Since her debut in 2004, Joan as Police Woman has released eight studio albums, two live albums, two albums of cover songs, one EP, and several singles. A masterful violinist, guitarist, singer, and songwriter, she frequently performs live, both as a solo artist and as a collaborator. Throughout her touring and recording career, she has played with many other world-renowned musicians across genres including Tony Allen, Damon Albarn, Laurie Anderson, Beck, Afel Bocoum, Justin Vivian Bond, Jeff Buckley, John Cale, Doveman, Benjamin Lazar Davis, Aldous Harding, Daniel Johnston, Norah Jones, Lau, Meshell Ndegeocello, Toshi Reagon, Lou Reed, RZA, David Sylvian, Sparklehorse, Sufjan Stevens, Woodkid, and Rufus Wainwright. 

Joan’s most recent album, The Solution Is Restless, was released in 2021 to critical acclaim. The jazz-inspired, improvisational music was written and recorded in 2019 as a collaborative session with Tony Allen and Dave Okumu of The Invisible, but it wasn’t produced until 2020. During the pandemic, Joan would ride her bike through Brooklyn to meet engineer Adam Sachs at Trout Recording and, together, they created the final record in a sort of two-person pod. According to a review in The Guardian, “The Solution Is Restless is an album that worms its way under your skin, reminding you of half a dozen records you love while sounding unlike anything else around.”

Joan started playing music as a child in the late 1970s and, ever since, she has been creating new sounds that surprise and delight people.

After being adopted as an infant, she grew up in Norwalk, Conn., where she initially picked up a violin at age eight, during orchestra lessons at her public elementary school. With a natural talent and passion for the instrument, she soon started playing in local youth symphonies and then continued pursuing classical music as a student at Boston University. But, while in college, she also started experimenting with how she could play differently, pushing boundaries as she began playing the violin with bands on the local punk and indie rock scene, including the Dambuilders. She ultimately joined the band and played violin on three of their records. 

After graduating from Boston University with an anthropology degree in 1994, Joan moved to New York City and began working as a session musician, playing violin across genres, including classic, rock, pop, and R&B. Around this same time, which she describes as magical, she fell in love with Jeff Buckley and they were engaged a few years later. When he tragically drowned in an accident in 1997, the traumatic loss brought with it deep pain and despair. To cope, Joan played violin and started singing, for the first time, with some of Jeff’s former bandmates in a group called the Black Beetle. After helping each other through a very difficult period, the band broke up and Joan started playing solo shows.