Alexa Ray Joel - Early Life and Influences

Early Life and Influences

Joel is the daughter of singer Billy Joel and his second wife, supermodel Christie Brinkley. Her middle name Ray is in honor of the late musician Ray Charles. She has a half-brother Jack Paris (Taubman, born 1995) and a half-sister Sailor Lee (Cook, born 1998), both children of her mother Christie Brinkley.

Her father, Billy Joel, wrote his 1994 song "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)" for her, and she has stated it is her favorite song of his. His 1989 song "The Downeaster Alexa" is titled after a boat he named after her, but is about the struggles of Long Island fishermen. Joel is also referenced in her father's 1989 song "Leningrad" (with lyrics: "...He made my daughter laugh, then we embraced..."), in which "He" refers to a Russian man who became a circus clown after being in the Red Army.)

When she was two years old, Joel's father sang and played nursery rhymes for her on the piano. She dressed in the costume of singers and musical characters and performed for her parents. At the urging of her mother, beginning at age 4, and more seriously from about age 11 through 16, Joel pursued classical piano training. She later said that "piano playing was more of a skill that I had to hone,... not as easy for me as singing and songwriting," and which she humorously said sometimes involved "kicking and screaming." However, Joel later expressed gratitude for her classical piano training, saying that she considers classical music to be "the foundation of all music as well as the most 'musical' type of music," and that her classical experience made her a "very melodic" songwriter. Piano lessons were "what really got me into songwriting" and were "the platform for the melodies and ideas I would come up with." "My ear training came in a very organic way, just from futzing around, singing with my dad at the piano."

Noting that her musical upbringing with her father gave her a "unique inside-peek into the songwriting process," in 2006 Joel remarked that "It's no wonder I write music in the same way (my father) does: melody first, and lyrics second." Joel said that by age 15 she was finishing complete songs and complementing those songs with piano accompaniment, describing her lyrics as taking on more depth during the ensuing two years because she was also writing poetry. After studying classical piano, she recalled that she hadn't "really committed to the art of songwriting" until she was about eighteen."

Joel attended the Berklee College of Music's five week Music-Fest workshop, which reportedly "encourag(ed) her to explore her gifts as a singer and performer" and "helped her gain confidence" as she had been a shy teenager.

Joel attended New York University (NYU) as a freshman in the musical theater program, which she said was "great" and influenced her as a songwriter since "some of my songs in their structure are sort of like theater songs." However, Joel also reported feeling "disconnected" in the musical theater program at college, retreating to the piano to focus on writing and performing her own songs. She left NYU to pursue a career in music.