Who Is Djo? The Shape-Shifting Identity of Joe Keery’s Musical Double Life
Photo by Frazer Harrison/Scott Legato/Getty Images
Before the sunglasses, the psychedelic visuals, and the warped falsetto, Joe Keery was best known for his role as Steve Harrington on Stranger Things—a performance that helped cement him as a breakout television star. But while the pop culture world zeroed in on the hair and the Hawkins nostalgia, Keery was already building something stranger, more introspective, and far more personal: Djo.
Djo isn’t just a side project or a vanity outlet. It’s an evolving musical identity that fuses psych-pop, lo-fi indie, and electronic textures into a sound that is both referential and original. With two full-length albums (Twenty Twenty in 2019, DECIDE in 2022) and a third on the way (The Crux, releasing 4/4/25), Djo has emerged as one of the most compelling, self-contained acts in modern independent music.
From Post-Animal to Persona
Keery’s music career didn’t begin with Djo—it started in Chicago’s psych-rock collective Post Animal, where he played guitar and contributed to the band’s 2018 debut When I Think of You in a Castle. Post Animal channeled the heavy, fuzzed-out lineage of Tame Impala and King Gizzard, but Keery’s sensibilities leaned more inward—melodic, introspective, and production-driven.
After departing the group, Keery launched Djo with a carefully crafted veil of anonymity. Early live performances and social media posts obscured his identity entirely. The goal wasn’t mystery for its own sake—it was to shift focus away from celebrity and toward sound. And the sound was striking:
Warped synths and woozy, VHS-toned textures
Pitch-shifted vocals and distorted falsetto
Themes of identity fragmentation, tech-drenched anxiety, and inner dissonance
Djo as Commentary: A Persona with Purpose
Much like David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust or Damon Albarn’s work with Gorillaz, Djo is a mask that reveals rather than hides. The music explores what it means to live in a mediated, hyper-visible world, where identity is layered, performed, and sometimes disassociated.
On Twenty Twenty, Djo leaned into shimmering nostalgia. The album was filled with soft detachment and sonic references to Ariel Pink, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and early-80s psych-pop. DECIDE, released three years later, was more propulsive, thematically darker, and driven by rhythmic experimentation. If Twenty Twenty was a fogged mirror, DECIDE was a cracked one—distortion, reflection, and fragments of self.
Through it all, Djo’s music has remained surprisingly emotionally sincere. Beneath the stylistic affectation and retro sheen is a real attempt to understand something about being young, online, famous, and unsure.
The Crux Is Coming: What’s at Stake
Now, with The Crux set for release, Djo stands at a pivotal moment. The lead singles—“End of Beginning,” “Figure You Out,” “On and On”—suggest a continuation of the sonic polish of DECIDE, but with warmer tones and deeper melodic exploration. The themes seem more grounded, more human.
And with the Djo persona now fully accepted—not just tolerated as an actor’s side project—the stakes feel higher. The Crux isn’t a debut, and it’s not a curiosity. It’s an artist’s third act. A chance to unify sound, story, and self.
Why It Matters to the Vinyl Community
Djo’s albums aren’t just sonic experiences—they’re visual, tactile, and designed with the physical format in mind. Both Twenty Twenty and DECIDE saw thoughtful vinyl pressings with unique artwork and vibrant color variants. For collectors, they’re modern artifacts: music made by someone who understands that in a digital world, physicality matters more than ever.
As Moose Vinyl builds toward the release of The Crux, we’re looking not just at a new record, but a new chapter in one of the most quietly ambitious projects in independent music. Djo isn’t a gimmick. It’s a mirror. A mask. A statement.
And this week, it becomes something more.
