parents so you have to trust what
2:51
you guys have done and what you guys
2:52
taught me growing up
2:54
i'm writing this down go ahead tracy i'm
2:55
writing this down right now
2:57
yes
2:58
have faith because they put so much
3:01
pressure on themselves and and listen i
3:03
get it caleb i guess it's because a lot
3:05
of parents their children are an
3:07
extension of them literally but also how
3:09
the world sees it so if you get in
3:11
trouble it's also the parents getting in
3:13
trouble you know what i mean the same
3:15
way how your win is also their win and i
3:18
think also
3:19
their fields you know how
3:21
before gen z came and there was always a
3:24
different think piece about millennials
3:26
and what are they doing here why are
3:28
they like this like everyone was so
3:30
confused as to this new generation
3:33
called millennials and now we see that
3:36
same type of um
3:38
curiosity in some ways concerns about
3:41
gen z because you guys have such a
3:44
a community where you can find where you
3:46
don't have to like hang out with the
3:48
adults what are some of the things that
3:51
the hot topics that you and your friends
3:54
talk about
3:55
at 20 especially when you're an old soul
3:57
are you guys like having is extensional
4:00
like crises at all or are you guys like
4:03
talking about kanye and drake reuniting
4:06
what are some of those topics like in
4:08
your group chats
4:10
like honestly it changes every day
4:13
because the world that we're exposed to
4:15
is so uh so broad like back in the day
4:18
you guys don't have social media so
4:20
we're exposed to so much uh i mean man
4:23
the conversation changes every day from
4:25
like 2k to like you know the next album
4:28
that's dropping to um uh like you know
4:32
anything that you know the world is uh
4:35
kind of uh thrown off by it's it's like
4:38
everything you know it's kind of hard to
4:39
really say anything specific if like the
4:42
people that i'm around at least we try
4:44
to talk about like serious things that
4:46
will help us in the future we talk about
4:48
our goals
4:49
um
4:50
like
4:51
our mentals
4:53
um
4:54
i always try to when i'm talking to
4:56
people i always try to uh
4:57
i always try to receive something from i
4:59
don't like to leave a conversation
5:01
without learning anything or
5:03
feeling like i've gotten something from
5:04
the conversation so i always try to make
5:06
sure the conversation is uh something of
5:09
substance but also i just fool around
5:11
too so i'm not gonna act like i'm gonna
5:12
sound like i'm just this great kid i'm a
5:14
great i'm a cool guy i'm a good guy i
5:16
feel like i am right but i mean i still
5:18
mess around you know talking my friends
5:19
about you know just funny stuff anything
5:22
but it's kind of hard to find anything
5:24
specific yeah i hear you what was like
5:26
the last thing that
5:28
um you someone taught you and the last
5:30
thing that you taught someone else
5:34
oh
5:35
man um
5:38
what's the last thing that someone
5:40
taught me it's it's definitely something
5:42
deep oh man what is it exactly though
5:46
um
5:50
yeah them gen z they don't be talking
5:51
until i talk about nothing tracy you
5:53
can't even come up with nothing
5:55
he's at every exchange
5:57
he teaches that he learns so i'm putting
6:00
you to the test caleb he can't go i
6:02
believe you don't because you're talking
6:03
to mad people all the time so
6:06
yeah i'm just
6:08
you know man it's like
6:11
dang i was trying to think because
6:13
well recently like last week i
6:16
kind of lost my family and i lost our
6:18
cat and it was it was a weird situation
6:22
it was last wednesday and
6:25
his death
6:27
was very interesting
6:29
it almost seemed like he was a lesson
6:32
and
6:33
it was more like
6:35
because that when it was last wednesday
6:37
right yeah and when he died
6:40
it was super sad the whole household
6:42
changed the whole energy of the
6:43
household changed but then in my head i
6:45
thought like wow
6:47
life isn't bad as as bad as we think it
6:50
is life is some some things i'm not
6:52
going to disregard anything that's
6:53
happening in people's lives or anything
6:55
but when something like that happens to
6:57
you your whole mood change your energy
6:59
changes because you're not used to it
7:00
because most of the time life is good
7:02
like you're having a good time
7:05
so i was like wow life is actually great
7:07
you know i'm saying like this moment
7:08
right now sucks because i'm not used to
7:11
it being bad i'm used to just going the
7:13
way you know
7:15
like you wake up you eat you're having a
7:17
decent day a good day but like i just
7:19
had to sit back and like thank god like
7:20
wow my life is good but i know like my
7:23
cat just died and everything i i feel
7:25
like horrible but i just had to sit back
7:27
and really just thank god about like my
7:29
blessings and that was like a deep thing
7:31
that i just learned recently
7:33
give that man a round of applause he got
7:35
one that was that was he you know um
7:37
i'm sorry about the loss of your cat man
7:39
my first pet caleb was a cat named tommy
7:42
oh yes yeah yeah and so um i've always
7:45
had a special place in my heart um for
7:48
cats and you know ironically we got one
7:51
more thing in common with us brother you
7:53
know different generations but well so
7:55
much alike
7:57
listen i want to ask you we were talking
7:58
about iman schampert who just won
8:00
dancing with the stars and
8:03
from outside appearances it looked like
8:05
he stepped out of his comfort zone
8:07
uh to challenge himself and and he came
8:09
out victorious and when i listen to you
8:12
and i'm watching you sing on your
8:14
instagram and i see the new video for
8:16
neighborhood i'm curious to you know
8:18
most people
8:19
know you from acting
8:21
you know and you've done extremely well
8:23
at acting
8:24
how long did it take you to finally make
8:26
the decision to put out music
8:29
it took well i hopped in the studio
8:31
about four years ago so it took me a
8:34
minute and even before that but
8:36
um i mean as you i came onto the show a
8:39
couple of years ago because i was
8:41
promoting new audition stories so i
8:42
always feel that you know not always
8:44
about music has always been in my life
8:47
but just pursuing it as a career has
8:49
i hadn't really thought about it until
8:51
like four years ago but once i was able
8:53
to get comfortable in the studio and i
8:55
was like all right like two years ago
8:56
that's when i was like i'm getting
8:57
comfortable let's start making music my
8:59
sound and what i want to talk about and
9:01
who is caleb you know
9:03
um but like music has always been a part
9:05
of me it's just i needed to get to the
9:06
point of where i'm at right now
9:08
did you um you know when you when this
9:11
happens you know you're always going to
9:12
have your naysayers you know what i mean
9:14
yeah um
9:15
you know you're switching something
9:17
people comfortable seeing you one way
9:18
that ain't how you see yourself
9:20
and i'm curious do you pay attention to
9:22
the comments or the critics you know
9:24
that you're going to get or you probably
9:26
received have you paid attention to that
9:27
or how do you cope with that um
9:30
nah i actually haven't i have not been
9:33
look i've looked at i've only seeing
9:35
good stuff but i never really look in it
9:37
too much because you know you know i
9:38
don't want you i don't allow people to
9:40
get into my head and i honestly can't
9:42
cater what people
9:44
if people have bad thoughts about what i
9:46
want to do in my life i can't like feed
9:49
into it i have to keep going this is
9:51
what i want to do in my life you know in
9:53
my career a lot of people aren't used to
9:55
me singing but i am just gonna be
9:57
singing i grew up singing in my
9:58
household like my dad is a trained
10:00
classical opera singer and wow and also
10:03
i was on broadway for two years um so
10:05
it's like maybe they're not used to it
10:07
but i can get them used to it so i'm not
10:09
gonna look at the negative like oh
10:11
you're sick to acting or i don't know
10:13
but like
10:14
uh i've never heard you sing before i'm
10:16
not sure if i like the music i i can't
10:18
feed into that that's not that's not
10:20
what i'm supposed to do i'm supposed to
10:21
continue to do what i want to do and
10:23
what i fell in love with i fell in love
10:25
with the art and i'm going to continue
10:26
to do that i like it man round of
10:29
applause man caleb mclaughlin is here i
10:32
love it
10:33
right and he's doing okay
10:35
are you also writing a lot the majority
10:37
of your music as well caleb
10:40
oh yeah i mean i have the producer i'm
10:42
working with rashad music he's helping
10:44
me a lot like i'm learning the studio
10:46
i'm learning how to bring a production
10:48
together writing the the song and making
10:50
it make sense um i'm definitely had a
10:52
lot big face on of what i want to say
10:55
and what beats and music that we're
10:57
going to do together um but uh yeah so
11:01
i'm i'm co-writing i'm i'm helping a lot
11:03
out a lot and also there's songs that
11:04
have been written for me this is also
11:07
yeah this is definitely a new world of
11:08
studio world and uh making music in like
11:11
the pop r b or
11:13
neo soul soul uh lane but uh yeah i'm
11:16
excited for you me too man and i'm
11:19
excited you're doing it with united
11:21
masters which means you're doing this
11:22
independently um yeah united masters
11:26
platform so
11:27
does that mean you
11:29
formed your own
11:31
company or you have your own team that's
11:33
working your music or is just you
11:36
um i have a team that's working with my
11:38
music mario he's uh my music manager and
11:42
rashad and we just we've all been in the
11:44
studio together with my dad and
11:46
everything and um just you know we're
11:47
just doing it independently uh
11:49
company uh maybe that's in the future
11:52
but right now we're just creating vibes
11:54
in my town um haven't gone that far but
11:57
you know you always got to be thank you
11:58
for letting me know because i have to be
12:00
like
12:01
10 steps ahead of my thoughts and you
12:04
know so
12:06
yeah we haven't thought that far
12:08
super mario mario is on somebody who's
12:11
been in the business matter of fact him
12:12
a round of applause man he's
12:14
instrumental in a lot of careers that's
12:16
broke you know actually we were talking
12:18
about you we were at the wrap party for
12:20
the wu-tang clan saga
12:22
season one i think and rich knights and
12:25
mario and i bumped into each other and
12:26
we would he was telling me you had this
12:28
on this music coming out
12:30
and um
12:32
he kept saying i can't wait for you to
12:33
hear it then i see it and i watch this
12:35
video for neighborhood which is the song
12:37
that's out right now see it's a citizen
12:39
so make sure you support it and tracy i
12:42
see my young caleb you know stepping up
12:44
to the plate and i i kind of like seeing
12:47
you with you know young girls and look
12:49
like you out there and you know you got
12:51
some swap you know caleb you got some
12:53
suave about you man
12:55
i didn't know
12:56
somebody
12:57
huh remind you of your younger self
13:01
and riding bikes
13:02
they don't know who caleb is
13:04
i'm introducing them to who that person
13:06
is so
13:06
okay
13:08
i like it man do you get a chance to
13:09
date like is it hard for you i know
13:12
you're going to say i'm not thinking
13:13
about that right now i'm focused on my
13:15
career
13:18
because that's what i'm thinking about
13:20
that's not it
13:21
i'm not gonna say that i'm gonna focus
13:23
on my career i'm gonna balance it out
13:25
i'm not i'm not that guy uh but
13:28
yeah i mean i mean you know
13:30
i mean yeah it's always you know yeah
13:33
yeah yeah yeah yeah wow caleb damn he
13:36
gotta get ready for that answer hey bro
13:38
let's practice that tracy you you try a
13:40
different angle for him crazy we gotta
13:42
practice that now let's do it on there
13:43
go ahead tracey hit him again from a
13:44
different angle oh with the same
13:46
question different angle yeah yeah
13:48
something yeah
13:49
okay caleb would you say at this point
13:52
in your life
13:54
you are fine entertaining
13:57
some young ladies
13:59
maybe even one lady right now
14:03
you know i'm a one lady kind of person
14:05
um but uh you know maybe i am maybe i'm
14:08
not i don't know you know what i'm
14:09
saying like i'm all you know
14:12
man you know saying like it's just what
14:15
it is you keeping your options open
14:17
caleb is that is that what it is
14:20
my options may be closing right now
14:22
that's the thing but it's open so i
14:24
can't i don't want to you know what i'm
14:26
saying i don't know hey but listen i may
14:28
be telling the story in my next song so
14:31
stay tuned okay there you go i like how
14:33
you wrap that around he in a situation
14:36
[Laughter]
14:38
my young homie right here man i gotta
14:41
get we gotta do this interview in person
14:43
because i wouldn't let you off the hook
14:44
so easy db uh you want to jump in
14:48
yeah uh so caleb um i wanted to ask
14:50
about um
14:52
you know success can be sort of a
14:53
double-edged sword and the success of
14:55
stranger things is great you know on on
14:57
the one hand because it's enabled you to
15:00
you know branch out and do other things
15:02
it's been successful for you financially
15:04
in that sort of aspect but on the same
15:06
side you know eventually the show will
15:08
end and you're gonna have to you know
15:10
continue your career whether it's in
15:12
music whether it's in acting whether
15:13
it's both and so i wanted to ask about
15:16
uh you know some actors even though fans
15:19
love them for you know whether it be a a
15:22
huge movie or a huge series that they
15:24
were part of a lot of actors kind of
15:26
want to
15:27
get away from that image and not be
15:29
pigeonholed so have you been thinking
15:30
about like okay once i'm done with this
15:32
stranger things portion of my life and
15:35
my career what is it what's the next
15:37
step do i want to go completely left and
15:39
do some crazy horror well not hard but
15:41
uh like a romantic comedy or do i want
15:44
to just focus on music for a while like
15:46
like what's your where's your head at
15:47
with that
15:49
um i never try to worry about that too
15:51
much because i don't want to i
15:54
never try to have any type of worries or
15:56
fears because that's that's how you
15:57
manifest those uh worries or fears that
16:00
you have um
16:02
but i just try to let god make the
16:04
decision to let you know
16:06
how i feel in my art how i artist like
16:09
when i'm creating and how i my artistic
16:12
flow i just make i just try to
16:15
go with the flow i don't really try to
16:16
force anything
16:17
and also i'm doing this music now also a
16:20
movie that i was just in on netflix came
16:22
out this year called concrete cowboy um
16:26
i just did that
16:28
um nice so i just try to make sure i'm
16:31
not trying to like rush out there well i
16:32
need to do this and i need to do this
16:33
movie i need to do this song i just like
16:35
you know if everything's going to fall
16:37
in place
16:38
where
16:39
it will fall in place where it needs to
16:41
go so i'm not going to rush the process
16:44
i'm chilling you feel me
16:46
oh man i love this guy man i wish i had
16:49
your mind at 20. i was stressed the hell
16:51
out not knowing what's happening next
16:54
i can't stress that i can't stress that
16:56
you can't control that
16:58
we'll see
17:00
well those are the kind of advancements
17:02
i think we've made as a community and as
17:04
a society and how we deal with our
17:06
mental health you know so when i was 20
17:08
you know some years ago caleb i don't
17:11
even bother doing the math um it was a
17:14
lot of tools
17:16
a lot of tools and resources that we
17:19
weren't aware of that we didn't have
17:20
access to not all of us at least and so
17:23
i love how your mind has developed and
17:25
um the way you think at this age man we
17:28
could learn from you bro no matter what
17:30
age we are i'm learning from you right
17:32
now and i'm very proud of you and i want
17:34
to say continued success i still got the
17:36
jacket you gifted me you had no idea
17:39
what it meant
17:40
i can't get mine anymore
17:42
it's too small i'll take it but damn
17:44
okay wow
17:47
all right
17:49
uh but look i'm so glad you got that
17:50
jacket absolutely it's a beautiful
17:52
jacket man um the single music videos
17:55
neighborhood uh caleb mclaughlin and
17:58
then he's with us right now you know him
18:00
from stranger things
18:02
by the way uh stranger things before
18:04
scheduled to be released on netflix in
18:06
mid
18:07
2022 but in the meantime get the song
18:10
caleb i can't wait to have you come in
18:11
the studio do something live with us all
18:13
right yes yes sir thank you guys thank
18:16
you i can't wait
18:17
all right anything you want you want to
18:19
say in closing
18:22
do i want to say anything yeah
18:24
oh i mean thank you for having me and um
18:27
i hope you guys enjoy the neighborhood
18:28
and stay tuned to the rest of my music
18:31
and
18:32
everything that i have coming soon
18:34
appreciate you appreciate you tell your
18:36
pops i said what up tomorrow i said what
18:38
up all right my man i will i will i got
18:40
you all right you and you a citizen i
18:43
swear in the morning
18:44
come on man i love this kid man i'mma
18:47
stop saying kid when i say kid i mean
18:49
from a hip-hop place
18:55
[Music]
19:06
you
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