JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN

Depois de uma aplaudida actuação no Festival Sintra Misty 2010 e de uma longa digressão pelo Reino Unido, Bélgica, Holanda, Alemanha, França, Itália… Joan regressa ao nosso país para uma digressão de apresentação do seu novo disco Deep Field.

Gravado em Brooklyn em Março passado Joan descreve-o como “o meu disco mais aberto e alegre”. Uma viagem rock cheia de alma e certamente o seu trabalho mais universal.

Joan Wasser, também conhecida por Joan As Police Woman, tem um currículo impressionante: tocou com Lou Reed no fabuloso The Raven, foi recrutada por Hal Willner para a banda de suporte da sua homenagem a Leonard Cohen, esteve na formação de Anthony & The Johnsons, fez parte do grupo de Rufus Wainwright e, antes que o fôlego acabe, também tocou com Nick Cave.

Mais ainda: foi para ela que Jeff Buckley escreveu Everybody Here Wants You. Ela era a companheira de Buckley à altura da sua morte.

Artistas assim não aparecem todos os dias. É normal as pessoas saírem sem fôlego de um dos seus concertos. Porque as canções de Joan as Police Woman são rajadas de sentimentos que todos atingem. Directamente no coração.


Nicole Eitner fará a 1.ª parte do concerto. Cantora, compositora, autora, distinguida com o primeiro prémio no concurso SXSW Webchange Hottest Band Competition, no Texas. Esta alemã radicada em Portugal possui uma voz e uma visão artística singular.

Algumas citações de imprensa:

“Joan junta os pontos entre ícones como Billie Holliday e artistas mais modernos como Joni Mitchell. Sim, ela é assim tão boa.” in The Sun
"Uma voz tão espantosa e comovente que faz todas as outras parecerem vulgares e mundanas" in The Guardian
"Faz de cada música o espelho de um determinado estado de espírito." in  Blitz
"Ouvi-la ao vivo é um privilégio" in Sábado
Metro - 'Stunning'
Uncut - 'This is breathtakingly good music'
Q - 'To Survive is further testament to Joan Wasser's intoxicating talents'
The Word - 'Achingly beautiful... Joan Wasser is a huge talent'
Mojo - 'full of meditative beauty... ravishing and lovelorn'
Sunday Times - Pop CD of the Week - 'Sensational.'
The Observer - 'Soulful Perfection'
The Guardian - 'a voice so wondrous and moving that it makes everyone else's seem ordinary and mundane'


JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN RETURNS FROM THE DEEP FIELD

The new JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN album, The Deep Field begins with the words “I want you to fall in love with me,” and continues to unfurl an unashamed lust for life. It’s unquestionably her best, most significant album yet – in Joan’s own words, “my most open, joyous record.” A rocking, soulful journey, The Deep Field is Joan’s most personal, and her most universal album to date.

In March this year, Joan Wasser (aka Joan As Police Woman) returned to Trout Studio in Brooklyn to begin recording The Deep Field with ‘friend and collaborator in sound’, Bryce Goggin. It was the same studio Joan used to record her first two albums and Trout once again became a hub for a cast of musicians and friends eager to play their part, “I am lucky, living in New York City and playing in so many different situations; I get to choose from the creamiest of the crop. All total bad-ass free-thinkers!”

The Deep Field – the title refers to a tiny and far distant part of space - follows the critical and commercial success of her previous albums, Real Life and To Survive and it confirms, if confirmation were needed, that Joan Wasser is a truly original talent; utterly captivating both on record and on stage, Joan returns to the UK and Europe in early 2011 for a soon to be announced tour.


JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN
Biography October 2010
instant proof, with its tribal/urban beat leading into a taut drum intro, Moog bass, surging female back-ups and flaming guitar coda. Joan says she was smitten by Marvin Gaye, Sly and the Family Stone, Bowie, Curtis Mayfield and Stevie Wonder too, on The Deep Field, the bliss and funk levels rise. Of the ten songs, three break the six-minute mark – “I wanted the music to feel freer, to be my Maggot Brain!” Joan says, referring to the Funkadelic classic – and all work up a head of steam. Simply, this record cooks. Sometimes it simmers, and by the time she reaches the soaring finale ‘I Was Everyone’, it reaches boiling point.

The energy behind this transition is partly down to the album’s rat-pack of musicians, both old and new to Joan’s records and stage outfits. “I am lucky, living in New York City and playing in so many different situations; I get to choose from the creamiest of the crop. All total bad-ass free-thinkers!” she beams. Producer Bryce Goggin returns for the third time, alongside drummer (and back-up singer) Parker Kindred, Moog bassist and organist Tyler Wood, guitarist Timo Ellis, clavinet virtuoso Chris Brown, bassist Nathan Larson (of Shudder To Think fame, who’s also responsible for the gorgeous R&B-smooth vox on ‘Chemmie’) and Doug Wieselman on horns and that climatic guitar solo on ‘Nervous’. There are five bassists involved – “I wanted different feels for different songs” - three female back-up singers and, among the male voices, Joseph Arthur, whose trademark mahogany baritone was heard on Real Life and Joan’s recent Covers stop-gap album and now guests on ‘Run For Love’, ‘Flash’, ‘Human Condition’ and ‘Forever And A Year’.

But the overriding change has been Joan’s own life - coming to terms with her mother’s passing, surviving a couple of un-nourishing relationships and also turning 40 in July this year. “A lot of people seem to shy away from birthdays, especially their fortieth, but I tend to embrace change; I’ve attempted to do the opposite in the past and boy, does that hurt, and not work,” she declares. “Turning 40 was an opportunity to embrace another level of letting go; of expectations from others, of worn-out voices in my head and generally of any semblance of what I may have once thought I should be. I’ve done a lot to raise my self-esteem. A lot has to do with helping other people. Remember, I am aiming for total freedom here, people.”

One opportunity came by joining Damon Albarn’s Africa Express mission to Ethiopia earlier this year. “I had an unexpectedly cathartic experience. Everywhere we went, on the street or in the clubs, people would start talking to you, asking where you are from and within no time, they had sat you down at their table, introduced you to the guy they were going to marry, their sisters and their husbands, their friends, their parents…Honestly, it made me feel better about talking to anyone and everyone on the NYC subway. It was lovely to be reminded of how we could all communicate with each other, all the time, if we took the chance. There is so much ease there. There is no time or space for worrying about being cool. These people began civilization. They don't have to be concerned with anything. They are the creators of cool.”

In the calm, sultry ‘Human Condition’, Joan sings “I smile at strangers knowing it's alright / When they smile right back at me / I know we agree / That good living requires smiling at strangers.” She calls the track “the crux of the album,” but every track contains personal revelation and emotional collision. ‘Nervous’ concerns what Joan calls “the freedom to admit you’re vulnerable and anxious,” in a new-found relationship, rather than just projecting bravado. A stewing ‘Run For Love’ also involves courtship where both parties are “angling to get with the other, each trying to communicate their interest in the other and that excitement, agitation and anticipation of the new connection.”

‘Chemmie’ is an exclusively positive spin on that dance, experiencing the “undeniable chemistry that soars past logic” that exists between lovers, wrapped up in the form of ‘60s Philly soul. Another of the gentler grooves, ‘Action Man’ even dares to suggest to stop thinking and intellectualizing and just surrender to the here and now (“Ain't we talked enough already / And don't you wanna be the action man? / Let's dance”) inspired by what Joan calls, “the ease,” of Marvin Gaye’s arrangements on his Here My Dear album.

Other songs are on a more singular trip. A forceful ‘The Magic’ involves trying to find, “the alchemy,” to stop the brain spinning into self-destructive obsession. ‘Flash’ – written during a solo trip to Mexico – is a song of self-acceptance, the ‘flash” being the realisation you have moved on without really knowing how. The hazy ‘60s psych folk feel only compliments the hazy mood. ‘Kiss The Specifics’ (which harks back to Real Life’s luminous glide), is “for the lack of a better way to express it, about being in love with being alive. Being grateful.” “I will never be careful what I wish for,” she croons, and means it.

Even more than ‘Flash’, ‘Forever And A Year’ is the album’s most haunting reverie, epitomized by its plea “Give in to the night / the legs of afterglow / the last leap open” and finally “I may go/ As soon as now / So I'm telling you / I love you forever / And this is always sealed / Within the deep deep field.”

Which leaves one very crucial song. ‘I Was Everyone’ closes the album on an ecstatic high, which makes sense given the inspiration was Joan of Arc, who Joan was named after. It’s sung from Joan Of Arc’s perspective, of the self-doubt and self-worth she experienced when receiving visions. As the music reaches boiling point, the lyrics nail the same core as ‘Human Condition; “What if I woke up tomorrow not afraid? / I could decide to trust the voices and take courage…For a moment I could feel it / I could feel it / For a moment I was everyone who had never been quiet / How would I spend my whole life?”

“This idea is very important to me,” Joan concludes. “What if Rosa Parks hadn’t spoken up? What if people didn’t say what they thought? I have to trust myself. It’s a song about honouring oneself.”

Some artists play a part, act stuff out, and like to hide behind imagery. That’s fine, but it’s not for everyone. Some, like Joan, want to communicate direct, to tell the truth, and share the honesty. To honour themselves and their audience. It may be cliché to read about it but wonderful to experience. Because this is real life. This is the deep field.