The Sound of Djo: Joe Keery’s favourite songs and albums
‘End of Beginning’ might have made its way onto most people’s summer playlists, but there’s also a lot to be said about how much Joe Keery has mastered the transition from burgeoning scream king to musical maestro. A mainstay of the current festival run, Djo seems to be cropping up everywhere, subverting all expectations of being a one-hit wonder with music that feels like it’s here, there, and everywhere.
But music aside, Keery’s side-step is actually pretty impressive. While it seems most Stranger Things alumni have moved on to the music side of things, Keery is actually making waves, earning respect almost overnight with a highly intellectual cross-genre musical act that seems to blend several things into one, from the psychedelic twists and turns of Tame Impala to the melodic charms of Jeff Lynne.
Although this shift has seemed smooth-sailing from the outside, Keery’s experience has been anything but. In fact, like anybody (in music, not just actors trying to find their own space in the music industry), Keery has had his share of doubt, but he uses this as a means to remain grounded when things seem to be going well. As he explained to The Guardian, “I’ve been incredibly lucky, so I do have a pretty heavy sense of impostor syndrome-slash-gratitude. It would be scary if that gratitude faded.”
For The Crux, Keery leaned into several different emotional threads and personal experiences like his breakup to construct Djo’s world, also drawing from his own influences (in all their eclectic glory) to create a sound that’s fairly difficult to pinpoint to a singular genre or place. Funnily enough, aside from Charli XCX’s ‘Apple’ (Keery’s top-played song of 2024), the rest are entirely understandable when listening out for all those familiar favourites in his music.
Beatles, Beach House, and beyond: Inside Joe Keery’s musical DNA
For instance, one of his earliest exposures to his beloved Fab Four was when he was younger and his sister had the 1 CD, though, like most of us, he felt somewhat estranged from The Beatles after associating them with his sibling’s music taste. Nonetheless, he came around eventually, learning the ins and outs of structural simplicity and innovative complexity from the band that went and changed the whole entire world.
Diving into different songs attached to different experiences and memories for Teen Vogue, Keery also revealed his love for ‘Here Comes The Sun’ (“Love that song so much”) while also naming Led Zeppelin and AC/DC as some of his all-time favourites. On the topic of heartbreak, he points to Nick Drake as a virtuoso in that department, specifically his records Bryter Layter and Pink Moon, while claiming The La’s classic ‘There She Goes Again’ as a “beautiful” falling-in-love song.
That said, Beach House also claims territory in this arena according to Keery, who says while it’s “sad music”, they’ve got a “very unique and special thing going, where it’s like a direct line into a specific emotion.” When asked for a good walk-out song, Keery immediately named ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ by The Who. “There’s a lot of good time for some good vamping,” he joked, “People’d get pumped, they’d hear this, they’d know it was me.”
Evidently, Keery’s palette is well-nourished and extensive, which served Djo well, and also explains why it’s nearly impossible to pick apart specific influences when you’re listening. While you’ll hear all the familiar notes of classic rock and psychedelia, there’s also something far less tangible in there, in the range of emotions that pull and twist into different shapes and directions, like a true musical architect blending together everything he’s ever known and loved.
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