Stranger Things actor Joe Keery announces new album as Djo with single ‘Change’
Stranger Things actor Joe Keery has announced his upcoming second solo album under his stage name Djo. The album, titled DECIDE, is due to be released on September 16th.
While 1980s icon Kate Bush is storming up the charts thanks to her soundtrack addition to Stranger Things, Joe Keery, the 30-year-old actor who plays the part of the Netflix drama’s monster hunter Steve Harrington, has been making his own moves in music.
Following the success of his 2019 solo debut album, TWENTY TWENTY, Keery has announced that he’s finished working on the follow-up record. To accompany the exciting news, the multi-talented musician has dropped DECIDE’s first previewing single, ‘Change’.
The funky, punchy indie hit comes as a synth-heavy reminder of later Tame Impala or Parcels material. While it’s a far cry from Kate Bush’s recent addition to the Stranger Things soundtrack, one could certainly imagine the stomping electro rhythm soundtracking a sci-fi blockbuster.
Before splitting off into his solo endeavours, Keery began the musical side of his career as part of the Chicago band Post Animal. He began work on DECIDE during the Covid-19 pandemic alongside engineer/musician Adam Thein (Temporex, Post Animal) and recorded the collection at the Sound Factory in Los Angeles.
“DECIDE serves as a sort of aural history of Keery’s late 20s,” the press release explained. “It features reflections on growth, relationships and navigating it all in a world filled with technology at its centre. It’s his sonic ambitions, however, that take these introspections and melt them into a warped reality with each layered synth pulling the listener’s emotional strings.”
With a scattering of live concerts and festival appearances this year, Keery has previewed some of the album’s new material. His upcoming appearances as Djo include Lollapalooza, See Hear Now and Austin City Limits festivals.
As Stranger Things winds down entering the second half of its fourth and penultimate season, Keery isn’t the show’s only star who has made a name in the music world. Finn Wolfhard has also been touring and releasing music with Calpurnia as well as his new band, The Aubreys. Meanwhile, Caleb McLaughlin has released two singles, Gaten Matarazzo has dropped two songs from his band, Work in Progress, and Millie Bobby Brown said in a recent interview that she and her brother are “always in the studio doing stuff and writing stuff.”
Listen to Joe Keery’s (Djo) ‘Change’ below.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out New Music Newsletter
All the latest New Music from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.