Joan As Police Woman makes her long-awaited return to Australia at the end of the month, accompanied by a full band, to perform songs from across her expansive discography, including her 2021 album 'The Solution Is Restless'.
During lockdown, Joan [Wasser] devoted her newfound spare time to writing and recording new music."Being creative is the thing that has kept me alive in general, so when all the touring got cancelled and everyone was just home, I flipped into writing mode and wrote and recorded," Joan says.
"I have a home studio, but I also rode my bike to the studio I work in usually. I was the only person allowed in that studio, so I had full access all the time.
"It was wonderful; it really saved my mental state because New York City got decimated.
"It was a place to focus all of my energy rather than all my focus going to worrying, because I was going to be doing that anyway."
It was during this time Joan produced 'The Solution Is Restless' by delving into a previously recorded improv session with Dave Okumu of The Invisible and the late drummer Tony Allen.
"I had recorded what were the building blocks for this record with Dave Okumo and Tony Allen in late 2019," Joan explains.
"I put a session together and we improved for one night. I took the files and thought 'when I have time, at some indiscriminate time in the future, I will listen to this and see if there's anything to work with'.
"Maybe I'd get one song, maybe I'd get three songs if I was lucky; and then the lockdown happened, and I not only had all this extra time I had an exorbitant amount of time."
Ten songs later, 'The Solution Is Restless' was complete gifting listeners the next instalment in Joan As Police Woman's celebrated back catalogue, which will be on full display when she tours Australia.
"I am so thrilled," Joan enthuses. We start in Perth, and I don't get to play Perth every time I'm there, so I'm really thrilled about that.
"I have such a wonderful time every time I've been [to Australia]; there is such a love for music there and such a caring for musicians. Just a warmth.
"So, even though we're going to be there not in summer, I know it's going to be beautiful weather anyway."
Joan will be accompanied by a live band comprised of three of her closest musical comrades and collaborators as they treat audiences to a wide-ranging set list traversing Joan As Police Woman's career. "I've got three amazing musicians with me," Joan says.
"Parker Kindred, who I've worked with for 15 years, playing drums; Benjamin Lazar Davis is on bass – actually he plays all the instruments at some point during the show – we made a record in 2016 called 'Let It Be You'; we'll be doing songs off that too.
"And an incredible keyboard player named Eric Lane, he's toured with me as well for maybe seven years. And we're going to be doing a bunch of songs off the new record and we will also be doing songs from every other record."
Joan As Police Woman 2022 Tour Dates
Sat 28 May - Astor Theatre (Perth)Tue 31 May - The Gov (Adelaide)
Thu 2 Jun - Palais Theatre (Melbourne)
Fri 3 Jun - State Theatre (Sydney)
Sat 4 Jun - The Tivoli (Brisbane)
