"The hope is that you subvert people's expectations," grins Joe Keery a few hours before surprise-releasing 'The Crux Deluxe'. Rather than a handful of bonus songs thrown onto streaming to try and grab a little more of the spotlight, the 12-track companion album to Djo's recently released third album, 'The Crux', is a thoughtful, mischievous expansion that takes his confessional songwriting to bold new places. "It's pretty all over the place, but it's fun to dip your toes into different things."

That's seemingly been Joe's attitude to his whole career. After he didn't get the grades to study at the nearby University of Massachusetts Amherst, he moved to Chicago for drama school. There, he fell in love with the city's vibrant music scene and, while studying, released a couple of solo bedroom pop songs under the alias Cool Cool Cool. The year after he graduated, he joined psych rockers Post Animal and merrily split his time between playing local gigs, waiting tables and auditioning for bit parts in Empire, Chicago Fire and Super Smash Bros. commercials. That scrappy lifestyle changed after he was cast as Steve Harrington in Stranger Things. At the time, no one knew just how massive the Netflix series would be, and Steve was set to die at the end of the first season anyway, but Joe moved to Atlanta for filming regardless.

Creators The Duffer Brothers fell in love with Joe's performance and gave Steve a redemption arc. He remains a core part of the cast, with the fifth and final season set to air later this year. The lengthy production schedule meant he had to step away from Post Animal, but he kept making music, mostly to pass the time. Shortly after season three of Stranger Things hit streaming, he released solo record 'Twenty Twenty' under the moniker Djo, while a handful of live shows saw him donning the classic disguise of wig and sunglasses to try and separate the two things. 'Decide' followed in 2022 and was just as unassuming. "I was using that armour through fear of rejection. If Djo did badly, no one really knew it was me. But that's quite human, isn't it, trying to protect yourself?" he told Dork last year, shortly after his cult alter-ego was well and truly blown up by the explosion of 'Decide' deep-cut 'End Of Beginning'. The viral TikTok moment became a genuine breakout hit (1.6 billion streams and counting), so the expectations were high for whatever came next.

"I put a fair amount of pressure on myself for 'The Crux'," admits Joe. "I didn't necessarily want to outdo what I'd done before, but you do want to legitimise the random popping off of a song on TikTok. You don't want to let people down." He spent most of last year at New York's Electric Lady Studio working on 'The Crux', creating 50 songs before carefully cutting them down to create a sleek 12-track record. 'The Crux' started as a breakup album but quickly became a celebration of friends, family and belonging. His four sisters feature on the swaggering 'Back On You', his Post Animal bandmates are on hammering closing track 'Crux', and fellow Stranger Things babysitter Charlie Heaton appears on the chirpy 'Charlie's Garden'. The whole record ends with a lot more hope than it started with.

Compared to the deliberate curation of 'The Crux', 'The Crux Deluxe' is a far more chaotic affair. All the songs were written at the same time, with Joe and co-producer Adam Thein returning to the studio this July to record the last few bits and pieces. The 'Deluxe' was then mixed after Djo's celebratory homecoming gig at Lollapalooza in August. "It's been a quick turnaround, and we've been trying to keep the pressure low," explains Joe. "There's a confidence in that." You can hear that across the playful record.

"I really wanted to drop a bunch of music out of nowhere. It's like 'The White Album' where The Beatles just threw all this stuff together," says Joe, before quickly trying to distance his ego from any Beatles comparisons. "I just wanted to be a little less precious with everything after going into great detail with 'The Crux'. That record is exactly what I wanted it to be, while 'The Deluxe' is this mess of shit that almost went on the record instead." The auto-tune bounce of 'Mr Mountebank' was originally on 'The Crux' instead of the creeping insecurity of 'Egg'. Brooding 90s rocker 'Awake' was going to close the record until it was kicked off.

'The Crux Deluxe' is easily good enough that Joe could have sat on these songs until after the wave that is Stranger Things' imminent end had passed, but he wanted to release them as close to 'The Crux' as possible. "It's a way for me to clean the slate and wrap up this era for myself," he says. "It would just feel odd to do it any other way."

"There were so many songs that I loved that I ended up having to cut or move away from, so I wanted to give people a companion piece to broaden the story," says Joe. The loose concept for 'The Crux' has the record soundtracking a day in a fictional hotel full of transient, colourful guests. The 'Deluxe' is what happens after dark. "These are the songs that informed all the other music, so it fits in between the cracks of the original album."

There's also a sense of unrest to the two records. He turned 30 while writing 'The Crux' and many of the songs started life during a six-month stint filming Fargo in the very chilly Canadian city of Calgary. Inspired by the comfort that came with a lot of people connecting with his music, he threw himself into writing honest, vulnerable lyrics - and the goal at Electric Lady was to capture the original feeling instead of trying to recreate it.

While 'Decide' and 'Twenty Twenty' were bedroom pop projects driven by his love of Tame Impala, Daft Punk and Gorillaz, 'The Crux' is a warm, guitar-driven record inspired by childhood heroes Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, ELO and more. The 'Deluxe' adds Charli xcx-inspired hyperpop ('Mr. Mountebank'), Britpop ('It's Over') and playful arena rock ('they Don't Know What's Right') to the mix, while the closing 'Awake' is a brooding, Nirvana-influenced rager. "I'm always trying to shake it up so people can be surprised. It also just further builds out the world of inspiration that I'm kind of drawing from," says Joe. "You don't really want to repeat yourself – at least, I have no desire to do that. It's fun to work within the same world, but the goal is always to be pushing the frontier a little wider each time."

'The Crux Deluxe' was much easier to put together than the original because the pressure was off. "Nobody was expecting it," grins Joe. "It's a good standalone album that also gives people a better look at where my head was while making 'The Crux'." There are a lot more breakup songs, for one, including the devastating 'It's Over' and the grief-stricken 'Love Can't Break The Spell'.

"In the past, I've been really precious with the amount of music I've released. It's been one record every two or three years because you don't want to oversaturate it," says Joe. 'Decide' was released in 2022, and twelve months later, a pair of 'D-Sides' were shared. There are more tracks from that era in the vault, but it doesn't look like they'll ever see the light of day now. 'The Crux Deluxe' came after deciding: why the hell not just release it all? "I don't ever want to be stuck in a place where I feel like I can't put something out because I'm worried about the perception of it. It's important to get stuff out, even if it's just for your own good."

He knows you can tie yourself in knots wondering if something is better or worse than what's come before. "Now, I just want to get it out, and people can make up their mind about it. It feels good to clean out the closet, just from a desire to just be honest."

There are more songs in the vault that will "maybe" get released someday, but 'The Crux Deluxe' is Joe closing the door on this chapter of his life. "I'm really proud that these 24 songs embody the exploration that was going on at Electric Lady, and everything that I was going through in my life." Despite the nostalgia of both Stranger Things and 'End Of Beginning', he's not that interested in what's come before. "I'm really looking forward to what's next."

Speaking to Dork last April, just before he presented RAYE with the Best New Artist award at The BRITs, Joe admitted that he felt like he "definitely" had things left to prove because of his acting work. At that time, 'End Of Beginning' was already massive, and he was in the middle of writing what would become 'The Crux'. "I think I'll probably forever feel that way," he added. Now, though, "there's a little bit less to prove now than last time." The reaction to 'The Crux' helped, as did getting to play a lot of live shows.

"I've never toured as extensively as we did with this record. It's been very cool to be in these rooms with people." For the first two months, it was pretty shocking to hear sold-out rooms singing the words to every song. Putting out music and seeing the streaming numbers is one thing — "actually sharing these experiences with other people is something else entirely. It allows everyone to connect to the music in a different way."

'Decide' was written in response to playing 'Twenty Twenty' live and wanting something a little more upbeat that people could dance to. "There are definitely things I've learned from this run of shows that are pushing me in a direction for the next record," says Joe. "I've also learned to have a little grace for yourself and understand that things definitely will go wrong onstage. It's less about doing it perfectly and more about how quickly can you recover from the inevitable mistakes."

When Djo first started out, part of Joe desperately wanted to be taken seriously as a musician. "Well, everybody wants to be seen as cool," he grins. "However, I've realised I'll never fully understand the perception other people have of me. That's what 'Basic Being Basic' is about – the least cool thing is trying to be cool." It's why he wasn't afraid of taking influence from dad rock bands or being earnest with lyrics. "Who actually cares [if it sounds cheesy?]" he shrugs.

"The more honest I can be about myself with songs, the more people can connect with the music. That was the goal with 'The Crux'. That's the guiding light going forward, just being true to myself and what my tastes are."

It's a view that was reinforced by the success of 'End Of Beginning'. "It was an extremely personal song that wasn't intended to be a big track. But people heard this experience I was going through and ran with it," says Joe, who wrote the wistful track about returning to Chicago and remembering who he'd been while trying to make sense of big life changes. "It taught me you can bear it all in song and that will make sense to other people."

"I reckon I'll always feel a little self-conscious," he adds. "I've had a real chip on my shoulder that people's perception of me is that I'm this himbo character from Stranger Things, and I want to prove myself as a multi-faceted artist who isn't just one thing. I have dreams and aspirations to do all sorts of different art. Nobody wants to be pigeonholed, but I think that's a deeply human experience as well," he says. "Everybody wants to be understood."

"I also want people to know that anyone can do this. To be quite honest, I don't think I'm extraordinarily special, and the main thing I've got going for myself is that I'm not afraid to make a fool of myself or try different things."

Ahead of the surprise release of 'The Crux Deluxe' and the final string of headline shows, Joe Keery has spent a rare month off. There's been plenty of cooking and hanging out with friends. "It's been good to face the silence and ask myself: if I'm not working on something, who am I?" He's found no answers just yet. "The search goes on, but that's life. I'm always thinking about music, and I'm pretty sure I'll be creating stuff forever, just because it fills me with a decent sense of self-worth."

So what does come next? Once the tour is wrapped up, he's diving straight back into Stranger Things promo, but there are no other acting jobs on the cards just yet. "I want to find the right fit. I've been incredibly lucky, and it's been nice to have this year to take stock of my good fortune," he says. "Now I can start thinking about pointing the ship where I want to go [both with music and acting] and how they can maybe serve each other."

"It's sad that Stranger Things is done, but with that conflict off the calendar, it opens up a world where I can just go and record for two months straight." That was definitely not a possibility before, with every Djo record created in brief windows away from Hawkins. "I'm already listening to a lot of different stuff and seeing where that takes me." He's also about to add a piano to his home studio for the first time. "It'll be interesting to see what happens next."

"It's all about continuing to do the thing that I was inspired to do in the first place," says Joe, who's always thrown himself towards the surprising. "I guess there's a little fear in the unknown, but I'm also really excited by that. Because you don't know what could happen, it feels like anything is possible." ■

Taken from the October 2025 issue of Dork. DJO's album 'The Crux Deluxe' is out now.