Big Joanie

Formed in the heart of London’s DIY punk scene, Big Joanie, featuring guitarist Stephanie Phillips and bassist Estella Adeyeri, are a Black feminist punk band whose passionate live shows and moreish blend of nineties riot grrrl and synth-heavy post-punk, have seen them steadily rise to become one of the most championed bands of the current era.

Not only did Thurston Moore and Eva Prinz start their independent label Daydream Library Series solely to release the band’s critically celebrated debut album Sistahs, but the band have also played a coveted string of support slots since then.

2022 was an extraordinary year for Big Joanie, packed with tours with St Vincent, Courtney Barnett and IDLES, a triumphant appearance at Pitchfork Festival at London’s Roundhouse, their first-ever performance at Glastonbury and a track on Sleater-Kinney's 'Dig Me In: A Dig Me Out Covers Album'.

Following their 2020 cover of Solange Knowles’ ‘Cranes in the Sky’, released on Jack White’s Third Man Records, Big Joanie’s music returned in 2022 launching their sophomore record Back Home.  Back Home is a dramatic leap forward for the band; the band build on their tightly knit, lo-fi punk formula to bring forth a collage of blazing guitars, down-tempo dance punk, and melancholic strings that evoke the full depth of the band’s expansive art punk vision.

Following this release, Big Joanie garnered their first MOBO nomination in the inaugural Best Alternative Music Act category. The record has earned an array of praise in the press worldwide, from The Guardian, Loud & Quiet, Crack, DIY, Uncut and MOJO to Dazed, FADER, Pitchfork, NPR, Rolling Stone and Them. There were also plenty of album and tracks of the year shoutouts, including Rolling Stone, Bandcamp, Alt Press, The Current and The Quietus. Their track “Fall Asleep” was featured on the soundtrack of Jordan Peele’s Wendell & Wild and Back Home is nominated for Best Punk Record at the 2023 A2IM Librera Awards.

In 2023 the band played a sold-out UK headline tour. They embarked on their debut headline tour across the USA in March, and returned to the US to play 2 sold-out NYC shows with Placebo.

Back on the UK side, this summer held another Glastonbury play, sets at Roskilde and Best Kept Secret festivals (amongst many others), and a sold-out show in Paris opening for Le Tigre.

Despite many accomplishments, there is so much more the band want to achieve and Back Home looks set to be the breeding ground for a new era. With their boundary-breaking approach to punk, radical politics, and an appreciation for earworm melodies, Big Joanie is set to become important for a new generation of punks.