Rainy Orteca of Joan as Police Woman
Rainy Orteca, currently of Joan as Police Woman, started playing music at a very young age due to a hippie upbringing. Her seductive riffs help to define the finer elements of the band’s most recent release—Real Life.
“I first played the acoustic guitar when I was 3,” Orteca explained. “I laid it across my lap in a way that makes no sense to me now at all, and I plucked out a rockabilly riff!”
From that point on, music and Orteca engaged in a torrid love affair that would woo her from the binds of a traditional education and escort her into the new world of professional musicianship where she could prove herself as a talented bassist, guitarist and vocalist.
She has gone on to play with Joan Osbourne, Lou Reed and Rufus Wainwright and her most recent work shows a very soulful sound that is reminiscent of PJ Harvey.
The band has just embarked upon a deluge of international dates to promote the new CD, which was released June 12th. (Listen to tracks at joanaspolicewoman.com.)
As a seasoned siren, Orteca feels that dealing with close-minded individuals is the most difficult part of living an out lifestyle.
“Distance and uneasiness can be generated by proclaiming what one is and what one is not,” Orteca said. “It can be oppressive, in my opinion. People love to stereotype.”
EC
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