Johansson is son of Swedish jazz pianist
Jan Johansson and brother of Ex-
HammerFall drummer
Anders Johansson. He is highly influenced by classic rock keyboardists like
Don Airey,
Eddie Jobson and
Jon Lord. 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. 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,
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. From 2015 to 2019 he joined
Ritchie Blackmore's rock project
Rainbow. 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 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. 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, 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==