{"id":194737,"date":"2025-10-12T10:52:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T10:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/194737\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T10:52:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T10:52:10","slug":"djo-on-privacy-candid-lyrics-and-life-after-stranger-things-trying-to-be-cool-is-like-chasing-your-own-tail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/194737\/","title":{"rendered":"Djo on privacy, candid lyrics, and life after Stranger Things: \u2018Trying to be cool is like chasing your own tail\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n

Your support makes all the difference.Read more<\/p>\n

Today, I am speaking with Djo the musician, not Joe Keery<\/a> the star of Stranger Things<\/a>. This fact is reiterated to me several times both before and after our interview. Fair enough, perhaps: it\u2019s tough to establish yourself in the music scene if you\u2019re forever being tied to the lovable jock you once played in your twenties. It helps that music is no passing vanity project for Keery \u2013 and also that his psychedelic indie pop is playful, heartfelt and ambitious, ranging far beyond his viral hit, 2022\u2019s \u201cEnd of Beginning\u201d, a bite of synth-pop deliciousness wrapped up in a nostalgia for Chicago. <\/p>\n

In Keery\u2019s mind, his two identities are not so separate. The impulse behind creating music and acting is \u201cpretty similar\u201d, the 33-year-old tells me via Zoom from the sofa of his New York City apartment. \u201cThere\u2019s definitely a bit of me that is probably running away from the silence,\u201d Keery goes on. \u201cWhen my brain gets still and quiet and I have that moment of like, \u2018I gotta do something!\u2019 Part of that is probably to do with a fear of death, you know, running away from something.\u201d <\/p>\n

Music isn\u2019t something he started on a whim. Keery already has three solo albums under his belt (four if you count the newly released deluxe version of The Crux, which we\u2019re here to talk about) and a further three with the Chicago psych-rock group Post Animal \u2013 a band he joined in 2014, a full year before he landed his life-changing role on Stranger Things. <\/p>\n

He has TikTok to thank for at least some of his success as a musician. Two years after its release, \u201cEnd of Beginning\u201d went viral on the platform, used by millions of people to soundtrack their wholesome travelogues and wistful meditations on childhood. That track rode the social media high all the way to No 4 in the UK charts, clocking over 1.5 billion streams in the process. \u201cIt was odd, but that\u2019s the world we live in,\u201d he says, having experienced the very online moment as someone very much offline. <\/p>\n

While \u201cEnd of Beginning\u201d holds a special place in his heart, everything Keery has recorded since sounds like a musician trying to wriggle free of that viral 60-second soundbite. Even in the space of six years, his musical taste careens around from the lo-fi, fuzzy psychedelia of his debut album, Twenty Twenty (2019) to the digital synthy sheen of Decide (2022) and the Seventies-textured soft rock of The Crux. Not for nothing, the same sentiment applies to his acting career; it\u2019s hard to think of a character more different to sweet Steve Harrington than the murderous rideshare driver Keery played in Spree or the power-hungry cowboy cop with daddy issues he embodied in Fargo. <\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time Keery and I are speaking. Back in April, we chatted over matcha lattes about what was then the imminent release of his third album, the power-pop leaning The Crux. Moments later, my phone was stolen and with it the recording of our interview. The only remnants of our meet-up were my hastily written notes: \u201cNice guy from Boston; cool rings; baseball cap; shirt and tie.\u201d Today over Zoom, the \u201cnice guy\u201d thing stands but he\u2019s traded in the outfit for bedhead and a plain white tee. <\/p>\n

Only a few months have passed and already Keery has followed The Crux up with a deluxe edition, comprising 12 new tracks that expand the universe of its predecessor. \u201cI thought it was a cool way to give people a peek behind the curtain at the songs that didn\u2019t make it,\u201d says Keery. \u201cIt\u2019s more for the fans.\u201d The two are sonically and lyrically tied \u2013 recorded at the same time at the legendary Electric Lady Studios in New York. <\/p>\n

The album is diverse in its tastes. Lead single \u201cMr Mountebank\u201d is a synth-loaded meditation on identity and performance, anchored in Keery\u2019s vocals Auto-Tuned to oblivion. \u201cCarry The Name\u201d, meanwhile, is a restrained guitar-led elegy. Like its namesake, this record wears its influences on its sleeve \u2013 Steely Dan, Tame Impala, Fleetwood Mac \u2013 albeit setting them in darker, moodier lighting. It\u2019s the night-time drive to The Crux\u2019s sunny road trip. <\/p>\n

\"Guitar<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Guitar hero: Joe Keery performs as Djo at Coachella music festival 2025 (Getty Images for Coachella)<\/p>\n

Recently, Keery has come around to life online \u2013 a little. \u201cThere\u2019s a balance to be struck because it definitely doesn\u2019t make you feel good,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s so easy to let it dominate your life and seep into everything you\u2019re doing then all of a sudden you\u2019re on your phone all the time.\u201d Striking that balance is more tricky in an era when artists are expected to market themselves online all the time. \u201cThere is pressure because that\u2019s the way things happen now, but I also think studios or labels or people trying to drum up that viral moment, they just want money,\u201d he says, sounding vaguely disgusted at the prospect. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve definitely missed out on acting stuff because I didn\u2019t have Instagram,\u201d Keery adds, noting that his team was urging him to make an account. \u201cWhat am I going to do \u2013 post pictures of models and fashion shoot s***? When people want to take advantage of your followers, it\u2019s just like this is so stupid. It felt like a real sell-out.\u201d It wasn\u2019t until his music started to take off that Keery felt there was a need for social media at all. True to his word, there is no fashion shoot s*** on his account. His approach is to be \u201cas uncool\u201d as possible. \u201cTrying to be relevant or trying to be cool is like chasing your own tail.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s less about being nervous over how everybody else will interpret the lyrics and more about decoding my own feelings in the process<\/p>\n

One reason Keery enjoys the music side of his career is the freedom it affords. The sort of freedom an actor seldom gets, certainly not one at the forefront of one of the biggest, most secretive shows in the world. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to be your own boss,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd that is in no way disparaging Stranger Things at all. I look up to Matt and Ross [Duffer, the creators] in a way that I hope they understand because I\u2019ve learnt so much from that whole process. But it\u2019s nice to put your own little flag in the ground and shoulder the responsibility in dragging something over the line creatively.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Back<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Back to school: Joe Keery (second left) as Steve Harrington in \u2018Stranger Things\u2019 (Tina Rowden\/Netflix)<\/p>\n

Songwriting is also cathartic. His early tracks like \u201cTentpole Shangrila\u201d (2019) were tied up in that dizzying experience of new fame, but now, he says, \u201cAs it\u2019s become a more naturalised part of my life, I\u2019m a little less shocked by it.\u201d His more recent releases traffic in themes more widely relatable: heartbreak, insecurity, authenticity, loneliness, nostalgia. And fans will almost certainly be zeroing in on the identity of the girl with a \u201cgap-tooth smile\u201d and \u201ckiller queen\u201d style on The Crux. (His ex, the actor Maika Monroe, has a perfect set.) <\/p>\n

What of his privacy? He is, after all, an artist who used to perform in wigs at gigs in a winking attempt at a little self-preservation. \u201cI think the job is bearing it all \u2013 or you\u2019ve got to try,\u201d says Keery. \u201cIt\u2019s less about being nervous over how everybody else will interpret the lyrics and more about decoding my own feelings in the process. That\u2019s what\u2019s hard.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Studio<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Studio time: Joe Keery has released four albums as Djo (CJ Harvey)<\/p>\n

One question he\u2019s still decoding: would the music have found its way, had his screen work not paved the path first? \u201cI mean, how can you not think about that?\u201d Keery says. \u201cAbsolutely I think about it, but I try to combat that in a bunch of different ways because you\u2019ll never know the answer. Living that question too much is thinking about the past and I think it\u2019s important to really live in the present.\u201d <\/p>\n

For better or worse, one chapter of his life is closing imminently with the final season of Stranger Things arriving in December. Keery is feeling \u201cpumped\u201d about people seeing the end, having recently watched one of the eight episodes for the first time. \u201cIt was a long shoot, lots of work, lots of waiting, lots of action stuff, and a lot of endings,\u201d he says, \u201ca lot of time spent being like, \u2018Wow this is the last time we\u2019re going to be doing all these different things.\u2019 So yeah it was really loaded, the whole thing. But it ended perfectly for me. I was extremely satisfied.\u201d As for signing up for another 10-year project, Keery, newly focused on his music, laughs. \u201cWell, not tomorrow\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2018The Crux Deluxe\u2019 is out now via AWAL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-194737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}