After his rise to fame on Netflix’s renowned Stranger Things back in 2016, Joe Keery has taken on various acting roles – such as in Spree, Free Guy and recently Cold Storage. However, his music career, although separate from acting, is surfacing.
Before Stranger Things boosted his fame, Joe Keery was a singer and guitarist in a Chicago psychedelic rock band named Post Animal, which he was a member of from 2014 to 2018. After signing with Netflix, filming commitments got in the way, and he decided to leave Post Animal to invest more time into his acting as well as his solo career under the stage name Djo. Despite his solo career having taken off, he still features as background vocals on some of Post Animal’s songs – notably ‘What’s a Good Life’ and ‘Last Goodbye’ from their last album Iron. They also opened for him at various sold out shows during Djo’s US tour last year.
By 2022 he had released two studio albums, Twenty Twenty and DECIDE. Using his earnings from the hit TV show Stranger Things allowed him to release his music independently under the label Djo Music. He kept his music and acting career separate, so people are often surprised to find out they are the same person.
His solo career particularly took off in 2024 when his track ‘End of Beginning’ from the DECIDE album went viral on TikTok, leading to massive global success and high chart positions seemingly out of nowhere, which the singer has admitted to being confused by in the past. Similarly, the song went viral again in January of 2026 after the Stranger Things finale. The track reached number one on Spotify’s Global Chart, dethroning major artists like that of Harry Styles and his single ‘Aperture’, and also surpassing two billion streams.
Very recently, he presented the Golden Globes alongside Charli XCX and, following many declarations of admiration for each other’s music, they co-wrote the song ‘Funny Mouth’ for the Wuthering Heights album. His recent album The Crux was also nominated for Best Album Cover at the Grammys this year. The album itself is a masterpiece, it feels alive and full of love, full of background noises and ad-libs that make it feel that much more personal and nostalgic in a way that I could only liken to the feeling of Noah Kahan’s songs (but happier).
Djo is booked and busy this year. Opening for Tame Impala for the US leg of his tour, Lollapalooza Argentina, and performing at multiple music festivals across Europe, such as All Points East UK and Rock en Seine Paris. As someone going to see him this August, I cannot wait to see this performance in person and what he has in store for the future.
