Jens Ola Johansson (born 2 November 1963 in Stockholm) is a Swedish keyboardist and pianist who currently plays in the Finnish

power metal Power metal is a subgenre of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional heavy metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context. Generally, power metal is characterized by a faster, lighter, and more uplifting sound, in contra ...

band

Stratovarius Stratovarius is a Finnish power metal band that formed in 1985. Since their formation, they have released sixteen studio albums, five DVDs and six live albums. In its history, the band has gone through many chaotic lineup changes, and after fo ...

and

Ritchie Blackmore Richard Hugh Blackmore (born 14 April 1945) is an English guitarist and songwriter. He was a founding member of Deep Purple in 1968, playing jam-style hard rock music that mixed guitar riffs and organ sounds. He is prolific in creating guita ...

's rock project

Rainbow A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows c ...

. He is notable for his high-speed neoclassical and

fusion Fusion, or synthesis, is the process of combining two or more distinct entities into a new whole. Fusion may also refer to: Science and technology Physics *Nuclear fusion, multiple atomic nuclei combining to form one or more different atomic nucl ...

style.

Biography

Johansson is son of Swedish jazz pianist Jan Johansson and brother of Ex-

HammerFall HammerFall is a Swedish power metal band from Gothenburg. The band was formed in 1993 by ex- Ceremonial Oath guitarist Oscar Dronjak. History Early days (1993–1996) HammerFall was formed when rhythm guitarist Oscar Dronjak quit Ceremo ...

drummer Anders Johansson. He is highly influenced by classic rock keyboardists like Don Airey,

Eddie Jobson Edwin "Eddie" Jobson (born 28 April 1955) is an English musician noted for his use of synthesizers. He has been a member of several progressive rock bands, including Curved Air, Roxy Music, U.K. and Jethro Tull. He was also part of Frank Zap ...

and

Jon Lord John Douglas Lord (9 June 194116 July 2012) was an English orchestral and rock composer, pianist, and Hammond organ player known for his pioneering work in fusing rock with classical or baroque forms, especially with the British rock band Deep ...

. 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 Yngwie Johan Malmsteen ( ; born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck, 30 June 1963) is a Swedish guitarist. He first became known in the 1980s for his neoclassical playing style in heavy metal, and has released 22 studio albums in a career spanning ov ...

as a member of his band, Rising Force. Numerous records and world tours ensued and he stayed with Yngwie until 1989. Johansson also played with the band Dio (band), Dio between 1989 and 1990. Like Anders, he began an ongoing collaboration with Jonas Hellborg in 1989 which has resulted in several Progressive metal, progressive and avant-garde recordings, including ''Dissident'', ''Unseen Rain'' (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 (album), Heavy Machinery'' (with Anders and Allan Holdsworth) and Fission (album), Fission (with Anders, Shawn Lane and Mike Stern) and many collaborations with other artists, metal compilations and Berends Brothers' band Mastermind (U.S. 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 but due to many delays by the band in making a decision he instead joined Finnish

band

. Since 1995 he has remained in Stratovarius, and still releasing solo albums and appearing as a guest or session musician in other projects. Johansson is a self-confessed computer nerd, admitting to have started on an Atari ST (which he still owns), and having coded software in C (programming language), C, as well as his own website in Perl. He rejects being considered one of the best keyboardists in the world, as he believes there are many people that are far better than him.

Gear

Johansson has used many types of keyboards and synthesizers throughout his career. Amongst his favourites are the Korg Polysix, Yamaha DX7 as a midi controller, (from the Rising Force times to present), the Oberheim Matrix Series and the Roland JV-1080 sound module. He is also fond of the Hammond Organ. 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 experimentation. His signature lead is emulation of Polysix on JV1080, going thru early Amp simulation / distortion pedal JD-10 by Morley. Recently, he has been using PC-base system with Lenovo Laptop Computer both recording and live. And he uses JV1080 as backup on live.

Band membership

Timeline

Studio albums

References

External links