Bio

Joanne's musical roots can be traced back to the tender age of one-and-a-half when her mother forced her to sing songs such as 'Insy Winsy Spider' and 'The Wheels on the Bus'before she could actually talk. Never-the-less, the pre-school music class was thoroughly impressed with her pre-lingual talents and so the paparazzi dodging began.

Throughout her primary years Joanne didn't miss an opportunity to learn an instrument and by the age of 12, was a master at violin, recorder, piano, clarinet, trumpet and pacman. At High School, Joanne spent more time in the music department than she spent sleeping, eating and hunting put together (not that she ever went hunting). She immersed herself in every musical group she could and started her guitar career by learning some highly complex jazz chords like D, Am and G. She played trumpet in the world famous Northcote College Jazz Band and as part of that experience, got opportunities to travel to the Manly Jazz Festival in Sydney as well as the Monterey Jazz Festival in California.

In addition to loving instrumental music, Joanne's desire to sing continued to grow. She left school at age 18 to pursue a Bachelor of Music Education, where she fronted bands such as 'The Music Education Band' and other such bands with no names. At uni, she also had the revelation that she still couldn't play enough instruments so jumped at the opportunity to study jazz bass intensively for a year. She also took her guitar playing to a new level playing maestro chords such as Dsus and Am7 and G7.

In August 2007, Joanne joined Queen City Big Band and immediately started touring around the whole of Grey Lynn with the band, both playing trumpet and singing. Among other things, singing with Queen City has given Jo the opportunity to sing along side Ray Woolf and she has also gotten to lead several thousand people in their favourite Christmas ditties at Carols by Candlelight at Potters Park Christmas 2007 and 2008.

Throughout this time, Jo has also been writing her own songs and performing solo and duo at restaurants, private functions and youth events.

In spring 2008, she recorded her first acoustic album in a friend's home studio. She has just started recording in a studio in Parnell.