Music

Newburyport native DJO (Joe Keery) takes us back to the beginning

"You take the man out of the city, not the city out the man," the "Stranger Things" star sings in "End of Beginning," a song you might know from TikTok.

Newburyport native Joe Keery.
Newburyport native Joe Keery goes by the stage name, DJO. Guido Gazzilli

By Maddie Mortell

If you’ve been living under a rock or in the Upside Down, it’s possible you haven’t heard of DJO. But perhaps you know him by a different name.

Joe Keery, 31, grew up in Newburyport and spent his early 20s in Chicago, before landing a big role on Netflix‘s “Stranger Things” as high-school-jerk-turned-America’s-sweetheart Steve Harrington. He also recently starred in the TV series, “Fargo,” as Jon Hamm’s horrible son, Gator Tillman.

Keery has been up to a lot lately. In recent weeks, he presented at the Brit Awards, and has risen to the top of the global charts with “End of Beginning” a hit from his 2022 sophomoric album, “DECIDE.”

And not to mirror what’s been happening in the Upside Down, but the sharp trending peak of an album two years post-release is reminiscent of how Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” returned to top the charts years after its release.

The eclectic Newburyport native shared how he’s feeling about topping the charts, what Spotify playlist vibe suits him, where to find the “best bagels of your life” on the North Shore, and more in a wide-ranging interview over Zoom.

The below interview was edited and condensed for clarity.

Boston.com: I’m really thankful you carved out time for this.

Joe Keery: Hometown. Let’s go. Absolutely.

So, you’ve been busy lately. “End of Beginning” has surpassed 80M streams, you just presented at the Brit Awards, how has this period of time been for you? How have things been lately?

Yeah, it’s been really exciting to see so many people kind of discovering and connecting and kind of putting the pieces together with this thing. It came out like just under two years ago, and for it to sort of find new life is crazy. Really, and kind of beyond my understanding in a way.

“End of Beginning” is nostalgic. People have called it a love letter to Chicago and it’s sort of launched a whole online genre where people are romanticizing places, people, times in their lives. What are some places, maybe including Chicago, that you like to romanticize yourself?

The song is a love letter to my Chicago. So it’s, you know, my experience that I had there, which was in my late teens, early 20s. Every time I go back to the city and I go to the places and I smell the smells of the city, and see the people, it’s just kind of like I’m brought back there, you know. So much time has gone by and nothing has changed at the same time.

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And so, yeah, I have that in a lot [of places]. You know, in my hometown I have that. Going to the Cape, I feel like I have that. Some of my family’s from the south— so, going down south. Yeah. It’s really funny, though, how sometimes the brain just makes these kind of snapshot connections and you can kind of long for them. And then also at the same time kind of happy that they happened, but sad that they’re over. So yeah, the brain is a funny thing.

Are there places, when you mention home, that you miss? Or each time you’re back here you find yourself gravitating towards?

I’m from the North Shore, so I just love being by the water and smelling the ocean. Actually, when I lived in Chicago, that was the thing that I missed most. [It] was just the smell of the sea.

When you’re back in Massachusetts or around here, what are your favorite things to do? Like in 2023, when you visited Nunan’s flower shop in Georgetown. That seemed like a fun time. 

Yeah, that was. I remember that day very well. Me and my mother were there and we picked out a tree. We picked out a fig tree and we planted that. Or, a fig tree and a dogwood tree for her yard. And that’s basically what I like to do when I’m home, just spend time with my parents and my sisters, and see friends. It doesn’t really matter what we’re doing, but just spending time together.

Any local shoutouts?

Flatbread [Company in Amesbury]. That place is amazing. I love it. Also Abe’s bagels [Abraham’s Bagels & Pizza, in Newburyport]. You’ll never get a better bagel in your whole life. 

With your music persona, and, of course, your work on screen, too, you’ve played a lot of different characters, with Steve Harrington on “Stranger Things,” and then a very opposite character in “Fargo.” Which version of yourself, in playing these different roles, do you find yourself most comfortable in? 

That’s a good question. You know, doing “Stranger Things” — that’s kind of like my first real job. And so there’s definitely a level of comfort I have now, just because we’ve been doing it for a while and I feel like I really understand the character, and also the setting of all the people on set and the directors. We just have such a close bond at this point. But I think the goal is really to just try to find a little bit of that in every single place and every single job. And like a little connection there, even, you know, like that character in “Fargo,” as horrible as a person he is, the only way to really get the job done is if you can kind of find the humanity in the character. So yeah, I guess that’s a bit of the job.

Which song on “DECIDE” was the most fun track to make, or one that in the creative process you had a lot of fun with? 

A lot of them for a lot of different reasons. I really like that song “Go For It” because the bridge was a really interesting thing to work on. Also “End of Beginning” really has a special place because we did it last and we tracked the drums and the bass and the guitar live in the same room. So that was really exciting.

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We showed up in the morning. We were drinking coffee, and we needed one more song, and I had this idea. So we talked about the form and then we really just did it very quickly. We were trying to move as fast as possible. And it was maybe, you know, an hour and a half or two hours later, we kind of had those core instruments tracked and then we started layering things on top. So, the fun in that one really was that we were able to move so quickly and cover so much ground, and we’re trying to just be as least precious as possible. So yeah, that was a really fun memory that I look back on fondly.

Which artists are you personally very into right now?

Right now, let’s look at my phone because I feel like that’s probably the most telling. I was just listening to that Ariana Grande album. That’s cool. She did good. I also really like that new Beyoncé song … She’s killing it. I like Mk.gee. That guy. I was listening to Matt Champion’s new song, “Slug.” I was just at the Brits and kind of was really introduced to RAYE and her music is absolutely insane and she’s fantastic. Looks like I’m listening to a little Kendrick Lamar. Little Alvvays, that band’s really good. I’m all over the map. I like to keep it eclectic and, you know, open for anything.

I don’t know if you’ve seen on Spotify, with the daylist, it auto-picks like a random generated playlist for you and sometimes the terms are kind of silly. Like mine yesterday was “viral heartbreak Thursday afternoon.” So, I don’t know what that says about me. But if you had to sort of pick words to describe your playlist, what do you think they would say?

I wonder what mine actually is. This is on your Spotify? It tells you this?

Yes, if you search “daylist” in your little search bar, it should autopopulate one for you.

Daylist. Okay, let’s do it. Let’s see what it does. “Laurel Canyon hippie Friday afternoon.” [Laughs] I’m down with that. 

That’s great. Do you think that suits you?

I’m super down with that. Yeah, definitely. That’s right up my alley. Yeah. Look at this. A little George Harrison, the Alessi Brothers, Beach Boys. Wings. Art Garfunkel. Yeah, this is great. Mamas and the Papas. Come On, Steely Dan, Minnie Riperton, Todd Rundgren. Yeah, this is good.

That sounds like a vibe.

Yeah, this is a fantastic — if I had, like, nothing else to do for the rest of the day, just like driving around, listening to this. That would be a fantastic way to spend a day, especially in L.A., of all places. Let’s go.

I thought if this were ever to happen, that maybe would be the song to do it just because it’s sort of like an odd bird. That song is kind of a real weird song, that it’s just kind of like funny also in a way. So yeah, you and me are on the same page there.

Can we expect new music soon?

Yeah, yeah, I think so … The album came out a long while ago and I’ve just been kind of working ever since then on this stuff. So it’s always kind of, you know, things are always moving, moving around. So I’m getting close to hopefully something soon and looking forward to sharing it, especially now after this. It makes me feel even more excited.

Do you feel that wrapping up some of your projects — like the final season of “Stranger Things” winding down — has this motivated you into a new creative era?

Yeah, definitely. It’ll be really end of an era, too, for me. So, I’m excited to see what happens. I mean, kind of at the beginning of a patch of unknown.

Dare I say the end of a beginning? 

Exactly, yeah. I didn’t want to say it myself. But you did. [Laughs.]

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