Alexa Ray Joel on Her Music Career, Song Writing, Playing Piano, “Heavy Eyes”, Growing Up with Billy Joel & Christie Brinkley

On this episode we have a remarkable guest! We have the incredible singer, songwriter and pianist: Alexa Ray Joel! Alexa’s music blends soulful storytelling, retro influences and contemporary pop sensibilities! 

Alexa’s amazing new single: “Heavy Eyes”, pays homage to her favorite ‘60s female singers, from Irma Thomas to Dionne Warwick, blending torch song romance with a playful, flirtatious energy! It’s the latest release from her upcoming EP “Tales From A Winding Tower”, following the hard hitting single: “Riverside Way”. 

The daughter of iconic musician Billy Joel and supermodel Christie Brinkley, Alexa has crafted her own unique voice in music, honoring classic influences while telling deeply personal stories! 

Heavy Eyes can be heard on this direct YouTube link below:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9GNIr-Sp2g

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Hi everyone. Thanks for tuning in this episode in Nicky and Times. On this episode, we have a remarkable guest. We have the incredible singer, songwriter, and pianist Alexa Ray Joel. Alexa's music blends soulful storytelling, retro influences, and contemporary pop sensibilities. Alexa's amazing new single, Heavy Eyes, pays homage to her favorite 60s female singers from Irma Thomas to Diane Warwick, blending torch song romance with a playful, flirtatious energy. It's the latest release from her upcoming EP, Tales from a Winding Tower, following the hard-hitting single Riverside Way, the daughter of iconic musician Billy Joel and supermodel Christy Brinkley. Alexa has crafted her own unique voice in music, honoring classic influences while telling deeply personal stories. Welcome to the multi-talented Alexa Ray Joel and thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Thank you for that beautiful introduction.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

You're most welcome. All right, let's jump straight into it. Yes. Tell us about the incredible single Heavy Eyes, um, the inspiration behind it, and um, yeah, everything relating to it.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Yeah, so Heavy Eyes was really my tribute to the 1960s, my nod to, you know, uh Irma Thomas singing Ruler of My Heart, Ada James singing At Last, uh, you know, uh And Then He Kissed Me, The Crystals, Ronnie Spector, even, you know, I could say you could throw dad's song, Say Goodbye to Hollywood, and Until the Night into that uh, you know, genre with that very 60s wall of sound, that it's a very specific, nostalgic sound that actually Phil Spector, you know, Ronnie Spector's um producer and husband crafted. It's it's got this fullness to it, and but it's it's such, you know, I call it a torch ballad, heavy eyes, because it's really the pulsating chords, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, very definitive, strong melody, and romantic. So that's how I would describe it. And um I wanted, you know, listeners to feel like they're taking um being transported back in time. And, you know, this one was really for the nostalgics and the romantics. And I wanted to capture that, you know, honeymoon period of when you first fall in love. And um, you know, that that really encapsulates um heavy eyes, you know.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

It's an amazing song, and I've noticed too, that energy for that 60s, um, I guess, vibe and that kind of music is actually really, really big now. You know, you got Olivia Dean, you've got this whole kind of genre that's really starting to pop out again. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

You could say it started to get big again, really with Amy Winehouse initially kind of brought it back. And of course, you know, rehab, back to black, I mean, just some incredible tracks. And um it's it's nice to see people appreciating, you know. Sometimes I think writing deeply melodic, you know, sweet songs like that feel like a bit of a lost art, but there's still so much appreciated. And, you know, um, I'm a total nostalgic myself, but you know, I'll always pick the vintage record over the new record, the vintage clothes over the modern clothes. So for me, I was right at home with this. And of course, you know, my you know, taking from my father's influence with an innocent man this night, uh, I could go on and on, but you know, that very kind of Frankie Valley in the four seasons sound is kind of you know, me throwing it back to that with with dad as well. So I'm very comfortable in that, in that soundscape, you could say.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Yeah, incredible. Tell me, how long did it take to actually um trade it? So, how long was the process of actually creating the whole song?

SPEAKER_00 4:09

I wrote the song many years actually before I recorded it, and it came very naturally. I remember, you know, thinking those heavy eyes. And I was really excited because I thought it was a powerful chorus, and then I wanted to inject more of that fire, that passion with the bridge. So it really was a work of passion. It came very naturally. I just wrote it. I started, I don't know why water, like my father, helps me write songs. He likes to write sometimes when he's on his boat. He'll come up with when I'm in the bathtub or near water on a boat or even in the shower. Water helps me write. So I was sitting there in my bathtub, I came up with a verse, and then suddenly it hit. And um, I was really, you know, excited about it. I thought it was a strong song. And uh gosh, I want to say it was all it was about two years or so, or maybe three or four years. Actually, now that I think of it, it was quite a few years after that I recorded it with my amazing producers, Tommy Burns, who you may have seen at The Garden, Dad's guitarist, who's also an amazing producer, and Tony Bruno, who's my producer and musical director currently. And um, they got it immediately. They said, Oh, this is the 60s vibe. You know, Tommy pulled out even a Glockenspiel for the little what almost sound like bells on the record, because we wanted that sweetness there, almost like you're ice skating, you know, kind of like it almost had a holiday tinge to it, um, which is why I did. I said, This song has to come out in the wintertime. It's very holiday, you know. So um, you know, but uh all the components came together. And of course, thinking of say a Ronnie Spectre or a Dion Warwick record, we had to have the strings. I knew I wanted to do my own backup harmonies. And so it was a it was a really natural, comfortable process uh recording this. And of course, I always love a vocal that can show off my range and you know my singing abilities. Um, and I did feel like this was a you know a good vocal for me to do. So it was a really it was a one of the easier songs uh for me to record for sure.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Wonderful, and you have incredible range, like yeah, it's incredible. Thank you. Thanks. Tell me, and I was watching the video of the song. Um, tell me about that. Like, that's an incredible video, too. I really loved it.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Thank you. No, I I again wanted people to feel transported back in time, back to the 60s. I worked with an amazing director, Oliver Oliver uh Halfin, and it was all on vintage film. He only shoots on vintage film. So it was literally particularly nostalgic. And um we sort of I wanted like um almost, you remember Candy Land back in the old children's game? I wanted that Candy Land like aspect, like a candy coated, a lot of pastels, a lot of sweet, bright colors, you know, because when you look at the 60s, it was very mod, it was a lot of brights, it was a lot of orange and pinks and blues and purple, like it was, you know, because people were fine were really embracing technicolor. So I wanted that sweetness and happiness, you know, with everything between the colorscape to the film to even. I thought a lot about Bye-bye Birdie, you know, with I always loved Anne Margaret. My my dad always had a crush on her growing up. So I watched a lot of Anne Margaret. Um, I mean, when I was growing up. So of course I wanted to copy that cute little, what's the story, morning glory? What's the word? So we had me on the bed with the vintage telephone. So there was a lot of vintage references. Also growing up, I watched uh one of my favorites, To Sur with Love, you know, and the amazing track To Sur With Love, sung by Lulu. Um, that kind of, you know, we pulled from that. And I just wanted that sweetness and that retro quality to come alive.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

So wonderful. Thanks for sharing. Tell me about your upcoming EP.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

So all of the songs that I'm releasing right now, starting with Riverside Way, into Heavy Eyes, and then it goes into my next single, Only Just a Moment, and then there's two following that. So it's five songs total. Those are all a part of my EP. I'm just doing them as waterfall releases because I feel like it's easier to hold people's attention releasing it one song at a time. We're in such an ADD world right now, if you will, with there's such an overload of content, everyone's trying to get heard, everyone's trying to break through. And I feel like it's easier for people to absorb one song at a time. But then the whole the full EP package of all five songs will drop at the end of this year. Um, and uh as you've probably heard, no two songs are alike. You know, Riverside Way, which is like a hard-charging rock banger, is very different from Heavy Eyes. The next song I have up, called Only Just a Moment, which I hope you'll check out and enjoy, is almost like a theater ballad mixed with a hymn. It's like very melancholic and classical in its in its sort of you know foundation. So every song is completely different. And um, I just hope there's something for everybody.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

It's exciting and incredible.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Yeah, yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

What artists, uh growing up, obviously your father too, um, really inspired you and also to more to this, what actually also currently, what artists also inspire you now that you're you're vibing to or you're loving?

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Yeah. Well, it's hard to just pick. I mean, obviously, obviously, my father is number one. And I don't just say that because he's dad, I actually say that because I do happen to think he writes the best melodies ever. And up there with him, I actually put Randy Newman. I think he's an incredible songwriter. I love how cinematic everything sounds. Um, I, you know, but I love, I'm I'm a classically influenced girl. Like I freaking love George Gershwin. I love, I grew up with the sound of music, my fair lady, carousel. These people knew how to write melodies, you know, and it's not exactly the same anymore in terms of how strong the melodies are, you could say. But um, I don't know. I mean, Joni Mitchell for me is a is a hero. She's true to herself. Like you can feel her soul come through. Carol King. I I love the songwriters, you know, and when you're a songwriter, you really can appreciate more. Oh, it takes a lot, you know, because a song like Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, when you play it on the piano, you go, Oh, this is kind of simple, but there's a craftsmanship to making a song sound classic and timeless and simple, but there's you still have to, it's still amazing that you know, the art of writing it. And my father's a master at that, you know, he can take from a lot of his songs sound like they could be in the American songbook and are they're classics, you know. And, you know, he he put all his blood, sweat, and tears into writing them, but they sound very flowy and natural, you know. But there's a real art to that classic sound. And I think um, you know, particularly with heavy eyes, I wanted to emulate that. I wanted it to sound like a classic record, you know.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Well, with a yeah, great, with a song, what in your opinion makes it truly powerful?

SPEAKER_00 12:01

There's gotta be a lot of I I'm an I'm an emo gal. I love emotion. I don't shy away. I may shy away from emotion with people I don't know, but I don't shy away from emotion when I'm writing. You cannot conceal or think, oh, maybe this is wrong to feel this way. You cannot censor how you're feeling when you write. When you're at the piano, if you whatever, I mean, you know, I I don't I don't advocate for drugs, but if you want to have a glass of wine, whatever you need to do to open yourself up, dim the lights. For me, it's I'm light sensitive. I have to have dim light. I write later in the day. I can't write in the morning for shit. You know, I need dim light, I need candles lit, I need atmosphere, and I need to be alone. My dad's the same way. He's got to write alone. And he just sits there and he writes by himself at the piano. You can't censor your emotion, you can't hold back some of my. I mean, if I'm being honest, um, and I'm pretty tough on myself as a songwriter. I'm acutely self-aware of what is bet a better, you know, song than other songs for other artists and for myself. The songs that I'm the most proud of, I was crying my eyes out when I wrote. This next song, Only Just a Moment. I have a song you might have heard from way back when that I think went largely um kind of you know, uh unheard, but it's a song called Beg You to Stay. And I'm very proud of it. I think it's really well crafted. Um, maybe I could redo it now that my voice is more mature, as I was quite young when I wrote it. But um, it almost has like a pink Floyd, you know, comfortably numb feeling. It it's it's quite dark, but it's really raw. And the rawness of emotion to me, especially as I'm getting older, I it's gotta be there. And that's what makes a standout um a standout song. It's it's gotta have that emotion. And, you know, and then people feel it and it's palpable. And, you know, um, they may not look at it or absorb the song through the same lens as me, who was living inside of it, but it should be palpable to the listener. And I say live inside of it because I think as a songwriter, you have to live inside of the songs. You can't like you have to just go in there. And if you're in the zone, at least for me, once I'm in the zone, I'm in the zone and I like to just bang it out. I can't force, I cannot for the life of me force an idea. If it doesn't want to come out, it's not gonna come out, you know. Um, and I know uh I believe uh my father's the same way, and he writes by ear and by feeling. He's not a technical learner, neither one of us can can uh read music. We have to we sound out the chords, we sound out the melody. It's all in the ears and in the heart.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

You know, really that's great insights, wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing. Um, what has kept what what has kept what keeps you grounded for everything?

SPEAKER_00 15:05

What keeps me grounded? Well, music, I mean for sure. Having something to go to, having the piano to go to, uh being able to write. I've always, you know, wanted to write out my feelings or rather sing out my feelings. I've been singing since I came out of the womb. I've I just always have been a singer. And, you know, and um what else keeps me grounded? I mean, just focus on the art. You know, there's so like the best thing I would advise for other artists, like just focus on your work because and and forget about what everybody else is doing. Don't listen to the white noise. There's so many trends, there's the algorithms, there's all this white noise out there, especially with social media and everything right now. Just go with yourself, you know, and that'll keep you grounded. Um, and my cat, I have a cat, calico cat near Stella.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

Beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

Yeah, she she sleeps like here every night. She keeps me grounded. She's like my therapy, my comfort blanket, you know. Um, and I've I've always had a cat. So, you know, um, but yeah, you have to go to you have to go to what what keeps you grounded always. And it helps to have a passion and a skill that you develop and that you care about. And um, you know, you trust the process, you know, that's all you can do.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Tremendous. Um, when you look back, what are your proudest achievements? So when you look back at your career, um, yeah, what are your proudest moments? And also what are actually pinch me moments where you look back and go, wow, this just happened or this transpired.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

I mean, I still think it's early yet. I hope that there's a pinnacle. I I I feel like I will be my proudest also when the full EP drops, because then it's the full kind of album, and that'll be a peak moment for me. Um, I am going to be releasing vinyl after digital drops, and I'll be really excited about that. So I think there's some moments yet to come. But um, I mean, you know, uh I'm pretty hard on myself. Like I could look at moments where I go, oh, something could this could have been better. Even even looking back now, I look at seven years and I think, and it's a very strong melody, but I think, oh, it could have had less production, you know, like I nitpick. Um, but even that I'm proud of. I'm proud of that I continue to want to evolve to be better. I think that that's something to be proud of. I know that my father works the same way. Once he thinks he's mastered a certain genre, he moves on to where he's less comfortable. I'm proud of Riverside Way because it was way out of my comfort zone. And I pushed the envelope a little and it ended up getting like two million views on YouTube. So I yeah, the video. So I was I was really excited about that. Um uh I think it's important as an artist, right? We talk about being grounded to say, okay, this is what I'm proud of. This is where I where I still need to, challenges I still need to tackle, or this is what I still need to work on. And something sometimes it's for me, it's as simple as, you know, I need to work on being gentler with myself because I grew up in such a lens of being critiqued and watched. And so I'm very, I don't want to say self-conscious because I am confident, but I'm very self-aware. And so I know how a certain song or how a certain interview or anything, any public moment comes across, right? Because I grew up in the spotlight. And I think I'm proud of when I have moments of reflection where I'm able to pat myself on the back and be gentle with myself because I do have high standards. You know, I do have high standards for myself. I do push myself. I still feel like I want to push myself to do more. Um, I'd love to do Broadway. I'd love to do voiceover stuff. I love Disney. I love theater. I'd love to like that whole world for me is my childhood, you know? So I'd love to tackle that. Um, so I uh yeah, it's a it's a real mix of things, but you gotta be proud of the journey because it's it's infinite. When you're an artist, you're always thinking, what's the next thing? You're always looking ahead. Um but hopefully you can take stock in what you've accomplished and feel proud of your work. And and for me right now, yeah, I think I'm in a good place where I'm proud of this original work. And I do think I've evolved and found my voice more. And especially when you're a female artist, it's really important to be even a little more assertive than you think you have to be, because you got a lot of people giving you opinions. I remember when I was in my 20s, man, oh, I was so lost. I was like, I was like, what should this sound like? You know, and I let people, I don't know, I look listened back to some tracks. I thought, why, why'd I let them overly EQ my voice? You know, why did I like, and or why was this so overproduced? You know, why didn't I just trust the rawness? And it is a process as you get older, and I say this particularly as a woman, where you learn to trust yourself, you learn to trust your voice, you learn to trust your own artistic instincts. And I am really much stronger in my voice than I was uh back in the day where I really was just a lost little lamb that was like, how do I figure this out? How do I, you know, I didn't know how I should sound, I didn't know what I should do, and I didn't trust myself. And I think it's a the the thing I'm most proud of is that I've learned to trust myself as an artist, and that's really important. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

Well, that's an incredible answer. Thank you for sharing. That's that's great insights. Yeah. Um what what would you like your legacy to be?

SPEAKER_00 21:11

Oh my gosh. These heavy questions. This is my legacy. Well, it is a big question because I do feel like I'm sort of carrying the torch um for my father, which is no light feat. Um, but at the same point, I am my own artist and I am my own person. So it's a little bit of a delicate balance. Um and what do I want my legacy to be? You know, the the more I go into this process with the EP and figure out, okay, how do I want to present myself, even for this new single? I'm just in jeans in a tank top playing, you know, playing the song. I I I would love to be sort of um, I don't need to be as successful as her. But I'd like to be perceived as an artist in the vein of a Carol King or, you know, like I am a songwriter, you know, or Nora Jones or a, I don't know, Sarah McLaughlin, Tori Amos, all great writers. I am a songwriter and you know, it's funny because I feel like maybe I'm naturally best at singing. Um, but my but my true love also is songwriting. So if I can just be known as a strong singer-songwriter who established her own voice, that that's important to me, you know? Um for sure.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

Okay, great. Um, what's the best compliment you've ever received?

SPEAKER_00 22:46

Oh my goodness, the best compliment I've ever received. Let me think about that. Oh my gosh. I mean, I, you know, it's funny, like with social media, you get like a good amount of compliments, and then of course, like you'll get a criticism and that'll stand out. So it's always a bit of a mix. But in terms of like it means a lot to me, just my father saying, You're a great musician, like you really are a great musician because my dad is picky and he doesn't like a lot of music. And, you know, um, just hearing him, and he's a very like no BS guy, he just doesn't fluff people up and he doesn't like to be fluffed up, but you know, just hearing him say, This is great work, that means a lot to me. Um, and uh when people I I do see it as a compliment when people will say to me, You sound like you've had classical training, you know, because I do, I it's important to me. I grew up with the American songbook, and so those are my heroes. So I will always want to, you know, strive to be at that level. And um, and I think it's important to keep striving and keep pushing and going, I want to get to this level, I want to get to this level, because then you have a very specific goal in mind, you you know, and it's um, yeah, if I can, if I can sort of marry those influences together and get to that point, um, and just to even be compared, to say, oh, this is you're giving, you know, someone said to me the other day, you're giving Carol King vibes, or you're giving, you know, that that is extremely meaningful to me because they're real artists. And a lot of the art of songwriting um is kind of, it's a little bit of a dying art. You know, the first thing people notice when I'll put up a music clip is how my voice sounds, you know, because people want to hear things sounding well, they don't necessarily realize, oh, she wrote this. She came up with the foundation of the chords, she made a decision about what bass line it's gonna be, whether it's gonna be suspended or not. Like there's a lot of decisions that songwriters make. To me, singing is very easy. I can sing, you know, anything, and I don't want to sound cocky, but I can singing comes naturally to me, right? Songwriting is work. Songwriting is getting in the weeds and making so many specific decisions. What's gonna sound more emotional here, what's gonna crescendo here, what's its dynamics, its technicality. So I it's always like, I feel like rare if someone notices really the craft of the songwriting. And when people do compliment me on that, that actually means a million times more to me than just you're a good you're a good singer, because a lot of people are good singers. Much more few people are great songwriters, you know?

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Yeah, great. Um, if you're eight in again and you could change anything, so you could go back, you know, time capsule eight in and you could change anything, it can be personally or professionally. What would you change?

SPEAKER_00 26:06

Oh, if I could change anything, yeah, yeah, personally or professionally. Yeah, uh oh my gosh. I mean, you know, you might get bored. I I don't want to be boring with this answer. I would go back, I would do uh seven years differently, my song Seven Years, strip it down more. I would do, I would redo Beg You to Stay with a stronger vocal because I think I'm a stronger singer now than I was back then. I would um Notice Me is such a cute song, you know, that was my first single. But would I have written it? I wouldn't have even written it now. Because I, you know, I was in my 20s and I was so insecure in the world and with men and with the industry, and you could you could hear that. You could hear that insecurity. But I can't sit here and say, oh, I wish I hadn't done it. Because you can't make those, you have to make those mistakes, right? Not necessarily mistakes. I still like notice me, it's a fun song. But you have to be an ingenue and you have to, you know, screw up and go, oh, I don't know, and go through the whole process of feeling lost until you really learn. Um, and it's not a straight line, learning to trust yourself as an artist. It's a bumpy road, right? It zigzags a lot. But you have to go through all those bumps and all those curves to go, okay, now I know exactly how I want the song to produce, to be produced. Now I know exactly how I want the dynamics to be phrased. Now I know exactly how I want this mixed and mastered. And you get very, like for me, I've become very decisive about exactly, you know, um how I want things. And um, but you gotta have that's a clunky process. You gotta, you gotta be indecisive and not know until you know. So technically, I can't say I regret anything because if I hadn't done that stuff and made some screw-ups, I wouldn't have learned the lessons to be where I am today. So, you know.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally get it. Um, Alexa, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I do appreciate it. It's significant everything you've done, the AP, the song Heavy Lies, which is amazing. And I wish you nothing but the best in the future.

SPEAKER_00 28:17

Thank you so much. Thank you, Nick. Pleasure.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

You're welcome. Pleasure.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

Take care.

SPEAKER_01 28:22

Take care.