Dylan Minnette: ‘Being a voice for a lot of people, sometimes it’s a lot’

Dylan Minnette, who has seven million Instagram followers and almost 900,000 on TikTok after playing Clay Jensen in Netflix hit 13 Reasons Why, has a complicated relationship with social media.

Dylan Minnette has a complicated relationship with social media.

The Wallows band member and actor is conflicted because he can see the benefits, and the very clear negatives, of the various platforms.

“On one hand, I do love being able to connect to fans and be able to see what they’re saying, what they think and read things that mean a lot to me about us and how we help them,” Minnette told Insider.

“That’s like my favourite part about it. My other favourite part about it is just being able to just scroll anonymously and read articles and read about new music and things like that and not have to worry about … it is kind of why I made my Twitter account private.

I’m like, I don’t have anything to say. I want to go read my things that I follow. But also there is this pressure of like, oh man, if I post more, is everything going to be like performing better or is it better if I don’t?”

Dylan Minnette (left) as a member of US rockband Wallows. Picture: AFP

Minnette has seven million followers on Instagram and just under 900,000 on TikTok. His profile grew exponentially off the back of playing Clay Jensen in hit Netflix TV drama, 13 Reasons Why.

“The pressure of, you know, being a voice for a lot of people sometimes, it’s a lot,” he said. “I’ve found that the more I don’t think about it and don’t overthink it the better. That’s really it.”

Minnette is one third of Wallows alongside bandmates Braeden Lemasters and Cole Preston, both of whom have sizeable social media followings themselves but not in the millions.

The trio spoke to Insider via Zoom from their respective bedrooms in Los Angeles for the release of the group’s much anticipated third studio album, Model.

New single, You, is also out now and they will tour Australia in December, playing Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion on the 12th of that month.

Wallows’ music style has been described everything from indie pop to surf punk, indie rock, power pop, alternative rock and post punk.

Wallows are Dylan Minnette, Braeden Lemasters and Cole Preston. Picture: Nikoli Partiyeli

They’ve cited the likes of Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes and The Smiths and influences.

“I think the point of alternative is it’s some sort of subgenre of rock and or pop, and so it just becomes alternative,” Lemasters said.

“(although) Not surf punk, I don’t think we’ve ever made a surf punk song ever.”

Labels aside, the boys are excited about the new album.

“I think it just puts on display more so than ever the band that we’ve become,” Preston explained.

“We’ve been a band for seven years, which feels like a long time to me, but also like, no time. And we’ve experienced all the things that bands do.

Wallows’ music style has been described everything from indie pop to surf punk, indie rock, power pop, alternative rock and post punk. Picture: Anthony Pham

We’ve been on tour and made records and so I think that we’ve reached a point where, this record feels like the sum of all of our experience. I think we feel a little bit more aware who we are. I think we’ve all grown up a lot as individuals and also as bandmates and songwriters.”

They also sound different.

“But also maybe more like wallows than ever,” Preston noted.

Minnette says the lyrics of the latest album are more optimistic. Picture: Aidan Zamiri

Minnette said: “The music and the lyrics feel more confident and assured and maybe smarter. I feel like that’s what we set out to do. Overall it ended up becoming mostly a very optimistic album in the lyrics and it’s I think lighter than usual for our albums.”

One of Australia’s biggest music exports, 5 Seconds of Summer, have said they will be one of the top stadium bands in the world. The Aussie lads are around the same age as the Wallows trio.

“We are not expecting anything,” Lemasters said. “We haven’t expected anything since day one and it has worked out for us so far so we would never fight it or deny it.

“That’d be awesome but for us to even be playing the venues we are on this tour is mind blowing so if it stays like this, amazing. If it goes beyond and its Coldplay level, let’s rock and roll.”

Wallows’ Model is out now. They play Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion on December 12.