Decidedly, the young American actors revealed by the supernatural series Stranger Things from Netflix, a global phenomenon whose fourth season has just ended, have a strong penchant for music. We had already heard Finn Wolfhard’s rock band Calpurnia (Mike Wheeler in the series) and seen the rapping talents of Millie Bobby Brown alias Eleven. But now two other actors from the troop of evil fighters imagined by the Duffer brothers are trying to establish themselves in music: Robin (Maya Hawke) and Steve (Joe Keery), whose separate albums are expected in September.
Coming to season three of Stranger Things, Maya Hawke, who plays Robin Buckley, an original and mischievous young girl, quickly became essential to the alchemy of the small group of friends of Hawkins, the cursed village where the series takes place. Daughter of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, Maya Hawke, 24, recently demonstrated that she is not only a good actress (also seen in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino) but also a singer with a deliciously veiled voice and honorable poetess if we judge by her first album Blushreleased in 2020, but above all by the promising stripped down song Theresefirst single from his second album Mosspromised for September 23.
This single with the delicate text is accompanied by a dreamlike and daring clip of Brady Corbet (visible only on YouTube) showing a nocturnal juvenile orgy in the middle of the forest. For Maya Hawke, this video posted on July 18 illustrates “how free we are as children and then how when we hit puberty the culture crushes us and instead of being ourselves we start trying to be like everyone elseshe analyzes on the magazine’s website Dazed. I hope people will love it or hate it. I hope it will make them feel something other than shame, self-loathing and loneliness. I think we’re all tired of feeling this“, she adds.
Invited to the Jimmy Fallon TV show at the end of June, Maya Hawke said she was inspired for her song Therese by a canvas titled Therese dreaming seen at the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York), a work by the French painter Balthus dated 1938 which caused controversy in 2017, and in which Maya had “recognized” herself (attested by this Instagram post in which she replicates the painting). She also insisted on the show to evoke the revocation by the American Supreme Court of the constitutional right to abortion, and predicted: “We will continue to fight (for the right to abortion Ed) and we will win as our grandmothers did.“
For his part, Joe Keery, 30, has played Steve Harrington from the start in Stranger Things. A tall hairy perch, he was initially the boyfriend of Nancy (Mike’s sister), a popular but rather unsympathetic student at Hawkins College. Over the seasons, he grew closer to Dustin and then to Robin, he revealed his flaws and his vulnerability until he became an arrogant leader and one of the most endearing characters in the series. But he hid from us his talents as a guitarist and singer, developed before fame.
After a first album, Twenty Twentyreleased in 2019, with some dreamy titles like Roddy and Castle (Feel Alright), Joe Keery resolutely puts the cover back with his group Djo. As a prelude to an album called Decided announced for September 16, the group has already released in June Exchangethen Gloom (above) released this Monday, July 15, with very 80s accents and pleasant phrasing. Less delicate than Maya Hawkes, Joe Keery seems on this album more focused on fun and irony with schoolboy lyrics like “That’s life/That’s death/Your girlfriend scares me/She’s got bad breath” (“C’est la vie, C’est la mort, Your girlfriend scares me / She has bad breath“).
Visiting Jimmy Fallon last week, Joe Keery said he started doing theater in college and was a waiter in a restaurant when he successfully passed the casting for Stranger Things. But he was convinced that he would not do more than one season. Regarding the spirit of Djo, he referred to the American kitsch and surrealist group Devo but also to the American comedian Andy Kaufman (1949-1984). On stage, the members of Djo are disguised and wear wigs, he said. In fact, Joe Keery himself wore a wig, mustache, sunglasses and cheesy outfit to announce the release of the album on the band’s Instagram account.
Will Maya and Joe break into music in the wake of the phenomenon Stranger Things, Netflix’s number one in 80 countries? Knowing that the series has recently revived the song in a phenomenal way Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush released in 1985, we understand that the series are now major launching pads for the music with which we must reckon.