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.