Djo – the musical project of actor / producer / and BRIT Award-nominated songwriter Joe Keery, known for his work in blockbuster projects as Stranger Things and Fargo – has announced his highly anticipated new album The Crux. The follow-up to 2022 album DECIDE, which featured the blockbuster hit End Of Beginning, The Crux drops on 4th April. Along with the news, he has released the record’s first single 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. Djo will debut Basic Being Basic on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where he’ll also be a couch guest on 28th January.
Djo
Djo – who this week received a BRIT Award nomination for International Song of The Year – has also announced a major 2025 global tour. The Djo – Back On You Tour will feature Post Animal as support on all North American, UK and EU tour dates. In addition to his previously announced appearance on Australia and New Zealand’s Laneway Festival in February, he’ll embark on a North American, UK and European tour throughout the year. The North American dates kick off in Portland, OR at Revolution Hall on 4th April and conclude with a two-night stint at Brooklyn Steel in New York City on 5th & 6th May. He’ll begin the UK and European dates in Dublin on 1st June. Highlights include appearances at Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Best Kept Secret Festival, Hurricane Festival and Southside Festival with more dates to be announced soon. Tickets for the North American, UK and EU tour dates go on sale next Friday, 31st January at 9am local time with the artist pre-sale beginning Tuesday, 28th January at 9am local.
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 centred around synths – The Crux spotlights lush guitars and instrumentation reminiscent of late 60’s and 70’s 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 Adam 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.
Upcoming UK & Ireland Tour Dates:
JUNE
1st – Dublin, Ireland – 3Olympia
2nd – Glasgow, UK – O2 Academy
3rd – Manchester, UK – Academy
6th – London, UK – O2 Forum Kentish Town
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