Djo

Under the name Djo, American musician and actor Joe Keery leads a solo project at the intersection of psychedelic pop, indie rock and synthpop. Originally from Newburyport, Massachusetts, and having been part of Chicago’s independent rock scene with the band Post Animal, Djo began releasing his own tracks in 2019 with a series of singles that led to a debut album, Twenty Twenty, released the same year. That record established an aesthetic defined by analog keyboards, melodic bass lines and often-processed vocals, serving pop songs with relatively conventional structures but steeped in psych effects. In 2022, Djo returned with DECIDE, an album where synthpop and funk influences are more pronounced, with lyrics focused on identity, technology, memory and how fame reshapes the relationship to oneself and others. On stage, Djo adapts these compositions with a full band, reinforcing the rock dimension and the extended transitions between songs, in continuity with the codes of contemporary psych rock. Between Chicago’s alternative culture, the visibility gained through his acting career and studio work strongly oriented toward sound and textures, Djo thus occupies a singular place in the landscape of North American independent pop in the 2020s.