I have definitely mentioned this before, but can I get a hallelujah for Generator Party? So real, soulful and full of life, Generator Party is nothing short of a religious experience in the sense of it being a communal rock 'n roll experience that pulls on the most primal feelings: Tensing your whole body with your eyes closed in moshing your head, sing out loud like you are on stage, screaming into a microphone, smiling ear to ear, enjoy and relief that this band is in front of you.

It’s been a great find and a great ride knowing Joan Smith and her 90s alternative rock band that she co-leads called Generator Party and her original alternative rock band The Jane Does that she also co-leads with her partner Tom Juhas. It will be a full house, but you might still be able to sneak into the party at The Cove Inn on Saturday, March 21 when they perform Generator Party Unplugged as a duo. Details and tickets here.

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Ever since the first time I met you guys, you absolutely surprised me and floored everyone! I knew it was going to be great, but not that great. It may be a difficult question for you to answer, but what sort of level have you tapped into with your musical delivery? 

Joan: Shucks well, thanks! All I can say is that every time I step on a stage, I try and hope to improve just a tiny bit. At this point I've MAYBE logged my 10,000 hours performing music (as the old saying goes, if you spend 10,000 hours doing something, you become some kind of expert), so I usually don't have to deal with mega nerves anymore, and can just focus on being in the moment and serving the song and connecting with the audience. I think I still have a heap to learn and improve upon, but that definitely keeps life (and performing) interesting. 

Playing and singing guitar with your energy level is so cool. Who are some of your great influences that helped you rise to this point? 

Joan: In terms of combination guitar/singers, Courtney Love (I know she's not the best guitar player, but her presence while singing and playing is incomparable, in my opinion), Jack White, Josh Homme, Kurt Cobain, Joel Plaskett, and Marc Bolan (T. Rex). And a big shout out to Serena Ryder, whom I get to play with in her band sometimes. Her singing and playing are mind-blowing and I'm so lucky to have it coming directly out of my stage monitor sometimes!

Being in a band with your partner, must be incredibly satisfying, rewarding and maybe sometimes a little bit weird? Did you meet playing music or did you just decide to start playing together after you were already together? Playing as the duo will nicely reveal your relationship on stage! 

Joan: Yeah, we get to banter back and forth a bit more in a more intimate setting. Tom and I did indeed meet a long time ago at a gig that we were both booked on – a band called The Mercenaries. Tom was playing guitar and I was singing backups. Our musical relationship didn't go beyond that until about a year into our dating relationship - we were both very involved in other bands. It started with Tom joining me in my old band Little Foot Long Foot, and Tom had me sit in sometimes with a cover band he played with called Ride the Tiger.

Eventually Tom offered to record and produce a couple of songs I was working on in a duo called Muskadaza (with the delightful and badass Dani Nash on drums), and then those songs, plus many others I had half written, became a collaboration with Tom, and [Joan Smith and] the Jane Does was born! Generator Party started soon after as we both were itching to make a setlist of covers that went far beyond anything either of us were doing in other cover bands. I'm so thankful that both our musical and non-musical lives have coalesced so well, even if it does get a little bit weird sometimes. I wouldn't want to do this kind of weird with anybody else! 

I know you guys absolutely love alternative rock. You have clearly spent so much time with it, soaked it in and mastered it. However, I’m sure your original band The Jane Does has played some incredible shows and maybe you’ve even been opened up for some of your idols? 

Joan: Our biggest adventure so far with the Jane Does was when we did our first tour across the pond in the UK this past fall. We played a very cool festival called Sonic Boom in Burton, UK, and opened for a fantastic band called the Bug Club, who are signed to Sub Pop - a dream label that maybe in some magical land we will be signed to one day. Locally, we've opened for a gloriously hilarious, 100% rock n' roll band from Nashville called Thelma & The Sleaze. I highly recommend following them/her on Instagram. LG, the frontwoman, never fails to entertain whether it's ripping a solo, making her own merch, or just making general observations about being an independent aritst. 

It’s hard to avoid this question with any of the artists I interview. What’s the next step for you as a band? We love having you here in Westport with all of your different shows. I hope that you continue to inspire people with the level of passion and intensity you bring to the stage with all of your acts!

Joan: Well, for Joan Smith & the Jane Does - the next step is new music! We're working on new tunes right now, and hope to have a new record out by the late fall or next winter. We have spent a lot of time focussing on covering other bands (Queens of the Stone Age, Led Zeppelin, Rage Against the Machine, Hole) and that has been incredible to absorb and perform, but I'm really looking forward to creating some more of our own output and figuring out what our next interpretation of ourselves will be. Otherwise. we've got lots of Generator Party shows coming up this spring and summer, and can't wait to add to the 250+ songs we currently have on our setlist/brains. We're just a little insane!

Posted: Mar 7, 2026