Joan Wasser (born July 26, 1970, in Biddeford, Maine) is a violinist and singer/songwriter in the indie rock world. She's best known for her album Real Life. In addition to her stints with Dambuilders, Mind Science of the Mind, and Those Bastard Souls, Wasser's resume includes live performances and studio work with Lou Reed, Tanya Donelly, Sheryl Crow, Dave Gahan, Elton John, the Scissor Sisters, Antony and the Johnsons, Joseph Arthur, Mary Timony, Rufus Wainwright, Jeff Buckley and Adam Green
In late 1997 she created a band with the remaining members of Buckley's band called Black Beetle and finished an eponymous album which was never released. This was the first project where she was writing as well as fronting a band. Jeff buckley was her boyfriend at the time he drowned in '97.
According to Songfacts, Wasser took her curious stage name from the fact that she once attended a fancy dress party as an officer of the NYPD.