“I'm not trying to live in the past”

ORna recent trip to Australia, Joe Keery Made a decision. After Performing At A Festival Under His Musical Moniker Djo-The Side-Project-Turned-Co-Main-Gig AlongSide His Acting Career-He Took a Few Days Off With His Friends For A Bit of R&R. “My friend Ted, Any Moment There Was Something Beautiful, he would say, 'Must appreciate'. So we'd be look at a Beautiful View, and be like, 'Wow, must appreciate. '”

Though it startted as the Kind of Inside Jake that eventual beacomes the soundtrack to a Sun-SAAKED GROUP HOLIDAY, that random punch-in used to permeate the silence became a bit of a new life mantra. “It's important to do that for a bunch of different things, to just learn How to be happy and present in the moment,” Keery Tells Nme At his record Label's Office in London, Surrounded by Soon-to-Be Signed Vinyl Copies of His Third Album, 'The Crux'.

“But it's hard when your brain is constantly thinking, 'what about the future?' and 'what about the past?'. He did turn 30 While He Was Writing 'The Crux', After all, Which probably Goes Some Way to Explain The Sudden Existtential Spiral.

By His Own Admission, Ketery has now Become “Obsesed” with living in the Moment. He Treats It Like a Little Task, Something He Can Tinker Away AT in Off Moments – In Much The Same Way He's Treated His Musical Side Gig For the Past Few Years. “I'm addicted to doing projects,” Heys with excitement.

Djo Started Out As Just That – A Project. For 2019's 'Twenty Twenty' and 2022's 'decides', he would spoce his night building songs on his computer, funneling his love for eclectic syntic-pop acts like daft punk and tame impalas into His Own Kind of Creative Expression.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1tvojf-tvg

“Having This Kind of Boyling Throughout The Who … It's Been Nice to Have Something Else To Work On,” Heys About His Music Career Simmering Beneath the Run Of Stranger Things. “What i Did was an extremely unique experience, event in the acting world. People don't work on things for that long. Can you imagine How Sad and weird I'd feel if i was just at home doing nothing? That would be bad for me.”

When it Came to Releasing Those Albums, he did so under a Creative Pseudo-Dispute to Help Him Fly Under The Radar. He Wore an orange Wig to cover Arguably His Most Famous Attribute, The Mane of Tousled Steve Harrington Hair That Birthed a Million Fan Edits, and Called Himself Djo, A Phonetic Jumble of His Own Name. That Security of Semi-Anonymity Came Crashing Down When 'End of Beginning', an ode to Keery's Time in Chicago from 'Decide', Turned Into the Soundtrack of Nostalgia for Hundreds of Thousands of People on Tiktok.

“You Don't Make People Forget You Are In 'Stranger Things'but you do want to have a life outside of it “

“I'm had a Couple People ask, 'do you love nostalgia?' And It's like, not really, “Keey Laughs. The Irony of Becoming The Poster Child for Looking to the past when he's on a carpe diem kick isn't lost on him. “I'm not trying to live in the past. I have new memories that i'm linking to [Chicago]. I'm not 27 Anymore. That's a part of me, Maybe, but not the Whole part. “

When End of Beginning 'Blew Up, So Did Keery's Incognito Person. Now, He's Abandoned The Wig and the Costume, Performing As Himself to Ballooning Crowds. Part of that is necessary – The Jig is up, after all – but it's alo a conscious decision on Keery's part to Make Authenticity The Focus of 'The Crux'. “IT Felt Like [the disguise] Went Against the core of What This Process Has Been All About, Which is trying to strip away Things that are interfering with being honest. “

THough Keery Isn't Interestted in Living in the Past, he does see it as repe for the picking when it comes to inspiration. He describes 'The Crux', like the albums Before It, As a Musical Diary, and Can Pinpoint The exact Places He Was When he Started Writing Certain Songs. It Chronicles The Frenzed Fever of His Late Twenties and Early Thirties, Which is aldenady primeD for Excavation.

Between the Relationable Woes of Moving Cities, long-term break-ups and feeling like you're not quite Young But Not Quite Old, Keery Had to Reconcile Wrapping up Stranger ThingsHis Steady Job for the Last Decade and Facing the Great Unknown. “It's the exact Same feeling you have when you graduate from college, where you're like, 'Oh my God, i Can't Wait for this shit to be over', and then the second that you graduate, you're like, 'oh my god. I had it so good',” kery says.

A Chunk of the Songs from 'The Crux' Were Written While Keery was Hunkered Down in The Frigid Depths of Calgary Shooting The Fifth Season of FlourHis First Major Tv Role Outside of Stranger Things. It's about as unrecognisable a role you can get from Hawkins' Heartthrob with a Heart of Gold, and not Just Because He Bulked Up and Had to Slick His Hair Down to His Skull the Whole Time.

“I've had that security blanket in My Life for the Past 10 Years, and Now It's a Little Bit of a New Frontier for Me.”

“You Don't Make People Forget You Are In Stranger Thingsbut you do want to have a life outsis of it, “Heys.” It'll be a part of my decision-making for doing Things. ” He Channeled That Tug of War Into 'The Crux', Which is more stripped-back This Preveus Offerings.

“You're Not Focused on Chasing Your Own Tail,” Keeys Says About How That Scopes Altered His Approach To Making Music. No Longer Limited by Sounds He Could Punch Into a laptop, he was able to Spend Two Years Recording Snipper Snippets of Ideas on Whatever Piano or Guitar He Had Handy Before Testing Their Capacity in Studios Trody by the Likes of Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie and the Strokes.

But part of it was a shift in intention. KEEY HAS ALWAYS Been An Astutte Lyricist With A Skill For Tangible and Introspective Reflection ABOUT HIS OWN FEELINGS. It's part of the Reason 'End of Beginning', A Song Very Specific to Keery's Own Experience, is Also Ineffably Relatable. But Where's His Previo Records Buried These Observations Under Layers of Cacopharonous Synth Production, in 'The Crux', they have now to Hide.

Searing Songs About Heartbreak, Lonelyss and the fragility of feeling like you've got it all figured out alongside cheeky observations on familial dynamics and friendships in the age of social media. They create an instant snapshot of the second coming-age that follows Your Roaring Twenties-But Also a Sense that the album Welcomes a New Phase of Life for Keery, One That He's Approaching with Optimistic Confidence.

He's no long tethered to Stranger ThingsHaving Wrappe the series in December. “I Don't Know Anything. They Don't Tell Me Anything,” Heys Instrictively when Nme Asks If He's Looking Forward to a Secret-Free Life, at Least Where Demogorgons Are concerned. “The Mean, the Know How The Show Ends, and I Know What Happens to Everyone. SO Actually, the Know Everything.” He's Also Ripped Off the Wig and is Pursuing Acting Roles That Center The Kind of Creative Fulfillment That Makes Him Tick.

“Right now, in My Life, I Love It,” Keys Says About the Blank Slate in Front of Him. “I'm had that security blanket in my life for the past 10 years, and now It's a quittle bit of a new frontier for me. The fact that anything couus happy is really exciting .'m Really feeling positive and THANKFUL.” In Other Words, must appreciate.

Djo's Third Album 'The Crux' Comes Out April 4via Awal.