The Dambuilders In 1991, Wasser joined
the Dambuilders who were signed to
Elektra Records in 1994. The band played a number of shows on the East Coast, and found an admirer in
Colin Greenwood of
Radiohead. On stage, Wasser managed to stand out with "bright costumes and dyed, often dreadlocked hair". Wasser augmented her role within the band, adding guitar and keyboard parts, singing vocals, as well as co-writing several songs as found on the album
Against the Stars. Wasser began to make a name for herself in the indie rock world during her time in The Dambuilders as she developed her aggressive style of playing, which led to work outside the group. Wasser moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1996, while The Dambuilders disbanded in October 1997.
Black Beetle In May 1997, her fiance of three years, musician
Jeff Buckley,
drowned accidentally in
Memphis. She found it "such a traumatic experience of loss. I needed to grieve but I didn't know how". In late 1997, she created a band with the remaining members of Buckley's band called Black Beetle and finished an eponymous album that was never released. This was the first project where she was writing as well as fronting a band. She commented, "I found singing terrifying at first, I didn't know about the boundaries of my voice and I had no idea what words I wanted to say. The violin had been my voice for so long." The group self-released a five-track eponymous EP in 2004, as Wasser had "decided to do it without a record deal because I wanted to make music on my own terms".
Real Life In December 2005, Wasser signed a distribution deal with
Reveal Records, a British indie label, which subsequently re-released the self-titled debut EP, Joan as Police Woman's full-length debut,
Real Life, appeared in the UK on June 12, 2006, and through
PIAS in Europe and elsewhere. She embarked on a tour around Europe where she played a mixture of headlining shows and support slots, including the
Guillemots. The album was released in the USA on June 12, 2007, on Cheap Lullaby Records based in Los Angeles. In early 2008,
Real Life won in The 7th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best Pop/Rock Album. The album included three singles, "Christobel", "The Ride", and "Eternal Flame", which was supported by a video directed by
Leah Meyerhoff.
To Survive Her second album,
To Survive, was released in June 2008 and featured Rufus Wainwright on the song "To America". It contained the singles "The Magic", "Nervous" and "Chemmie".
The Classic On March 10, 2014, Wasser released her fourth album,
The Classic, featuring the single "Holy City", featuring a video filmed by
Alex de Campi.
Let It Be You In 2016, Wasser collaborated with
Benjamin Lazar Davis and released the album
Let It Be You in October. It was preceded by the single "Broke Me in Two". The album received mixed reviews, with DIY noting it as a "curiously unbalanced album", while AllMusic described it as "a collection of appealingly loose, lush songs full of creativity". The duo followed the release by a UK tour.
Damned Devotion The album
Damned Devotion was released on February 9, 2018. Emily Mackay, writing for The Guardian, describes Wasser's return to her "characteristically languorous, smoky zone". Before the album release Wasser released the single
Tell Me.
Joanthology The album
Joanthology was released on May 24, 2019.
The Solution Is Restless In 2019 Wasser participated in an
Africa Express concert of March 29 organized by
Damon Albarn, where she met fellow performer
Tony Allen. Later that year the pair collaborated, with
Dave Okumu of
The Invisible, on her ninth solo album,
The Solution Is Restless. It was released in 2021. == Collaborations ==