Joan As Police Woman

Joan As Police Woman

Joan performing at the Summer Sundae festival, 2006
Background information
Birth name Joan Wasser
Born (1970-07-26) July 26, 1970
Origin Norwalk, Connecticut
United States
Genres Jazz, rock, pop
Occupation(s) Musician, songwriter
Instruments Vocals, violin, guitar, piano
Years active 1991–present
Labels Reveal Records
Associated acts The Dambuilders, Antony and the Johnsons, Rufus Wainwright, Joseph Arthur, 2001
Website joanaspolicewoman.com)

Joan Wasser (born July 26, 1970), known by her stage name Joan As Police Woman, is an American musician, singer-songwriter and producer. She began her career playing violin with the Dambuilders. Throughout her career, she has regularly collaborated with other artists as a writer, performer and arranger.[1]

Biography

Early life

Born at the Saint Andre Home in Biddeford, Maine,[2] to an unmarried teenage mother, Wasser was given up for adoption at infancy.[3] She was raised in Norwalk, Connecticut, with her adoptive younger brother Dan, who is an artist.[4] She credits her background as an adoptive child with her "very extroverted" personality and dressing up a lot. She explained that "when you are in a situation where you're not blood-related to your family, it does become extremely obvious that you're born with your personality".[5]

Wasser began piano lessons at age six and her first violin lessons at age eight. She played violin in school and community orchestras before leaving Norwalk for her college studies. At the age of 18, Wasser began her career during her studies at the College of Fine Arts, Boston University, where she was an early admittance student.[3] She studied music under, among others, Yuri Mazurkevich and played with the Boston University Symphony Orchestra. Wasser soon grew disillusioned with classical music and found she "didn't want to make classical music my life, the Beethoven symphonies have already been played a million times and I am not going to do it any better."[3] Instead she joined a number of local punk bands trying "to bridge the gap between the guitar and the bass and play the violin really loud."[3]

The Dambuilders

Main article: The Dambuilders

By 1992, she had joined the Dambuilders who were signed to Elektra Records in 1994 and released three albums. The band played a number of shows on the East Coast[6] and found admirers in Colin Greenwood of Radiohead.[7] Wasser had a striking appearance on stage, with dreadlocked hair and blond streaks and colourful costumes.[5] In the late 1990s, Wasser began to explore more musical paths than those limited only to violin playing, adding guitar and keyboard parts to The Dambuilders recordings, singing vocals, as well as co-writing several songs. Some of these new explorations can be heard on The Dambuilders' album Against the Stars on the songs "Luster" and "Itch It" where Wasser wrote the lyrics and handled the lead vocals.[8]

Wasser first began to make a name for herself in the indie rock world during her time in The Dambuilders as she developed her aggressive style of playing, which led to work outside of the group. Due to disillusionment, creative malaise, and a need to expand their respective musical horizons, The Dambuilders disbanded in October 1997.

Black Beetle

In May 1997, her boyfriend,[9] musician Jeff Buckley, drowned accidentally in Memphis. She found it "such a traumatic experience of loss. I needed to grieve but I didn't know how."[3] She continued to play with Those Bastard Souls, a band started in 1995 by a close friend of the couple, Dave Shouse of the Grifters. They made a record entitled Debt & Departure attempting to respond to Buckley's death. In late 1997, she created a band with the remaining members of Buckley's band called Black Beetle and finished an eponymous album which was never released. This was the first project where she was writing as well as fronting a band. A daunting task, she "found singing terrifying at first, I didn't know about the boundaries of my voice and I had no idea what words I wanted to say. The violin had been my voice for so long."[3]

In 1999, Joan joined Antony and the Johnsons, initially as a violinist, then eventually as a full-time member.[3] She contributed to their Mercury Prize-winning album, I Am a Bird Now. Joan has stated that she "was called up to stand in for another violinist but by the end of the rehearsal (she) was in the band." The experience was "like a renaissance", and that she "was surrounded by gentle people and quiet music, [...] I had a space to let go."[3]

Joan As Police Woman

While working with others, Wasser began to develop her own material which she described as sounding "like old Al Green records."[3] She focussed on guitar and singing as "for a long time, I was really content with playing violin, [..] and then all of a sudden it wasn't enough."[5] The end of Black Beetle in June 2002 brought the beginning of Wasser's work as a solo artist and the creation of a new band, Joan as Police Woman. The name was a reference to the TV series Police Woman featuring Angie Dickinson. Wasser found the actress inspirational as "she was really powerful but sexy at the same time" in the role. She also preferred "the name to be funny because, although my music is serious, I like to laugh at tragedy."[3] She formed a new trio in New York City together with Ben Perowsky on drums, percussion and backing vocals and Rainy Orteca on bass and backing vocals. Other musicians working with the group have included Maxim Moston, Charlie Burnham and Andrew Wyatt. The group self-released a five-track eponymous EP in 2004, as Wasser had "decided to do it without a record deal because I wanted to make music on my own terms."[3]

In February 2004, Rufus Wainwright asked her to join his band, tour extensively and open the shows with her new project. Her intimate songs and relaxed stage presence gained her recognition and new fans.

In December 2005, Wasser signed a distribution deal with Reveal Records, a British indie label, which subsequently re-released the self-titled debut EP.[3] Joan as Police Woman's full-length debut, Real Life, appeared in the UK on June 12, 2006 and through PIAS in Europe and elsewhere. It was released in the USA on June 12, 2007 on Cheap Lullaby Records based in Los Angeles. In early 2008, Real Life won in The 7th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best Pop/Rock Album.[10] The music video for the single Eternal Flame, directed by Leah Meyerhoff, was in rotation airing on MTV Europe. In 2006, Wasser supported Guillemots on their spring tour.

To Survive

Her second album, To Survive, was released in June 2008. It was recorded with Rainy Orteca and Parker Kindred, an old friend and drummer of her previous band Black Beetle. The album reached No. 43 in Uncut's review of the year 2008, as well as in Q Magazine's top 50.

With Rainy Orteca departing to pursue her own projects, Wasser and Kindred were joined by Timo Ellis on bass guitar for touring in 2008.

At the end of her 2009 European tour, Wasser returned to New York to play a show and release a new album of cover songs, entitled Cover.

On March 10, 2014, Joan released her fourth album, The Classic, featuring the single "Holy City."

Collaborations

Wasser did considerable session work providing strings and vocals for a number of artists throughout her career. Her resume includes live performances and studio work with Elton John, Lou Reed, Rufus Wainwright, John Cale, Sheryl Crow, Scissor Sisters, Sparklehorse, Dave Gahan, Tanya Donelly, Joseph Arthur, and Fan Modine.

She has worked with Nathan Larson on his side-project, Mind Science of the Mind[11] and ex-Fishbone member Chris Dowd's Seedy Arkhestra. In the liner notes to an album by the latter, Dowd praised her as a "soulful mothafucka."[12]

In 2006, Wasser contributed backing vocals and violin to the track "Redwings" on Guillemots' debut album Through the Windowpane. She provided vocals and plays the violin on the song "Ballad of a Deadman" alongside David Sylvian on Steve Jansen's album Slope which was released in 2007. Wasser was credited for playing piano, violin, and guitar as well as contributing vocals on Lloyd Cole's 2010 release, Broken Record.

In 2013 she started a band, 2001,[13] with Benjamin Lazar Davis, which released its first single "Broke Me in Two" in September 2015.

In 2014 she began to work and perform with Scottish folk outfit Lau, producing their album The Bell That Never Rang, released in May 2015.

In 2015, Joan performed with the English alternative rock band Placebo on their MTV Unplugged session. She sang a duet with vocalist Brian Molko in the song "Protect Me From What I Want".

Releases

as Joan as Police Woman

Albums

EPs

Singles

Compilation appearances

References

  1. ↑ "Discogs credits" List of writing, arranging and performance credits spanning the period 1991-2014. accessed March 14, 2014.
  2. ↑ Righi, Len. "Joan Wasser survives as Joan As Police Woman". PopMatters. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Joan as Police Woman..." Bernadette McNulty, The Daily Telegraph, August 5, 2006
  4. ↑ "Art nouveau mag" Announcement of an exhibition in Harlem (NYC), October 7, 2010.
  5. 1 2 3 Guy Blackman, "Joan as Policewoman", The Age, September 18, 2006
  6. ↑ "1990-1996 shows" Songkick listing of The Dambuilders shows
  7. ↑ "Radiohead 1995 tour" Randee Dawn, "Modulation Across the Nation" Alternative Press, October 1995 (Issue 87), accessed March 12, 2014.
  8. ↑ Allmusic.com entry for The Dambuilders album Against the Stars. Accessed, March 12, 2014.
  9. ↑ "Guardian Interview 2008" Jude Rogers, "Blasé is not the vibe", The Guardian, July 15, 2008.
  10. ↑ "About IMA section" Listed as one of the past winners.
  11. ↑ Aaron Schatz. "Mind Science of the Mind | Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
  12. ↑ "Kingdom For A Kiss - The Jeff Buckley Discography: Appearances & Collaborations". Jeffbuckley.com. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
  13. ↑ 2001
  14. ↑ "Reveal Records: Joan As Police Woman". Reveal-records.com. Retrieved September 30, 2009.
  15. ↑ "Orchestral Variations V.01". The Separate. Retrieved 2014-03-10.

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