“Always building up, falling apart. Love is an art,” sings Vanessa Carlton on the title track of her sixth album, Love Is An Art. Like the record itself, the song is a meditation on the eternal seesaw that is human connection: the push, the pull, the balance, the bottoming out. It’s that constantly evolving nature of love, expectations and compassion that Carlton analyzes from all angles on Love Is An Art, from romantic, to parental, to the friends that hold us up and the leaders that repeatedly let us down. And on tracks like the album’s opener, “I Can’t Stay the Same,” that also includes the relationship with the person staring back at us in the mirror, each and every morning.

After signing with Capital Records as a teenager and training at the Groundlings school in Los Angeles, Joey moved to New York City and landed his first job at the legendary, boundary pushing, fashion retailer Fiorucci. Following, Joey began collaborating with the likes of Klaus Nomi, David Bowie, Thierry Manfred Mugler, and Basil Twist. Thousands initiated to the sweet naive charm, the sharp as nails raucous humor and vocal power of Joey for the original cast of Cirque Do Soleil’s Zumanity in Las Vegas or commanding the room of Bard o’ in New York, his appearances in many films including Big Top Pee Wee, Flawless, to Wong Fu Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar or gracing the many jazz clubs, dance clubs, and stages around the world. Joey has recently been concentrating on his work in the recording studio as well as touring in the US and Europe.