Nylon.com – When it comes to celebrity profiles, there’s a storied tradition of reporting fastidiously on what the subject — most typically, a young female actress on the rise — eats during the journalist’s allotted time with them. Do they pick nervously at an undressed salad (predictable) or ravenously tear into a burger (relatable)? No detail is left spared from print. Thankfully, this troupe has faded over the years, as we learn that what one person chooses to eat at one meal of their life does not often reveal some great detail into their psyche.
When we meet for a late lunch in mid-August, Joe Keery orders deviled eggs for the table. There’s no thesis statement to be made of this; it just stuck with me long after our lunch was over — when’s the last time you saw someone order deviled eggs at a restaurant? (They were delicious, for the record.) It was a part of a larger spread that, for two people, included fries, tuna tartare, two different salads, and an avocado tartine. There was a lot of food because there was a lot to talk about.
At the time, the actor, who turned 30 earlier this year, released Decide, his second studio album under the stage name Djo (pronounced Joe). It’s a trippy, wide-ranging album with influences that span from Devo to Charli XCX. The project sees Keery leave behind the floppy-haired all-American persona that made him a star as Steve on Stranger Things in favor of a shaggy ‘70s style ‘do and tinted sunglasses — think Miami Vice meets Boogie Nights meets a used car salesman. That’s the point here: Steve is for the internet; Djo is whatever you want it to be.
I know you’re only in town for a few days. How long have you been in LA now?
Man, like five years. Almost six years. Since 2017… It’s a nice place to live. It’s kind of a really relaxed pace of life. It can be less social, if you’re looking for it. If you’re not open, it can be difficult, but it’s also access to all sorts of nature and easy trips.
I was just in Portland, Oregon, for a wedding. It was up in the mountains, which was gorgeous — weirdly, at the hotel where exteriors of The Shining were filmed.
That’s really cool. There’s a documentary, Room 237, that talks about the inconsistencies of the floor plan for the exterior and the interior, and how that’s symbolic in some way of what he was trying to say in the movie. Man, what a great movie. It took me a while to watch that movie, to get the courage.
Same. I think I watched it for the first time like five years ago.
Great music. Talk about that music. The opening scene of that movie is so cool.
Have you ever thought about scoring a movie, really combine your two arts?
Yeah. I would love to do it, but I don’t know if I have what it takes.
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