Heavy Eyes
Alexa Ray Joel Pays Homage to ‘60s Female Singers with New Single Heavy Eyes
In her new single, Heavy Eyes, Alexa Ray Joel pays tribute to some of her favorite 1960s female singers, from Irma Thomas to Dionne Warwick. Joel, the daughter of iconic singer/songwriter Billy Joel and supermodel/actress Christie Brinkley, hopes people will enjoy the song’s upbeat sound during the holiday season.
Heavy Eyes, which comes out November 21, is the second single off Joel’s 5-song EP Tales From A Winding Tower, following the release of the hard-charging single Riverside Way.
“I really wanted a ‘60’s style sound, and this is my own way of paying tribute to my favorite 1960’s showgirls,” Joel says. “I grew up loving Irma Thomas and Etta James, Ronnie Spector and Dionne Warwick. I'm particularly proud of this song because I do feel it's the bright spot on my record. It is the most uplifting. It is the sweetest, amidst a lot of more shadowy, darker undertones. So I feel really happy that this is coming out just in time for the holidays to lift everybody's spirits.”
Joel calls Heavy Eyes “my musical love letter to the ‘60s.”
Specifically, she wanted to evoke the musical style of “torch songs” – notably romantic and angsty ballads, complimented with rich orchestration and soulful vocal lines.
“Usually a torch song is known for its pulsating chords, and you’re going to hear that nostalgic sound featured definitively throughout Heavy Eyes,” she says.
Joel credits her producers, Tommy Byrnes, Billy Joel’s longtime guitarist, and Tony Bruno, for their work on the song. She also praised session musician Cliff Lyons for his “celebratory saxophone solo” halfway through Heavy Eyes.
In Heavy Eyes, Joel sings about desire:
They’re going hotter and hotter / Black leather chained to my bed / Pinning me down like a martyr / Spinning me outta my head / Why you gotta give me those heavy eyes?
“It’s a mix of lustful and romantic,” Joel says. “There’s a bygone sweetness to it, but it gets more sultry and fiery as the song continues to build with heightening intensity. I wanted to play with that mix of sweetness and fire.”
The ‘60s theme is also evident in the song’s video, directed by Oliver Halfin, which is shot using vintage film.
Joel says she hopes that people listening to the song or watching the video feel like they’re being transported back in time to the Swinging Sixties.
“We’re living in such a complicated and arguably darker era right now, and I really wanted to bring what feels like some much-needed sparkle and fun to the world,” she explains. “A lot of my songs have a more serious note to them. This is a little more playful and flirtatious, and it's delivered with a wink and a smile. And I think we could all really use some more lightness and joy right now.”
Riverside Way
Alexa Ray Joel Explores Rebellion and Escapism in New Single Riverside Way
Alexa Ray Joel, the daughter of iconic singer/songwriter Billy Joel and supermodel/actress Christie Brinkley, is out with a new song, Riverside Way, which takes her music and lyrics in a bold new direction. In the song, the lead single of her new 5-song EP, Joel sings about losing control in a wild adventure with a love interest – “going under, with a thunder, got a hunger.”
The EP was produced by Tommy Byrnes, Billy Joel’s longtime guitarist, and Tony Bruno. Joel says she wanted Riverside Way “to sound like a car speeding down a highway like 200 MPH. I want that rush. I want that heat, I want that fantasy. And the three of us had a natural rapport and musical chemistry.”
In addition to producing and arranging Riverside Way, Byrnes and Bruno played guitar; Bruno also played bass and did the horn arrangement.
An accompanying video for Riverside Way will depict a bored couple in a dead marriage, having their afternoon tea, when the man decides to reignite the relationship by becoming a different character. Joel wanted to show the duality in people.
he title of the song plays off Manhattan’s famous Riverside Drive.
“I do enjoy reminding people that I'm a very proud New Yorker, born and raised, and my father's the king of New York, right?” says Joel. “So I always love throwing in a reference to the East Coast or the Hudson or New York.” But she concluded that Riverside Way sounded better in the song than Riverside Drive.
Joel tapped into her personal feelings with Riverside Way.
“I was really exploring a lot of different styles, genres, different experiences, different emotions. So I wanted to channel that – my feelings about lust and fantasy and escapism and adventure and rebellion,” she says. “And so I was taking all of those concepts and experiences that I had and put them into a fun fiery little banger.”
On the EP as a whole, Joel says she wanted to “give listeners a ride.” She notes that while some of the songs are dark, the third track, Heavy Eyes, is an uplifting one. “I really feel like it sounds straight out of the ‘60s, which is exactly what I wanted,” Joel observes.
“So you're up, then you're down, then you're back up with Heavy Eyes. And I just wanted listeners to feel a little bit of a roller coaster with the highs and lows, and Heavy Eyes was certainly a high, and I just hope that listeners can feel happy and nostalgic, and that warm, loving tone when they hear that song. Because it is my ode to romance, and also my ode to nostalgia. I'm so glad that we have an uplifting track on the EP. I think it rounds everything out.”