NEED TO KNOW
Alexa Ray Joel is embracing her sexy side in the music video for her new single “Riverside Way”!
The singer-songwriter has been teasing the “fast-paced, fiery banger” for more than a year — and now, she’s finally sharing the track with the world alongside a sultry video that PEOPLE is exclusively premiering.
“I am over the moon,” Joel tells PEOPLE of the release. “It’s been a long time coming. I think it’s a perfect end-of-summer banger. I hope that people can just have fun with it. You can dance to it, you can sing along. I’m very proud of it.”
Joel, 39, admits that “Riverside Way,” which features infectious hooks over a retro, soulful groove, is a “huge departure” from her usual sound. But that’s part of the fun.
“I call it my alter ego song because I wanted to step into the bad girl,” she says. “I think people see me as mostly a good girl and the good daughter of Mom and Dad. And I thought, ‘Well, let me just take people by surprise and go in a complete 180 — go in a completely opposite direction from what I would usually do.’”
Andrew H. Walker
“Mom and Dad” are, of course, supermodel Christie Brinkley and rock legend Billy Joel. But Joel has carved a unique path for herself, one that she’s ready to show off in the music video. The clip opens with a pretty-in-pink Joel, clean-cut but stuck in a rut with her husband, who is played by the singer’s real-life fiancé Ryan Gleason. As she sings about meeting a “bad boy” who helps loosen her up (also played by Gleason), we see a different, more adventurous side.
“The public might have a certain persona or idea of you, but I think this song speaks to the fact that that’s not necessarily the full picture,” she says. “Women are dynamic. We’re filled with complexities and different moods, and we like to explore, especially if you’re a creative like me. I consider it my duty as an artist to always push myself and challenge myself and not stay in one box.”
As for working with Gleason, to whom the star has been engaged since 2018, Joel calls it a “real treat.”
“We got to explore different sides of each other and have a lot of fun and go on this wild ride. Ryan caught the acting bug with it. We were saying we’re going to take acting classes now!” she says. “I feel very lucky to have been able to do that with him, because I don’t know if I would’ve had the same comfort level with an actor making out in a truck. I give him a lot of credit because he was so game for it and just ready to go.”
Joel says becoming a musician was never a choice for her, as music was “always just innately there,” and she grew up putting on musicals with her parents Brinkley, 71, and Joel, 76.
“I’d be Liesel from Sound of Music or Ariel from The Little Mermaid,” she recalls. “My father would play and accompany me. It’s funny, I thought I was a star. It took me a couple of years to realize he was the star.”
Andrew H. Walker
Her dad did have some pointers over the years, and Joel recalls some of his helpful advice, including his explanation that “creative burnout” is real, and it can take time for new inspiration to strike.
“I remember my father saying to me, ‘Do what you love and you’ll love what you do,’” she says. “And I’m very lucky to be able to do that.”
“Riverside Way” is the first single off an upcoming EP, which Joel says she’ll drop once all five songs have been released, as she wants to give them each a chance to have their own special moment. She teases a “melancholic ballad,” as well as a “very uplifting, ‘60s-style torch song.” She says there’s even a track inspired by Fiona Apple’s Tidal and “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
“I wanted it to be very musically eclectic and diverse and experimental,” she says. “My father heard the EP and he said, ‘Boy, this is your Nylon Curtain.’ And of course that’s a knockout of an album for my father. There’s no two songs alike, and I can’t wait for people to hear it in full.”
