Joan As Police Woman has shared We Don't Own It, a new single from Real Life Evolution, her reimagining of her 2006 debut album Real Life. The album is out on UK label Reveal Records, and it lands a week before her Real Life 20th Anniversary Tour starts on 3 November.
The song has two versions. The album take was recorded by Danny Blume at Hidden Quarry Studios in Bearsville, New York, with Joan on vocals and synths, Thomas Bartlett on bass and Parker Kindred on drums. The press release describes it as a supple groove with Grace Jones-style swagger and reggae-touched rhythms. The second is a stripped-down live trio video from her Real Life Anniversary Sessions series, filmed at The Owl Music Parlor in Brooklyn, with Joan on electric guitar, Jeremy Gustin on drums and Will Graefe on acoustic guitar, all three singing harmonies.
Joan Wasser wrote the song after Elliott Smith died. She says the frenzy around the details of his death reminded her of what she learned years earlier when she lost her friend, fiance and collaborator Jeff Buckley: "Grief makes us desperate for answers, but death doesn't offer them… Death is something to sit with, not to solve." The album version was built around one of Parker Kindred's vintage 80s drum machines, in what she calls the Sly Stone approach of letting the drum machine drive the whole creative process.
A song that began as a way of sitting with two lost friends, and now gets a second life as both a drum machine groove and a live trio performance, is exactly the sort of thing I want to back here. Re-recording your own debut with a new cast of players, 20 years on, takes some nerve, and it deserves to be heard.
The single follows Save Me, which features Iggy Pop. Joan has toured with his band, and he recorded his part while they were on the road in New Zealand (she says the birds outside had strong opinions about the session). Krystle Warren sings on I Defy, and the ten-track album also includes Christobel, Eternal Flame and the title track Real Life. Real Life Evolution is out digitally, on CD and on limited edition red marble vinyl via Bandcamp.
Real Life 20th Anniversary Tour, UK and Ireland dates first:
- 5 and 6 November – London, Union Chapel
- 7 November – Manchester, RNCM
- 9 November – Glasgow, Oran Mor
- 21 February – Brighton, Komedia
- 22 February – Cambridge Junction (J2)
- 23 February – Norwich Arts Centre
- 24 February – Leeds, Howard Assembly Room
The tour also takes in Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Hungary, France, Italy and Spain, with new dates in Australia and New Zealand in March 2027. Tickets: https://www.joanaspolicewoman.com/tour
Listen to We Don't Own It on Bandcamp: https://joanaspolicewoman.bandcamp.com/track/we-dont-own-it-real-life-evolution-version
Watch the Real Life Anniversary Sessions video: https://youtu.be/VfRIb8YaRpA
Album: https://revealrecords.lnk.to/reallifeevolution