Joe Keery Wrote An ‘Homage’ To A ‘Stranger Things’ Co-Star For His New Djo Album
Keery wrote the song while filming the final season of 'Stranger Things.'
Between Finn Wolfhard and Maya Hawke and Joe Keery, the Stranger Things cast is quite the musical bunch. Of those, though, the one who has so far had the most mainstream success would have to be Keery: As Djo, he had one of 2024’s most-streamed songs worldwide with “End Of Beginning.”
Now, Keery has a new album, The Crux, out now, and it features a track called “Charlie’s Garden,” which is an ode to Stranger Things castmate Charlie Heaton.
He spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the track, saying, “I guess part of trying to be as honest as I could was realizing that I could use these songs to sing about the people that I love in my life, and to memorialize these times that I’m experiencing. And so it just kind of came about.”
He went on to explain how sharing a backyard with Heaton and Natalia Dyer while filming the final season of Stranger Things led to the song:
“Charlie and Natalia lived together, and I lived with a friend, and our backyards touched. Charlie is always in his yard doing all these chores. Over the summer, we’d have off days, and I would be hanging out, playing guitar, and I’d look back in the yard and he’d be digging, he’d be burying wire. […]
He and Natalia were taking their dog Penny for a walk at the park and they left, and he has a piano in his house and I was just dinking around. ‘Hey, can I play your piano while you’re gone?’ ‘Sure.’ ‘OK, lock up.’ So this song just comes out. Charlie and Natalia come back, and I say, ‘Hey, listen, I got this song!'”
Keery also said of the track, “It’s one of my favorites now, just because the influences are very clear. It’s The Beatles, but [Paul] McCartney specifically, and ELO. It’s an homage to my great friend and my time in Atlanta. So I get a real kick out of listening to that song.”
Heaton even appears on the song, putting on an American accent for a voiceover that’s spread throughout the track.
Listen to “Charlie’s Garden” above.
The Crux is out now via AWAL. Find more information here.
