NPR’s Scott Simon speaks to Joe Keery. Well-known for enjoying Steve Harrington on “Stranger Issues,” Keery can be a musician and now out together with his new album.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Joe Keery is legendary. He performs Steve Harrington, the jock with superb hair and a very good coronary heart on Netflix’s “Stranger Issues.” However he is additionally a mean Djo. Simply be sure you spell that D-J-O.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BASIC BEING BASIC”)
JOE KEERY: (Singing) How’d it really feel to take the sunshine from my life?
SIMON: Performing as Djo, Joe Keery is simply out together with his second album “The Crux” – a collage of songs he got here up with when not in entrance of the digital camera.
KEERY: I had a whole lot of downtime, and I did not truthfully have an excessive amount of of a social life. So I made it a degree to type of on daily basis attempt to write something.
SIMON: Joe Keery’s music is playful. There are observations from day by day life, a tribute to buddy and “Stranger Issues” co-star Charlie Heaton. And within the track, “Fundamental Being Fundamental” there’s even a riff on Gen Z slang like cheugy-phobe.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BASIC BEING BASIC”)
KEERY: (Singing) You are so humorous. Ha-ha-ha-ha. Change your physique. Change your face. Curl your hair then make it straight. Take an image of your plate. Tarantino film style. Rah-rah, cheugy-phobe. Vera Bradley’s again in vogue. It is a flash {photograph}. What an empty epitaph that’s. That is primary.
SIMON: Can I, like, observe up on a few issues simply as a journalist?
KEERY: Positive, yeah.
SIMON: What’s cheugy-phobe?
KEERY: Effectively, cheugy is, like – I suppose it is a time period, technically, that we have coined. Individuals take into consideration these stay, snort, love posters that individuals have of their home or…
SIMON: I haven’t got a stay, snort, love poster. However all proper, go forward. Yeah.
KEERY: To me, that’s simply people who find themselves afraid of people who find themselves not cool.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BASIC BEING BASIC”)
KEERY: (Singing) Being primary.
Anyone who’s a cheugy-phobe is any individual who’s, you understand, afraid of any individual who’s not cool is definitely kind of the least cool factor you might be. Higher to be actually overtly uncool.
SIMON: Oh. All proper, that makes me really feel higher. We do not have a stay, love, snort poster, however we do have a poster for pumpkin spice latte.
KEERY: Which may make you a bit bit cheugy, I suppose.
SIMON: Ah. All proper. Thanks.
KEERY: Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BASIC BEING BASIC”)
KEERY: (Singing) That is humorous. I am not humorous.
SIMON: This twin life you lead, in a way, as a musician, but additionally, after all, an performing profession that is actually taken off with “Stranger Issues.”
KEERY: I really feel very fortunate, clearly, to have the ability to do only one factor that may be a dream of mine. So now to have the ability to type of do that second factor – you understand, the performing stuff is my job job. And for some time, this music was simply one thing that was for me and actually one thing I’d do in between days of taking pictures once I was in Atlanta filming “Stranger Issues” – type of has, like, a bit bit snowballed now into being its personal profession. It will be attention-grabbing to see sooner or later easy methods to juggle it. Thus far, they’ve simply labored very well off one another.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LONESOME IS A STATE OF MIND”)
KEERY: (Singing) It is one on one. Two for all times. Thought that you simply have been on my aspect. Lonesome is a frame of mind.
SIMON: “Lonesome Is A State Of Thoughts,” that is a very stunning track.
KEERY: (Singing) I swear I’ve had this dinner earlier than. I do know I’ve heard that track. My future’s not what I believed. I feel I believed it fallacious.
SIMON: What can we learn into your line, my future’s not what I believed, I feel I believed it fallacious?
KEERY: I suppose, like, I personally spend a lot time pondering of various eventualities and issues that would occur and planning out completely different situations and simply dreaming and occupied with the long run. And I suppose that is only a reflection on how a lot wasted time there may be doing that, as a result of there is not any means you can predict it, and what you suppose is rarely the factor that occurs. So making an attempt to stay within the second is likely to be the perfect antidote for that.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LONESOME IS A STATE OF MIND”)
KEERY: …(Singing) Mind-set. No, you are not lonely if you’re hanging with your self. Let’s do – let’s hear again on you and I am going to simply stand right here.
SIMON: “Charlie’s Backyard.” Seek advice from Charlie Heaton, your co-star?
KEERY: That’s. Yeah. In Atlanta, I used to be Charlie’s neighbor this 12 months, and he is obtained a bit home down there. He is obtained an exquisite yard and constructed this superb construction that he does pottery in, and he does music in there. He is obtained like a – this little wood-burning tub. We performed ping pong again there, so he is obtained this complete setup. You recognize, the track is, I suppose, like an homage to my time down there and my time behind the scenes on that present and what, like, my life was type of like, and it is cool to have, like, a bit tribute to my buddy.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “CHARLIE’S GARDEN”)
KEERY: (Singing) Yet another day in Charlie’s backyard. Oh, yet another day.
SIMON: Will we hear a type of musical citation from “Octopus’s Backyard” on this track?
KEERY: Sure, definitely. I am a large fan. The association and the instrumentation and the musicality and the whimsy of a whole lot of their music is de facto attention-grabbing to me and type of missing in fashionable music. I actually like issues that do not take themselves too severely, so exhausting to shake that affect, for certain.
SIMON: Actual voicemail on the finish of the track?
KEERY: Not an actual voicemail. I wrote it down there at his home. After which we occurred to be in New York on the similar time, and I stated, you must – we obtained to get you on this one way or the other. You must be on the track. So he got here in.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “CHARLIE’S GARDEN”)
KEERY: (Singing) Charlie’s backyard. Coronary heart the paws scratch the again of the door. The solar is out.
CHARLIE HEATON: Hey, Djo, would you thoughts calling me again? Sadly, we’ll want you. For those who might simply tell us in case you’re coming in. Yeah, sorry. It was a little bit of a mix-up.
(SOUNDBITE OF DIAL TONE)
SIMON: Do you ever suppose you are going to have to decide on between performing and music?
KEERY: I actually hope not. Lots of people have been asking me this query. I do not know. It isn’t misplaced on me that it is a troublesome bridge to leap. However I suppose I simply can’t comprise my curiosity for each of this stuff, and so they actually serve one another. And I am going to do my greatest work, I do know, if I am fascinated with it.
SIMON: Effectively, you get to decide on in the long run, do not you?
KEERY: Yeah, it is true. It’s true. It will be attention-grabbing to see what occurs subsequent. I do not know.
SIMON: Joe Keery, who performs as Djo. His new album, “The Crux, ” out now. Thanks a lot for being with us.
KEERY: Thanks a lot for having me. I actually admire it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “POTION”)
KEERY: (Singing) I am going to attempt for all of my life simply to search out somebody who leaves on the sunshine for me.
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional info.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content will not be in its ultimate kind and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability might fluctuate. The authoritative file of NPR’s programming is the audio file.