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Her stage name IS arresting, but for those unfamiliar with
the gorgeous intimacy of her music, it is slightly
misleading. When Joan Wasser re-invented herself as a solo
artist, after a life spent playing in bands or on the records of
more famous people, she listened to a friend who said she
looked like Angie Dickinson, the star of the American 70's
TV cop show Policewoman. "Like Charlie's Angels, but
grittier, less pink fluff" Wasser explains. "...and yeah, at a
certain point, when I challenged myself do music on my
own, I felt ready to take on anything."

Tough cop in spirit maybe, but not in the way she sounds.
The multi-skilled musical phenomenon that is Joan Wasser
- classically trained violin player, street taught punk rocker,
old soul aficionado, vocal diva - does not play the
conventional tough guy or conventional anything for that
matter. Like the slogan on her website says, 'Beauty is the
new punk rock.' Policewoman Joan's mission is to find original and ever more striking ways into our
collective heart. " I am always trying to dig deeper into the emotional experience," she says, "I want to
access the most honest place I can, distill it and present it in a way that makes sense musically."
The distance between JAPW's first album Real Life, and her second, To Survive, represents just such a
distillation. A collection of songs she wrote mostly in the shadow of her mother's battle with cancer, which
ended in her death last year, To Survive centres on Joan as piano player and singer. The guitars are mixed
way back and the pop hooks are seamlessly bedded into the idiosyncratic flow of the melodies. "I've become
obsessed with taking stuff out, leaving only the most potent elements in place," says Wasser. "I got more
into blending and integration and subtlety. I just want to be courageous enough to feel and express as much
as possible and that means ALL the emotions. True integration"

Joan Wasser has never stopped learning. She started with the violin, offered at her elementary school and
later studied music at college in Boston. Here she learned to love the unusual harmonies of the great modern
composers, Shostakovitch, Bartok and Sibelius. But her ambition was never to get stuck playing music that
had already been perfection over and over: "I used to play pieces composed by my teachers, which I liked
mainly because there was room for interpretation and they hadn't been played to death." After graduation
she fetched up in a series of art rock bands, starting with The Dambuilders. When both her violins got stolen
after a gigs, she found a customized 5 string violin/viola in a second hand shop "which I liked because of the
emotionality of the low strings. If I never have to play high notes on the violin again, I would be happy."
Wasser had acquired a considerable reputation on the East Coast alternative rock scene as a first-call side
player. She worked with Lou Reed on his album The Raven, played in the band Hal Willner assembled for
his Leonard Cohen tribute concert, was the musical director for Hal Willner's Neil Young tribute and was an
integral part of the inception of Anthony and The Johnsons - another step on the learning curve. "I'd been
playing really loud music for a long time and this was like returning to chamber music, a space where there
was room for gentleness and sensitivity."

In theearly 2000's, Wasser became a full time member of Rufus Wainwright's band. "He forced me to use
my voice in so many different ways because he was always very specific about the timbre of backing vocals
he wanted. Performing with Rufus was like a 2 and a half hour work out. Really intense. It pushed me to pay
attention to detail."

Crucially for what was to come, Wainwright invited Wasser to open his shows with a solo spot. She recorded
her first album intermittently during this touring with Rufus. One of the most beautiful songs, I Defy, was a
duet sung with, and about, Anthony Hegarty. Many featured string and horn players from her session days.
She recorded Real Life in a Brooklyn studio, Trout Recordings, which is run by producer Bryce Goggin, a
firm believer in ancient analogue equipment.

Joan was intent on capturing the sound of her trio playing together live. She stayed with this basic premise,
studio and producer for her second album, To Survive. "Music is about people playing together not
manipulating sounds on Pro-Tools," she says. "It's an act not a process."

When Tom Rose, who was considering starting a label (now REVEAL records) saw Joan play at
Birmingham Symphony Hall, opening for Rufus, her solo career took off. Soon after the release of her first
single, the Ride, Wasser had the critics swooning all over Europe. Where British audiences led, others
swiftly followed. Her most vivid recollection of the acclaim that followed in the wake of Real Life is of a
concert JAPW played in Belgrade. "Everybody knew all the words and were singing along. It was amazing."
Because of her European classical roots, but mainly because she is irresistibly drawn to do things differently,
Wasser is quite happy to be a cult star over here while remaining a comparative unknown back in the States.
"I love New York City, and I love Brooklyn, which is why I still live there" she says, "But I don't love ALL
of the USA."

She voices her misgivings about America on one of the most extraordinary songs on To Survive. Originally
inspired by the suffering of her mother, To America blossomed into a reflection on the corruption she sees as
rife in her home country. "I feel like America has come down with terminal cancer, because of all the money
that has been diverted into "protecting" our safety."

Though she recently performed at a benefit concert for Barack Obama, Wasser insists that she is not only a
protesting singer songwriter. What I write is about my relationships and my feelings and some of those
feelings are anger at the helplessness I feel regarding the hideous choices of the US govt. First and foremost,
I am a lover." Holiday is one of several songs on the new album that documents the live-in-the-moment
euphoria of new love. Others, such as Magpies, which references her namesake Joan Of Arc, are so
uncategorisably JAPW as to defy easy description. "When I was in England I became obsessed with your
bird, the magpie, powerful, very determined and quite vicious. It's about confronting my fears."
The title track catches the overall tone of the record best. A haunting piano ballad with a melody that refuses
to settle, To Survive was inspired by a lullaby her mother used to sing to her as a child to allay her recurrent
fear that was about to be burned at the stake, like the other Joan. "I still feel like that as an adult sometimes,"
Wasser says cryptically. " And I don't edit out or water down those feelings. Why should I? Everything I do
comes from my heart."

Shows - see all 11

Aug 5	Codroipo, Italy	Garden of Villa Manin	8:00pm
Aug 8	Haldern, Germany	Haldern Pop Festival	8:00pm
Aug 9	Gothenburg, Sweden	Way Out West Festival	8:00pm
Aug 10	Leicester, Sweden	Summer Sundae Festival	8:00pm
Aug 13	3523 CB Utrecht, Netherlands	Tivoli de Helling	8:00pm
Aug 14	Hasselt, Belgium	Pukkelpop	8:00pm
Aug 29	Stradbally nr. Dublin, Ireland	Electric Picnic	8:00pm
Aug 30	Argyll, Scotland, United Kingdom	Connect Music Festival	8:00pm
Oct 5	Sydney, Australia	Great Escape Festival	8:00pm
Oct 10	East Brunswick, Australia	East Brunswick Club	8:00pm

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all-time plays - 820

profile views - 1361

Discography - see all 2

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  To Survive

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  Real Life

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