Djo – The Rocker from "Stranger Things"

American actor Joseph David Keery, also known under the musical alias Djo, became a star playing Steve Harrington in Netflix's cult sci-fi series “Stranger Things”. Alongside his acting role came that of musician, first as drummer and guitarist in other bands, then with his solo project Djo, through which he offers a dreamy, psychedelic pop-rock akin to that of Tame Impala and Ariel Pink. In him, memories of Sixties and Seventies psychedelia coexist with a love for Eighties electronics, lo-fi quirks and a knack for eccentricity.
Following the strange dynamics of contemporary stardom, in 2024 a song of his from two years earlier, “End Of Beginning”, became an international hit, more or less unexpectedly and thanks to a boost from TikTok. Let's trace the double life of Joseph David Keery, a pop superstar with a fondness for psychedelic rock, on the occasion of his arrival in Italy for two dates, scheduled for August 24, 2026 in Rome (Cavea dell'Auditorium Parco della Musica) and August 25 in Milan (Segrate).

Roots in psychedelic rock and the Post Animal experience

In his early twenties, Keery released material under the alias Cool Cool Cool. Between 2014 and 2018 he was co-founder, drummer, guitarist and singer of Post Animal, a psych-rock band from Chicago. Melodic psychedelic rock is central from the Ep Post Animal Perform The Most Curious Water Activities (2015) onward, opened by the hallucinated blues-rock of “Goggles”. The warped, distorted pop of “Aral Sea”, the lysergic chant of “Alabaster” and the murky, distorted psych-blues of “Swamp Fruit” are pure fun for anyone who appreciates hallucinated, deafening, melodic rock. An Eighties spirit emerges on the closing “Hoverin' All Night”, a synth-pop track whipped along by distorted bass. This first Ep clearly defines the project's aesthetic: Post Animal are split between tribute and reinterpretation, between quotation and creation.

A second Ep, The Garden Series (2016), confirms the band's points of reference, at times aiming for a curious, more theatrical style akin to vaudeville (“Lonely James”). When they put the pedal down, though, as on “You Were Not There”, they merge ideas from other contemporary psychedelic rock acts such as King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and Psychedelic Porn Crumpets.
When I Think Of You In A Castle (2018) occasionally keeps ramping up the power (“Gelatin Mode”, “Special Moment”), repeatedly nods to the heavier side of the Seventies (“Tire Eyes”, the Sabbath-esque “Heart Made Of Metal”, “Victory Lap: Danger Zone”, “Dirtpicker”) and also ventures into a lighter, more playful style, with melodic and harmonic refinements almost reminiscent of progressive rock (“Ralphie”, “Castle”).

Despite halting tours with the band in 2017 and leaving the lineup in 2018 due to his growing acting commitments, the bond between Keery and the band was never fully severed: in 2025 the actor officially reunited with the group to coincide with the release of their album Iron, also joining them as a special guest and opening act on the first leg of the tour.

For the record, the first Post Animal album without Keery, Forward Motion Godissey (2020), leans into more mysterious noir psychedelic arrangements (“Your Life Away”, “Damaged Goods”), with more pompous, orchestral moments (“Schedule”, “Fitness”) and even edges close to hallucinated prog-metal on “In A Paradise” or to more elaborate Seventies prog-rock (“How Do You Feel”). “Sifting” even reveals a dark, slowed-down side, bordering on doom-metal.
Far from discouraged, the band thus released an ambitious, multifaceted album, a worthy example of contemporary psychedelic and progressive rock, even without moments capable of reinventing the style.

Post Animal's third album, Love Gibberish (2022), sounds more linear and straightforward, a robust slab of psychedelic rock with an enveloping, rumbling, almost stoner-like production (“Boston From Above”, “When You Walk Towards Me”) or one that recalls vintage heavy metal (“No More Sports”). The band pursues this tighter, more powerful sound without entirely abandoning its taste for the elaborate compositions of progressive rock (“Infinite Zone”).

In 2025, as already mentioned, Keery rejoins his band for Iron, a more folk-leaning and emotional album ("Last Goodbye", "Common Denominator") that nonetheless also returns to their traditional sound, whether the more psychedelic side ("Setting Sun") or the more typically vintage one ("Pie In The Sky").
There's also a taste for danceable pop-rock potential, as in "Dorien Kregg", but overall Iron is a less lively and less daring album.

All things considered, Post Animal will probably remain known as the band of the "Stranger Things" actor, but within their discography, insatiable listeners of contemporary psychedelia will still find music worth their attention.

The birth of the Djo project and the solo discography

Outside of Post Animal, Joseph David Keery adopted the alias Djo (pronounced simply "Joe") to give free rein to his more personal musical vision, oriented towards an obliquely pop psychedelia and retro-tinged synth-pop textures. If the Post Animal project has shown a tendency towards sturdier solutions, then, Djo carries a more pop-leaning shade and, as we'll see, one open to electronic contributions.

Twenty Twenty (2019) is a self-produced debut album. Dominated by a pronounced taste for pop melody, the album opens with the sunny "Personal Lies", set alight by an explosion of synth-driven psychedelic rock. The sweet hallucination continues with the seventies-flavored "Tentpole Shangrila" and the drowsy "Just Along For The Ride", reaching a high point with "Chateau (Feel Alright)", a dreamlike fantasy that surfaces and fades as if it could go on forever.
The blend of the Seventies and Eighties is central to the tracklist and fuels every song, albeit in different proportions. The influences are shared with many other bands of the era's new psychedelia, but Djo pairs these reference points with a certain creative flair that reinvigorates ideas that aren't exactly revolutionary. "Roddy", for instance, is saved by a distorted electro-funk groove that transforms and defines it, and "Total Control" is colored by a sly trumpet.
The acid-tinged whirl of "Mortal Projections", with its blaring synths and hypnotic melodies, and the overwhelming rush of "Flash Mountain" add substance to Twenty Twenty and keep it from being written off as a star's passing fancy. Balancing accessibility, tributes to the classics, and the occasional personal reinterpretation or variation, it manages to be an album that entertains and delights.

These ideas truly blossom on the second album, Decide (2022), which widened the project's scope, folding in electronic and dance-pop sounds heavily indebted to the Eighties. The flair of David Byrne, the contemporary rock of the Strokes, and the retro-futuristic approach of Daft Punk and Justice join the influences already explored on Twenty Twenty. The lyrics, too, have grown more personal, even tormented at times.
A driving synthesizer dominates the opening "Runner", before being pounced on by guitars and vocoder: it's a way of marking the distance from the previous album and foregrounding the more electronic approach. The jittery new wave of "Gloom", the sophisticated electronic rock of "Half Life", the sensual funk strut and roaring climax of "On And On" make up for a few more predictable moments. The flair of Prince seems to peek through on "I Want Your Video", and after a handful of less effective passages, "Go For It" surprises with a sweeping, layered arrangement, an elaborate rhythmic weave, and an adventurous development.
Of all these songs, though, even the least attentive listeners will recognize "End Of Beginning", which debuted at number 51 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 2024 before climbing to number six in January 2026, propelled by the finale of "Stranger Things", echoing the success of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill". Nominated for a Billboard Music Award for best rock song and a Brit Award for best international song, the single achieved extraordinary success worldwide, racking up a total of twenty-five platinum certifications – including seven in Australia, five in the United States, and three in the United Kingdom. "End Of Beginning" has comfortably surpassed 2.5 billion streams on Spotify. It's a melancholy ballad, tinged with psychedelia and wrapped in Eighties synths, with aching lyrics delivered in an emotional, almost whispered style, telling of Keery's personal transformation and his bond with the city of Chicago. The bridge's lines are iconic, repeating "You take the man out of the city, not the city out the man".

The second album, Decide, proves that Djo is a musician with ambition and creativity, intent on broadening his musical language and ready to explore even atypical or hybrid solutions. His melodic psychedelia quotes the past, but what matters is how he assembles his various sources of inspiration, which at their best is imaginative and happily unpredictable.

The third album, titled The Crux (2025), reins in the more daring stylistic adventures and focuses on pop-rock songs of unmistakable melodic appeal, starting with the opening "Lonesome Is A State Of Mind", which closes with an almost orchestral flourish. Charli XCX could well have written the single "Basic Being Basic", a digital pop track that lodges itself in your head instantly. Less convincing, by contrast, and lacking in personality are the guitars of "Link", the ideal counterpart to the psychedelic folk of "Potion".
U2 live again in the emotional "Delete Ya", before drifting off with the dreamy, slowed-down lilt of "Fly". We're then woken up by the lively, Beatles-inspired whirl of "Charlie's Garden". In this puzzle of references, the guitar riffs of "Gap Tooth Smile" recall David Bowie, and "Back On You" even brings to mind the Rolling Stones.
Closing out a less daring album is the title track itself, "Crux": it may be aiming to repeat the near-miracle of "End Of Beginning", but it ends up being just one more piano ballad.

It's unclear whether the lack of daring on Crux is the result of the enormous success achieved in 2024, the cautious album of a musician who, for the first time, has to prove himself worthy of a vast and wide-ranging audience. Throughout 2025 and 2026, Djo's credibility was further confirmed by major collaborations and live commitments, including opening for one of his own key reference points, Tame Impala. The "Stranger Things" rocker may be at the start of a new phase in his musical career, following the end of the TV series that made him a familiar face to tens of millions of viewers. The hope is that the resources available to a star of his standing will be put to use in new music that's more ambitious and personal than the entertaining, if ultimately modest, material heard on The Crux.

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