Djo (aka Joe Keery) talks us through his musical first times, from the first band t-shirt to the first time he was starstruck
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00 First thing I would do if I was president.
00:02 Well, I'm happy to announce that this is my official announcement for...
00:06 No, I'm just kidding. I'm not running for president.
00:08 Hey, I'm Joe, and these are my firsts for NME.
00:16 I actually still have this shirt.
00:21 My cousin Thomas got me a Marshall...
00:25 I guess it's not a band t-shirt, but it was a Marshall Amp t-shirt.
00:28 And it was for... I think I was 10.
00:32 And it was for our entire family, Secret Santa.
00:37 That was, you know, it's my dad and his four siblings and all their kids.
00:42 It was a bunch of people.
00:43 And it was just like a simple black t-shirt, but I still have it, and it's just absolutely destroyed.
00:48 I can't wear it. I can't throw it away.
00:50 Holes in the armpits.
00:51 But it's just like a fantastic shirt that I've had forever.
00:58 I wrote this really dumb song with my best friend, who we still play together a lot, my friend Sam.
01:06 It just was like a song that went...
01:08 And it's just like one of those really simple guitar riffs that is just really dumb,
01:15 but it was like the first thing that we did together.
01:21 The first movie that scared me might have been...
01:26 E.T. was really scary for me.
01:30 When he's looking at night in the grass and then he sees E.T.
01:33 That was really scary.
01:34 Also, Men in Black was really scary.
01:36 I thought when the head opened up and there was that little...
01:39 Also, that guy, Vincent D'Onofrio in that movie is so scary.
01:44 Those are the first two that I remember.
01:46 And also E.T. at the end, when he's on the hospital bed.
01:52 That whole thing with the guys coming in, that's horrifying.
01:54 The first guitar that I owned was for my...
02:03 My friend was... The same friend, Sam, was throwing away this old...
02:08 It was like a Tiesco or some old...
02:12 It's like Sears catalog guitar that was thin and big thick neck.
02:18 And it didn't work.
02:19 And I thought, "Oh, for Christmas, I should get this working.
02:24 Give it to my sister for Christmas."
02:26 And so me and my dad, we went to my dad's friend's house, Mr. Bill Staszek.
02:31 And he helped us solder the thing together and make the internal stuff good.
02:36 And then polish it and get it all set up and aligned.
02:40 And as we were doing this, it was kind of hidden under my bed.
02:44 And I would kind of take it out and sort of in the middle of the night,
02:47 kind of be like, "Wow, this is so fun."
02:49 And then put it away.
02:50 And then when I finally did give it to my sister, she was like,
02:52 "Oh my gosh, that's amazing."
02:54 And never really played it.
02:55 So then I kind of played it and it became my guitar.
02:58 Probably meeting Winona Ryder.
03:05 She was at the table read for the first season of Stranger Things.
03:11 Didn't say a word to her.
03:12 Saw her, was like, "That's Winona Ryder."
03:16 My family loved Little Women as a kid.
03:18 I have a bunch of sisters.
03:19 So that was a big household movie.
03:24 And then one day I was in the trailer and she came in.
03:30 I saw her, I was like, "Oh my God."
03:31 She said, "Oh, you must play my son."
03:34 Because she thought I was playing a different role.
03:36 And I said, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.
03:38 I'm Steve."
03:39 Like I play Steve.
03:40 And she says, "Oh, nice to meet you, Steve."
03:42 Like she thought my name was Steve.
03:43 And then I said, "Oh, no, I'm Joe."
03:45 And then at the same time she got whisked away.
03:47 And then I didn't see her until the premiere.
03:49 So she had no idea who I was.
03:51 But then finally at the premiere of the show, she was like,
03:53 "Oh, you did a great job."
03:55 And it was great to meet her.
03:56 First time I Googled myself.
04:02 Shamelessly, yeah, I've Googled myself.
04:04 It was probably like after the first season came out
04:08 and was like so excited to see how the show did
04:12 and was hoping maybe that they said like,
04:14 "Yeah, you did a good job."
04:16 The first album I bought was a five song compilation
04:24 of how the West was won, I think.
04:27 It wasn't like the full thing
04:28 and it wasn't really technically for sale,
04:30 but I bought it at this place called Albums in my hometown.
04:34 I bought that and then Stiff Upper Lip,
04:36 that AC/DC album, that random AC/DC album.
04:40 My parents took me and all my sisters
04:46 to see Bruce Springsteen when he did
04:49 the Ghost of Tom Jode, I think it was,
04:53 that was that album.
04:55 And that was kind of,
04:56 that was at the Tweeter Center in Massachusetts outside.
05:00 So there's this big lawn
05:02 and it's like you bring snacks and drinks
05:03 and all the kids are running around
05:05 and they're playing this kind of like live show.
05:07 That was awesome.
05:08 But at the time I was,
05:09 I forget how old, I was maybe 11
05:13 and it was really exciting for the first maybe hour and a half
05:17 but then by the time like the third hour began,
05:20 I was like, "I need to go to bed."
05:21 So, started out great,
05:24 ended up needing a nap at the end of it.
05:30 In high school, me and my friend,
05:32 a bunch of my friends,
05:34 we played this party
05:37 that this girl was having at her house
05:40 and we did a bunch of covers
05:42 and we called ourselves JJ and the PNPs
05:46 and it was like a combination of all of our names together
05:49 and I think it was a one and done.
05:57 First thing I would do if I was president,
05:59 well, I'm happy to announce
06:02 that this is my official announcement for,
06:05 no, I'm just kidding.
06:06 I'm not running for president.
06:07 What would I do?
06:09 I would just get everyone in a room
06:12 and just say, "Guys, we got to figure this out.
06:16 Let's just chill and figure this out."
06:20 [music]