Joan as Policewoman has taken her time finding a voice. Now the ex-partner of Jeff Buckley and former member of Anthony & the Johnsons has graduated from experimental violin playing to giving nuanced vocal performances that are catching the public imagination. She talks to Tony Clayton-Lea

SHE is known to family, friends and nice people in authority as Joan Wasser, but to the world at large (or at least those who know her music and her associations with Rufus Wainwright and Antony & the Johnsons) she is known by the title of Joan as Policewoman. Interesting name, interesting person, even more interesting background.

Those with more time on their hands would know Wasser when she was an integral part of such US bands as The Dambuilders, Those Bastard Souls and Black Beetle. Joan was part of the new music scene set hanging around Boston and other East Coast cities. She studied classical violin at Boston University and was good friends with the likes of Mary Timony and Nathan Larson. (Timony is a former member of Autoclave and Helium, Larson is a movie soundtrack specialist, a member of tipped new act Hot One, and partner of The Cardigans' Nina Persson). She was also, once, more than just good friends with Jeff Buckley.

We're talking nascent and organic scene makers here - people who get into music for the love and passion of it, not because it might make them famous for, ooh, let's see, a few minutes and a reality show.

"I was studying classical music, but I was also exploring the instrument through other areas," says Joan. "Expanding it within a rock band, playing it through different amps and effects, learning how it worked in a band situation so that you're playing melodies with it in concert with other instruments. Making it part of the fabric."

About eight years ago Joan started singing, but only to herself. She thought her voice sounded foreign and strange. "I was quite unused to it as a singing voice, as an instrument. At least, that's the way I felt. No one heard it for a little while, but I eventually learned to use it in solo shows, because some of the songs I was writing were too intimate for a band setting. I kept playing solo for some time, but then I joined Antony's band in 1999. We were touring and then, in 2004, Rufus asked me to support him and then join his band. And through them quite a few more people got to see what I was doing with my solo music."

Which leads us swiftly on to JaP's debut solo album, Real Life. Outwardly, it's a mixture of too many styles that threaten to tumble down at the touch of a remote control or the swirl of an iPod dial. But look behind the obvious and you'll find a dignified work, musically and lyrically, of true modern class.

"I have this need to express myself very honestly, which is something I didn't do for a long time. First of all, playing an instrument is still very different to me from singing. It expresses something different within me, and now that I've started singing it seems very freeing to be able to be raw and honest with my emotions. I avoided them for such a long time with lots of screeching, distorted violin. Go figure that.

"I'm not saying that the only way in which I can express emotions is through playing my violin - that's not the case at all. But when I began singing I started to realise I was not very good at interpreting my own feelings. When I started to explore that it was amazing for me, because I'm quite confident and gregarious, and never had a problem expressing my opinions on anything.

"All of a sudden, though, I'm singing, and I'm thinking, what do I want to sing about? Do I believe in what I'm singing? So there then came a massive filtering system, from the source of the emotion to the expression, and I tried to get rid of that filter through learning how to sing and how to be honest to myself about what I was doing."

Facing her fears and transposing those experiences into songs is something that Wasser has long been adept at. Ultimately, she says, when you face fears they're a lot less scary than you might think, and the barriers are worse than what could be hiding behind the wall. It was all about her growing up through a painful but extremely rewarding time, she admits in a voice that drifts in and out of slight nervousness.

"I'm a very disciplined person, and when I put my mind to something I will force myself through it. I have learned that you don't know what you're going to get until you've gotten within reach of your goal. There have been little things along the way that have given me a heads-up to ecstasy - and it does feel like that when you rid yourself of a lot of stuff you don't need.

"I try to keep focused, too. You get paid back when you begin to treat yourself better, because you then treat the people around you better, and you get more positive responses from them. That gains momentum, and you then know that you're doing the right thing."

It would be wrong, she implies (and her background clearly proves) that any sudden appearance on her part in the public eye is due to the semi-mainstream successes of Wainwright and Antony. They've been beneficial to her, she agrees, but they were not the impetus. She's is no longer in Antony's band, anyway. "I left before he gained major success. I saw that take off and watched him become quite a massive commercial proposition, which was very exciting. But it would be unfair of people to say that Antony was instrumental in my own success.

"That said, I attribute him with making my life a better place. When I met Antony I was in an almost trauma situation in my life [ Wasser was going out with Buckley at the time of his tragic death from drowning in 1997] and meeting him and joining his band changed my life for the better in many ways. Also, collaborating with him was something of a renaissance for me. I was reunited with playing quiet, chamber-like music and being part of an ensemble band set-up that was concerned with space, being gentle and soft. It really helped me through a very difficult time in my life."

She's quite touched at this stage, her nervousness replaced by the very thing, perhaps, that prompted her to talk about her fears. "I thank Antony for my life. How much he is perceived to be a part of my record or my career is outside my control, but I will always be thankful to him and feel very lucky to know him."

Wasser has been in Dublin before, both as support to and part of Wainwright's band. She's looking forward to returning on what will be, she lets slip, her 36th birthday. "I'm planning on having the time of my life." Someone get a cake ready - we feel a party coming on.

Joan as Policewoman plays Crawdaddy, Dublin, on Wednesday, July 26th and Cyprus Avenue, Cork on Thursday, July 27th. Real Life is on release through Reveal/Vital