Jens Johansson

Jens Johansson
Jens Johansson performing at the Ilosaarirock 2009 festival
Background information
Born	November 2, 1963 (1963-11-02) (age 46)
Origin	Stockholm, Sweden
Genres	Neo-classical metal Jazz fusion Progressive metal Power metal
Instruments	Keyboards Synthesizers
Years active	1982–present
Associated acts	Yngwie J. Malmsteen Dio Stratovarius Johansson (The Johansson Brothers)
Website	www.panix.com/~jens

Jens Ola Johansson^[1] (born November 2, 1963 in Stockholm) is a Swedish power metal keyboardist and pianist. He is noted as one of the first and most influential "shred" keyboardists, for his high-speed neoclassical and fusion style.

Biography

Johansson is son of Swedish jazz pianist Jan Johansson and brother of the heavy metal drummer Anders Johansson. He is highly influenced by classic Rock keyboardists like Don Airey, Eddie Jobson and Jon Lord^[2]. In 1982, the classically trained Johansson left the jazz fusion band Slem and joined the Swedish metal band Silver Mountain, which also included Anders. In 1983 he left Sweden for California and joined guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen as a member of his band, Rising Force. Numerous records and world tours ensued and he stayed with Yngwie until 1989.^{[citation needed]} Johansson also played with the band Dio between 1989 and 1990. Like Anders, he began an ongoing collaboration with Jonas Hellborg in 1989 which has resulted in several progressive and avant-garde recordings, including Dissident, Silent Run (an acoustic piano trio record with Ginger Baker on drums) and the hard core progressive fusion record, E.

In 1993, Johansson co-founded a progressive blues metal project, The Johansson Brothers, and recorded a self-titled record. In 1996, with a different line-up, they recorded another album, Sonic Winter, this time under the name "Johansson", with Yngwie Malmsteen guesting on guitar. The last Johansson record, The Last Viking, a more "European metal" oriented album, was released in 1999 with special guests Michael Romeo and Göran Edman.

Johansson has released several instrumental solo records such as Fjäderlösa Tvåfotingar, Ten Seasons (a piano solo album improvised in the Mark Kostabi gallery, New York), Heavy Machinery (with Anders and Allan Holdsworth) and Fission (with Anders, Shawn Lane and Mike Stern) and many collaborations with other artists, metal compilations and Berends Brothers' band Mastermind.

He co-founded Heptagon Records to distribute his own recordings and that of other musicians, such as guitarist Benny Jansson and bassist Magnus Rosén.

Johansson auditioned for Dream Theater after Kevin Moore left the band in 1994^[3] but due to many delays by the band in making a decision he instead joined Finnish Power metal band Stratovarius. Since 1995 he has remained in Stratovarius, and still releasing solo albums and appearing as a guest or session musician in other projects.

Jens currently resides in New York City, where he has 3 children with his wife Domenique Leomporra.

Jens is a self-confessed computer nerd, admitting to have started on an Atari ST (which he still owns), and having coded software in C, as well as his own website in Perl. ^[4]

Gear

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He has used many types of keyboards and synthesizers throughout his career. Amongst his favourites are the Korg Polysix, Yamaha DX7 (from the Rising Force times to present), the Oberheim Matrix Series and the Roland JV-1080. Johansson is also fond of the Hammond Organ and used Kurzweil synthesizers. Johansson is a computer fan and long time Steinberg programs user (like Cubase). An example of his interest in computers is his record "Fission", which is replete with special effects and sound experimentations. For his famous lead sound he uses Morley JD-10 as distortion.

Studio albums

Related links

• Jens Johansson's Homepage
• Heptagon Records
• Stratovarius Homepage

References

1. ^ http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/104/l_5849e444d739de8d31c351cefae66c9c.jpg
2. ^ http://dmme.net/interviews/johansson.html | Influence
3. ^ Jens Johansson's Homepage - Interviews
4. ^ ♫Jens Johansson · Programming

[1] Jens interview in 2001.

Some text taken from the 'Heavy Machinery' album booklet and Jens Homepage.^{[clarification needed]}