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

“You can 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.
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.
Joe Keery: Hometown. Let’s go. Absolutely.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 wonder what mine actually is. This is on your Spotify? It tells you this?
Daylist. Okay, let’s do it. Let’s see what it does. “Laurel Canyon hippie Friday afternoon.” [Laughs] I’m down with that.
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.
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.
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.
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.

Categories: Music