AN INTERVIEW WITH JENS JOHANSSON
Jens Johansson is the keyboard guy that got snatched away from the rather unknown Swedish band Silver Mountain by a slightly more known Swede by the name of Yngwie J. Malmsteen when he went solo after leaving Alcatrazz in 1984. For four studio albums and one live album, Jens and his brother Anders formed the stable keyboards-drums part of the Yngwie Malmsteen line-up. After both leaving Yngwie in 1989, Jens went on to do a variety of things, including playing the keys on Dio's album "Lock up the Wolves".
Jens, one of a handful of the finest keyboard players in the world (with Kevin Moore, Tony McAlpine and Rick Wakeman I suppose), is still very much active in the music business, although not as obvious as he used to be. He is now more involved in fusion, jazz, cross-over and various other non-mainstream musical styles. About half a year ago his name was mentioned in connection with the position of keyboard player of Dream Theater, something that I (along with some other people, I guess) would really have liked to see happen. Unfortunately, however, it never quite happened.
Roaming across the Internet I found Jens' home page (at http://panix.com/jens) and got into contact with him. He came across as a really laid-back, relaxed and sympathetic guy. This, in the end, culminated in arrangements for an interview. So read below the results of an interview with the man who recorded all the keyboard solos on "Odyssey" in one night, with some stuff from his own homepage FAQ added to make things a bit more complete.
Can you give us a short biography of your life, education, computers, work and social status?
Jens: Date/place of birth: Nov 2, 1963, in Fresta (actually "Upplands Väsby"), a municipality that has spawned a lot of the Swedish rock elite, by the way (not that I count myself amongst the elite...the Europe guys and Candlemass are from there as well, for instance)!
Education: 9 years mandatory swedish school, four years electro- engineering.
Computers: Atari ST 1040 (Adspeed 16 MHz upgrade). Running mostly "Cubase" (2.1) on that one. HP Omnibook 300 for WP, spreadsheets, etc. It travels great (typing this from an airplane on my way to Florida actually!). Our label (Heptagon) has several PCs for office and accounting stuff.
Work? Just music nowadays, in either a playing, writing or producing capacity.
Married. Yes, well at least almost (same girl for over 7 years)
What have you been doing since 1987?
Jens: I moved to New York City (from Los Angeles) in 1988 to settle down with a girl. Left Yngwie's band in '89 after hearing the mix on the Leningrad album - also, the record company (PolyGram) lost interest and the money situation started to suck onions (I essentially got sick of the whole PolyGram/neoclassical metal/hair metal mess, it was time to move on -- a.k.a. "Musical Differences"). Joined Ronnie Dio's band Dio in '89. Did one album with them, and a tour which incidentally Yngwie opened on. I've done other more mainstream studio work. I've worked a lot with Jonas Hellborg (he's a great Swedish bass player that used to play with the Mahavishnu Orchestra) on avant-garde records, some on his label, Day Eight. Been touring the jazz/club circuit in Europe a lot with this kind of stuff (it's a lot of fun). Recorded a very strange solo album. Also did a made-for-Japan "band" album with a bunch of ex-Yngwie guys and some other Swedes (I go back to Sweden a lot to work on stuff).
Can you give us a short description of the surroundings where you live? Its nightlife, its people?
Jens: New York City. Surroundings? Well, I live on the upper east side, so it's pretty clean and safe over here compared to downtown. Excellent nightlife, but I find myself going out less often nowadays. Still do though, and usually regret it for a day afterwards. :) The people here come from all over the world and can be a bit rude at times, but it's mostly on the surface. Nice police force. (Compared to the Gestapo-style cops in LA or Sweden, for instance)
Can you give us a description of your home, most specifically the room where you do your work or another room that you perhaps think deserves to be known better?
Jens: It's a typical NY apartment. Pretty small! So I have an unobtrusive preprod/recording rig set up that doesn't take up much space at all. Most of the work I do in the room where the stuff is set up, but I frequently pack up a piece of equipment or tow and rent a studio for sessions, overdubs and such.
How would you describe yourself?
Jens: I've got some pictures on the web site. I guess I'm an approximately 6 foot tall roughly humanoid biped.
What is (are) your worst habit(s)?
Jens: Procrastrination.
If I were ever to visit you, where would you take me for a night out?
Jens: McDonalds? Haveli's on 6th and 1st for some curry, and a movie? Scrap bar? Babyland? No-tell Motel? The local German pub (Nimrod's)?
Do you do any other work except for that through which most people tend to know you?
Jens: Nope, only music stuff, like playing on and producing records (a bunch of different types of music though).
Which book have you read recently that made most of an impression on you? Why? If it's difficult to pin down one, feel free to name a few in different genres.
Jens: Hm. "Brave New World" by Huxley? But that wasn't recently, that was almost 15 years ago. :) "Gödel, Escher, Bach"? (Only two books? Looks pretty stupid. I read a lot actually...)
What's your favourite music for flipping out (if ever you do)?
Jens: The mexican band "Bakteria".
Do you use any computer hardware in your creative process and, if so, which? What tools do you use on it?
Jens: Just the Atari and "Cubase".
What is the computer game you play most at the moment?
Jens: I almost never ever find myself playing computer games! :) (Although I became a mean motherfucker on "Ms. Pacman" at one point in my life - we had a machine on one of our tour buses.)
What is the film you've been to recently that made most of an impression on you?
Jens: Hm, "most" in combination with "recently" is difficult. Of "recent" movies I liked "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Usual Suspects".
Older movies: "A Clockwork Orange", "Brazil", "The Meaning of Life", "Natural Born Killers", and a bunch of others I can't recall now.
Do you play any instruments other than keyboards?
Jens: No.
When, in many years, you'll eventually die, which song would you like to be played at your funeral service?
Jens: Something weird. Like maybe Penderecki. Or Varese? :) People would hopefully forget to be sad and say "what the fuck is this!? This isn't music. Air raid sirens? People shouting gibberish, making other horrible noises, and smashing up pianos!??" :)
What is to you the music release of 1995 so far?
Jens: Nothing I've heard so far has had me overly excited...
Is there something you see everybody likes but that you loathe most intensely?
Jens: Organised religion.
Suppose you could be Aladdin for a while. Which three wishes would you make?
Jens: Raise the average IQ of the planetary population by 100, extend the average life span for humans human to 900 years, make interstellar travel cheap, and readily available.
Is there a person you haven't met yet which you'd dearly love to meet?
Jens: J.S. Bach? Hmm, perhaps Frank Zappa, but he's also gone now.
If you were confined to a desert island and you could only take with you one book, five CDs and one luxury item, which would they be?
Jens: Book: "Survival techniques for desert islands", Five CD's: Bach's "Goldberg variations" (Glenn Gould), "Art of the Fugue + H„ndel harpsichord suites" (also Glenn Gould), Holdsworth's "Secrets", Zappa's "Ship arraving too late", the new Shakti compilation I just bought. Luxury item: A solar-powered CD player, of course. :)
What invention do you hope mankind will come up with soon?
Jens: Faster-than-light travel.
Which famous person would you like to have at a party?
Jens: Sam Kinison.
If you were ever to have the opportunity to have your own perfume cosmetics line, what would you call it?
Jens: Maybe "Heroin"?
What is your ultimate ambition, the thing you hope to be remembered by?
Jens: Oh, just putting out a decently interesting record now and then.
What musical projects are you currently involved in?
Jens: A lot! "Johansson Brothers", a fusion record that hopefully will feature Alan Holdsworth; two collaborative records with Yngwie (but one of those is not until next year); I'm going to play on a record by a finnish band called Stratovarius, and I also am involved in playing/producing two or three more record on the Heptagon label, one possibly being a solo record (hard-core progressive fusion).
What do you like and dislike particularly about the music industry?
Jens: Dislike: Talentless people making musical decisions, the usual corporate backstabbing and scheming taking its toll on artists, stuff like that.
Like: The music part, not the industry part.
What musicians are you most influenced by?
Jens: Bach, Eddie Jobson, Zappa, John Lord, Holdsworth, Uli Roth, Yngwie, and many many others.
When you didn't get selected to become the new keyboard player in Dream Theater, how did you feel about that?
Jens: I was disappointed, I guess I felt at the time that they deserved the best possible replacement for Kevin. They'll have to live with their horrible mistake for the rest of the band's life! ;)
(I liked the band before all that stuff went down, and I still think it's weird that Kevin left.)
What musical hardware do you use?
Jens: Oberheim Matrix12, matrix1000's, Matrix 6R, DPX-1. Korg PolySix (I have around 10 of those), Yamaha DX7+TX816 rack, Roland D20, DS-330, Hammond + Leslie (I have two actually), Korg CX3 as a "touring hammond", and a bunch of others. I also rent stuff a lot.
I'm not too crazy about the "new breed" of keyboards like the K2000 etc; they sound a bit thin to me. But whatever.
Any funny anecdotes about some of the albums you have already recorded on, especially the more popular ones (Dio, Malmsteen)?
Jens: Oh. I have tons! None that are fit to publish though. :)
How was Malmsteen to work with?
Jens: No problem for me there... he's a stubborn guy though, and can be quite blunt. He earned his bad reputation the hard way (by being truly offensive), and he's very proud of the fact. Still one of the best guitar players on the planet. I talk to him all the time... he's doing good.
Are you still active with Anders? Could you tell me something about what he's up to these days?
Jens: Yes, we run Heptagon (a Swedish record label distributed by Warner) together. He still plays a lot as well. He just got back from China a few weeks ago, doing a stadium tour with some weird Chinese pop singer (Wei-Wei -- she's HUGE over there).
Following now is the "words to react to" segment. Feel free to associate and write away!
Norway.
Jens: Nice, beautiful country, its citicens in general are very friendly. Negative sides: some Norwegians are a bit "uptight" (heavy Christian stronghold). They BANNED the movie "Life of Brian" for instance. Sounds more like Iraq than Scandinavia! Bad roads there too.
Derek Sherinian.
Jens: Dream Theater's new keyboard player!
MTV.
Jens: The format has gotten weirder and weirder! :) Sure signs of one getting old -- listening (or watching) what the 14-year- olds dig nowadays and going "what the heck is this all about!??" :)
Guns'n'Roses
Jens: Ah. I remember seeing them in the Troubadour back in the mid-80's handing out flyers for their next show. Me and everybody else I talked to were in TOTAL agreement that the name "Guns and Roses" was the stupidest thing we've ever heard -- and that those losers would NEVER get anywhere with such a moronic name! We laughed heartily at them as we sipped our drinks... :)
Michael Jackson.
Jens: He loves children.
42.
Jens: An ANSWER and also a LEVEL.
Russian cigarettes.
Jens: Bleagh!
Ronnie James Dio.
Jens: Nice guy, one of the most normal singers I've ever met. Completely down-to-earth.
Kevin Moore.
Jens: Good lyricists AND keyboard player (like I said, when they called about that Dream Theater gig I was pretty surprised that he was leaving the band. And suspicious! :). I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be involved if he was fired or something stupid like that.
Yngwie.
Jens: Stubborn bastard. One of the best guitar players on the planet. Unsurpassed in his style, which he by the way just conjured somehow out of thin air.
Silver Mountain.
Jens: My first real record! Holding that first piece of vinyl in your hands was an amazing feeling.
France and Nuclear Testing.
Jens: Of course I'd prefer if they didn't do any testing. BUT...
To me, It smells of media hype. It's just not a burning issue for me -- after all the tests are deep underground. I don't see why it's that big of a deal. China does tests as well but not many people seem to have the guts to be very vocal about that. Or about the US when they did massive amounts of testing in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s.
And of course the US also did a few above-ground "tests" over densely populated Japanese cities... if there are a pair of nukes in history to be miserable about, I would pick those two, not some underground testing in the middle of the pacific ocean with absolutely no loss of human life. Just my $0.02.
The World Wide Web.
Jens: It's a very nice thing! It seems to be working pretty well now... but I do get annoyed when people (or even worse, corporations) put a lot of lag-inducing bandwidth-eating little pieces of crap like cute 400k graphics, advertising imagemaps or backgrounds up. Using "Lynx" certainly helps, though. Strips all that fluffy garbage away. :)
RK
Written October 1995