Elijah Wood, 31, successfully made the transition from delightful child star to quirky, deft adult actor. The blue-eyed star of the off-beat TV show Wilfred has also grown creatively off the screen: he has his own music label, is building up a roster of deejaying gigs, and recently releasing a music compilation on vinyl for Bushmills Irish Whiskey’s “Since Way Back” campaign.

“Last year I started this thing where I had record parties,” he told Parade.com. “Friends would come over, everyone would bring a stack of vinyl, and you would get a turn at the turntable to play songs. It’s as much as a social experience as it is to get a chance to hear records you’ve never heard before.”

His appreciation for 45s didn’t occur until he was in his mid-to-late twenties. ” I was traveling a lot and carrying a lot of music with me so it was more CDs then,” he explained. “More than anything vinyl had impact on me a little later in life. We live in a world where most of the music we listen to is through playlists or iPods or Pandora. All of these mediums where it’s relatively scattershot and we’re not listening to albums in the same way we’re used to. The great thing about vinyl is it’s an active listening process. It’s dropping a physical needle on a physical disc and you actually have to be present enough to flip it to the other side.”

As for his own music talents, don’t hold your breath to catch him onstage: ” I don’t play amy instruments. I’ve never really dabbled in performing or playing music though to me, deejaying is an extension of that.”

He was more than game though to return to his Frodo Baggins character for the upcoming The Hobbit.

“It felt like home,” he said. “I think after so much time had passed, it was also quite surreal. But I think the most surreal thing about it is that it felt oddly normal. I think I expected it to feel like eight years had passed and in a way it felt like no time had passed. In that way, it really surprised me. It was like a family reunion. It was like stepping back in time. It was a gift. It was really wonderful to revisit old friends and be in that space again. And not having the responsibility of three movies. It was nice to pop in and pop out and have a lovely visit.”

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