Born on July 26: Joan Wasser (Joan As Police Woman) transcends pain through music

Born in 1970 in Maine, USA, this multi-talented singer-songwriter has a fiercely independent career.

Adopted as a child, she grew up in Connecticut with her brother. Introduced to the violin at a young age, she studied classical music at Boston University, but gradually abandoned classical music, which she found too repetitive, to turn to rock and participate in the New York alternative scene in the 1990s. She has performed as a violinist and singer in numerous bands, including The Dambuilders, Black Beetle, Anthony & the Johnsons, and Those Bastard Souls. She clearly pays as much attention to the originality of the names under which she performs as to that of her music!

In 2002, she launched her current project, Joan As Police Woman, inspired by the 1970s TV series "Police Woman" starring Angie Dickinson.

Since 2004, she has released a fundamentally original body of work, oscillating between soul, pop, folk, and various experiments, through several solo albums, such as "To Survive," which reached number ten on the Belgian charts—her highest ever!

She also has numerous collaborations to her credit with artists as diverse as Elton John, Rufus Wainwright, Lou Reed, Tony Allen, Gorillaz, John Cale, David Sylvian (ex-Japan), Laurie Anderson, Dave Gahan (Depeche Mode), and Sparklehorse, among others.

Joan Wasser, Jeff Buckley's partner until his tragic death along the Mississippi in 1997, began singing in an attempt to ease her pain. "The pain was too great. I was literally at the point where I was going to die if I didn't find another way to express myself. I had never really sung; it scared me a lot. But it was how I was able to express the feelings I had inside, which were eating away at me."

Concert on August 12 at the Rivierenhof Open-Air Theater in Antwerp (Belgium)

Other concerts at the Rivierenhof Open-Air Theater this summer:

August 1: Punk Night, free concert featuring The Kids

August 4: The Libertines

August 11: Wardruna (sold-out)

August 16: Gabriel Rios

August 30: Kids With Buns

September 1 & 10: Matt Berninger (sold-out)

September 2: Compact Disk Dummies (sold-out)

September 6 & 7: Eefje De Visser

September 12: Dermot Kennedy (sold-out)

(MH with Stéphane Soupart - Photo : © Etienne Tordoir)

Photo: Joan Wasser with Joan As A Police Woman on stage at the Botanique in Brussels, Belgium, on October 28, 2024