Big Joanie

Big Joanie is a Black feminist punk band from London, active since 2013. The group forms in response to the lack of intersectionality in the UK DIY punk scene and aims to bring Black feminist punk into a predominantly white, male-dominated environment. Its sound combines 1960s girl-group melodies with riot grrrl energy, and the band is tagged as punk and grunge.

Formation and early releases

The band starts after Stephanie Phillips posts online in 2013 looking for like-minded women to form a Black feminist punk group. Phillips takes lead guitar, with Kiera Coward-Deyell on bass and Chardine Taylor-Stone on drums. Big Joanie takes its name from Phillips’ mother, Joan. The trio plays its first show at the cooperatively run DIY Space for London’s First Timers event. That same year it releases its first single, “Out in the Country,” a lo-fi instrumental track.

In 2014, the band releases its debut EP, Sistah Punk. In 2016, it follows with Crooked Room, issued on its own Sistah Punk Records. That release marks a significant step in the band’s development, including the title track’s sparse build and its discordant version of TLC’s “No Scrubs.”

Line-up change and debut album

In 2017, Coward-Deyell moves to Scotland and Estella Adeyeri joins on bass. That year, the band also supports Downtown Boys on their UK tour. In 2018, Big Joanie releases its debut album, Sistahs, produced by Margo Broom and issued by Thurston Moore and Eva Prinz’s Daydream Library. The album draws on the legacies of X-Ray Spex, Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney, and is described as a set of rhythmically varied, melody-led songs.

Later work and collaborations

After touring with acts including Parquet Courts, Sleater-Kinney and Bikini Kill, and playing its own headline shows, Big Joanie releases a cover of Solange’s “Cranes in the Sky” in 2020. It later signs with Kill Rock Stars for US releases and issues a split single with Charmpit. The band returns to the studio with Margo Broom for its second album, Back Home, released in 2022.