Real name Joan Wasser, 38, she grew up in Connecticut as a keen classical musician, but forged her career as a singer-songwriter after moving to New York. Before releasing her 2006 debut album Real Life, she toured with Antony and the Johnsons and Rufus Wainwright.

This year she released her second album To Survive and will be touring the UK in December playing dates across the country.

On Friday, December 5 she plays at the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds. Tickets are available in advance from Jumbo and Crash Records.

DID YOU FEEL PRESSURE WITH THE NEW ALBUM TO SURVIVE AFTER THE SUCCESS OF REAL LIFE?
Sure I did! I felt anxiety because I'm a people-pleaser and I want to make every person on the planet happy. Thankfully I've realised I cannot do this. I also realised that if I continued on that path I would go absolutely crazy and not even be able to make a record without thinking about trying to read people's minds and think what they would want from the record. I had to stop those feelings of fortune-telling and just make a record I was really proud of.

YOU'VE GOT A NEW DRUMMER IN THE BAND, HAVEN'T YOU?
Yeah, it was an unusual decision. Ben (Perowsky) and I actually played as a duo together way before Rainy – the bass player – had joined us and it was great, but it just naturally came to an end. But he plays his own music and maybe he's not a massive fan of touring. Touring is really hard and really disruptive to personal lives. Thankfully I have a really great friend, Parker (Kindred), who I've played with before and he could join. Which is really lucky for me. The band members are really good friends, and to love the people you're working and making music with is a necessity for me.

YOU'RE SETTING OFF ON A BIG TOUR NOW, ARE YOU PASSIONATE ABOUT PLAYING LIVE?
It's the way you stay alive as a musician because record sales don't do it anymore. It pushes you to put on a great show, which is in my opinion equally if not more important than records.

WHEN YOU PLAY LIVE YOU'RE RENOWNED FOR YOUR CROWD INTERACTION. DO YOU EVER GET TIRED AND THINK 'I CAN'T CHAT TONIGHT'?
Yeah, definitely, then I just shout "I'm feeling tired!". There's no difference to me on stage as there is off it. I just really try to be myself as much as possible. That's really important to me. It makes it fun for me, I want to give the people the show that they want. And that's always a little bit different every night because it depends who's there, and getting a feel for where people are at. There would be no show if people didn't come, so it's just nice to acknowledge that and communicate. Playing live for me is just as much about laughing as much as playing – interacting is great and I just love it.

WHEN YOU'RE ON TOUR DO YOU GO STRAIGHT TO THE VENUES OR DO YOU SEE THE LOCAL AREAS?
Sometimes we get to take a look around. For the next tour I'm trying to get bikes attached under the bus. On the last tour we rented bicycles as much as possible, and, boy, is that fun! It's an incentive to get up, which is just so nice.

ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO THE UK LEG OF YOUR TOUR?
The UK is pretty amazing for me, and the people are pretty incredible. It's really fun, because now I know a little bit more about the cultural differences in different areas. I really appreciate the humour in the UK, I just love it – everyone has an elevated sense of humour, it's part of the culture from early on. I really love that crazy river by New-castle, it always looks haunted, seems like it's misty and the Grim Reaper might just come up at any time. That's also combined with the fact we're always playing at the Gateshead, which is always an amazing venue.

YOU'RE GOOD FRIENDS WITH OTHER MUSICIANS INCLUDING RUFUS WAINRIGHT AND ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS. IS IT GOOD TO HAVE FRIENDS IN THE SAME INDUSTRY?
Yeah it's really nice to have good friends that do what you do. The fact is, in New York City you can't really get away from it, it's like everyone's an artist – everyone! I've lived here for a long time and I have a group of friends that I really look forward to seeing. That's why I love living here, because of the people, I think that's true for most people.

DIDN'T YOU PRESENTING A CLASSICAL PROGRAMME ON BBC WORLD NEWS?
Yes, a programme on the visionaries of classical music – I presented the one on Shostakovich. It was really fun and I felt really honoured to be asked. When I was younger I used to talk about Shostakovich all the time and how the music was really important to me – and it really did change my life, so it was really great for me to be able to do this.

Joan as Police Woman's new single, To America, is released on December 1.

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