THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Djo is the musical project of actor / producer / songwriter Joe Keery, known for his roles in blockbuster projects like Stranger Things and Fargo. The Crux is the followup to his 2022 album Decide, which featured the blockbuster hit End Of Beginning.
The Crux was co-produced by Keery and his long-time collaborator Adam Thein. It’s an album of impeccable craftsmanship. Unlike Keery’s previous albums — bedroom recordings centered around synths — The Crux spotlights lush guitars and instrumentation reminiscent of late ’60s and ’70s pop. It’s an album full of loss and yearning, but also one full of wit and gratitude. The album was written all over the world in a particularly fertile period for Keery — where he was grappling with the transience of his other job, being untethered and away from his friends and family. But to make the album he settled into the legendary Electric Lady Studios in his adopted home of New York City. The Crux not only showcases his ambitious scope, but also his skills as a deft multi-instrumentalist and songwriter (all songs were written by Keery or in collaboration with Thein).
What begins as a meditation on the dissolution of a relationship winds its way back to self-resilience, and a celebration and recognition of the importance of nurturing community. These themes are reflected in both his lyrics and in the collaborative spirit of the music, with contributions from his family and lifelong friends lending the album a warm energy mirroring the bonds at the record’s core. Although the songs are rich with specificity, the album plays like a movie soundtrack, where the listener can easily align with a character, situation, or emotion. And this is, in part, how Keery frames the album’s concept through its art — a collaboration with Neil Krug — as a hotel where all of its guests are transient, and at a spiritual or emotional crossroads.
The first single from the album was Basic Being Basic. With its Oberheim OB-X8 synths and falsetto refrain, its final verses shrewdly skewer the (often-online) tropes of modern-day posturing. “It’s kind of a shot fired to anyone who’s trying to be of the moment,” says Keery.
Though most widely known for his acting roles, Keery has long been an interdisciplinary powerhouse, and began making music as a teenager. He later joined the psych-rock band Post Animal while in Chicago. In 2019 he released his first album Twenty Twenty.”
