002 - And Then There Was Joey

And then there was Joey. Joey Salinas, that is. Or, Joseph Alexander Salinas, "a proud Latino American" born 26 years ago to El Salvadorian parents in the Washington, DC suburb of Arlington, Virginia.

Joey has been singing since the age of 5 but his first stage performance was at age 13 in the 7th grade. " I was cast in [William] Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" as the court jester, Feste. I had to sing at the very end of the play, which earned me my first two awards as a performer. It was my debut, both as a singer and an actor." That same year, Joey started training with a vocal coach, who, at the time, was working with chart-topping R&B artists.

While Joey is very influenced by the R&B genre, he is also influenced by Pop, Rock, Soul, and Hip Hop. "I'm inspired by great music all together so the list goes on and on." His main influences have been Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Prince, George Michael, Aerosmith and Michael Jackson, whose memorial took place on the day of our photoshoot. We spoke about Michael Jackson's sudden death and Joey said: "I didn't realize how big of a Michael [Jackson] fan I really was until after he passed. It's sad, though, because I feel that a lot of the world felt the same. A lot of us that weren't really fans of his while he was still around didn't truly appreciate him until after he passed. Like the rest of the world, I was excited that Michael was about to embark on reigniting his career with a huge concert event. I was excited to see what he had in store for us. Sadly that will never come to pass but we will at least get a glimpse of what could've been with the release of his rehearsal footage. Whether we accept it or not Michael Jackson was a great influence in Pop Culture and I appreciate everything he has done in order for me to be able to do what I love to do."

In 2005, Joey released "In The Beginning...," which gave listeners a glimpse of who he was both through his songs and his taste in music. His 2009 follow up "And Then There Was Alexander" continues in that theme. "Alexander is my middle name and I took on that character as it being the deeper layer to me. This album has more substance to it and a different sound than the first. The content is different but it's still me. So, "In the Beginning..." you got a taste of me. "And Then There Was Alexander" I dug deeper into the psyche of my music to take my listeners further inside of who I am."

Joey is currently writing new material and working on some live shows including one that will be jazz influenced. "I'm really developing the next stage in my musical venture." Updates will be posted on Joeys website as well as his MySpace and Facebook pages. [See links below] Though music is his top priority, Joey continues to act and has recently worked on "Step Up 3-D," "Sex & the City 2," "Gossip Girl," "Ugly Betty," and "Law & Order: SVU."

In addition to his music and acting, Joey is involved with DCToolK!t AKA FuK!t, a community based prevention program which provides free safe sex kits with the goal of stopping the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. I asked Joey how he got involved with DCToolK!t. "I stumbled upon it by accident actually. A good friend of mine that I had reconnected with was in DC earlier this year and was doing a photo shoot project, amongst other things. He asked if I wanted to pop by for the shoot to hang out afterwards, and so I did. When I got there I met Terry Gerace, who's one of the organizers of the campaign, and he asked if I'd be interested in partaking in the photo shoot to help promote the safer sex campaign. So I said yes. The following week I attended the next shoot, and that was that." For more information, visit http://www.fighthivindc.org/dctoolkit/

These days Joey splits his time between Hollywood, New York City, and Washington, DC. He also splits his time between community service, acting, and music but mostly music. This Joe agrees with Joey's self assessment on his MySpace page. Joe Salinas is "The New Sound of Pop Music."

http://www.joey-salinas.com/

http://www.myspace.com/joeysalinastreblemusic

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/pages/Joey-Salinas/67216840406

NEXT WEEK: Vote For Joe