A year since this critical and commercial success of her universally acclaimed Real Life, comes the much anticipated follow-up, To Survive. Real Life brought Joan Wasser out of the shadows and established her as that rare thing, a truly unique and original voice. Songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist, Joan has bewitched fans across Europe and the US over the last two years and is set to garner a wealth of new devotees with To Survive. An album of unashamedly heartfelt songs, in Joan’s words, “I am always trying to dig deeper into the emotional experience. I want to access the most honest place I can, distill it and present it in a way that makes sense musically.”
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”
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