JOAN AS a Police Woman (Joan Wasser) is coming to Portugal to perform at the Olga Cadaval cultural centre in Sintra on November 9.
Joan Wasser is a violinist and singer/songwriter in the indie rock world. Her best known album is Real Life, released in 2006. Wasser’s resume includes live performances and studio work with Lou Reed, Tanya Donelly, Sheryl Crow, Sparklehorse, Dave Gahan, Elton John, the Scissor Sisters, Antony and the Johnsons, Joseph Arthur and Rufus Wainwright.
Wasser began her career during her studies at Boston University. She played with the Boston University Symphony Orchestra before joining local bands the Lotus Eaters, Hot Trix with Mary Timony and the Dambuilders.
During her time in the Dambuilders, Wasser began to make a name for herself in the indie rock world as she developed her style of playing, which led to work outside of the band.
At the end of the 1990s, Wasser began to explore musical paths other than those limited to violin playing, adding guitar and keyboard parts to the Dambuilders recordings, singing vocals as well as co-writing several songs. Due to disappointment, creative malaise and an urgent need to expand her musical horizons, the Dambuilders ended in October 1997.
In 1999, Joan joined Antony and the Johnsons, contributing to his Mercury Award winning album I Am A Bird Now.
In June 2002, she began working as a solo artist and created a new band, Joan as Police Woman. She formed the trio in New York City which includes her as a songwriter/vocalist, violin, keyboard and guitar player, Ben Perowsky on drums, percussion and backing vocals and Rainy Orteca on bass and backing vocals.
In December 2005, Wasser signed a distribution deal with Reveal Records, and subsequently released a single as well as re-released Wasser’s debut EP. Joan As Police Woman’s full-length debut, Real Life, was released in the UK in June 2006 and in the EU, Australia and Japan through PIAS label based in Brussels. It was released in the US in June 2007 through Cheap Lullaby Records based in Los Angeles.
Her second record, To Survive, was released in June 2008. She continues to play with Rainy Orteca and is now recording with Parker Kindred, old friend and drummer of her previous band, Black Beetle.
Check out Joan as a Police Woman at www.myspace.com/joanaspolicewoman
