Narayana Johnson

Johnson was born in Murwillumbah, New South Wales and raised as a Hare Krishna. He was the son of Wally Johnson, a musician who wrote Give Me a Home Among the Gumtrees in 1974. Narayana was six years old when his father died, and this prompted the family to begin traveling. With Naranaya being home-schooled, they spent time in Singapore and travelled the United States among other countries. Their nomadic lifestyle led to Johnson developing a close friendship with his niece Kalyani Ellis, who was also a child during these travels. ==Career==

With Willow Beats (2011–2018) Naranya Johnson had intended to pursue a career as a guitarist from a young age. However, he broke his wrist while studying guitar at university, and had to drop out of his course. He elected to switch into composition, and at his teacher's prompting purchased a microphone and had Ellis sing over one of his songs. They released three EPs in the mid-2010s via Bandcamp and toured the east coast of Australia and New Zealand. Across their various tours, they supported Tash Sultana, Flume and Alison Wonderland. The duo went on indefinite hiatus from 2018, with their final performances taking place in Sydney and Melbourne that July. Johnson stated that the two of them needed "some time to work on our art and selves." Video game soundtracks (2018–2025) Johnson adopted the moniker "River Boy" for his solo work. He had earlier met Julian Wilton, the creative director for Massive Monster, during a Willow Beats tour. After learning that Wilton was involved in the games industry, Johnson offered to soundtrack a game and went on to record a few songs which would be used for Unicycle Giraffe (2019). Shortly after Willow Beats went on hiatus he was approached by Wilton again about composing for a then-unnamed console title which would become Cult of the Lamb; Johnson agreed. The game also won the Excellence in Music category at the Australian Game Developer Awards. In 2022, Johnson also collaborated with several indigenous artists to support Yawa, a small game made for Clarendon Street Arcade in association with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. He joined the project about two weeks before launch to compose music, handle adaptive audio, and record sound effects. The game was inspired by Gauntlet (1985), but was nonviolent and designed to teach the Boonwurrung language. It was playable as part of an installation at the arcade from July to October 2022. Johnson continued working with Massive Monster, creating audio for the Cult of the Lamb content updates and performing the music live at events. This included a performance with Orchestra Victoria in October 2023 which drew 6,000 attendees, He also performed a rave version at Pax Australia 2024. In 2024, the studio also released Hymns of the Unholy, a heavy metal remix album of the game's score. The album included vocals from Howard Jones and Matt Heafy, guitars by Scott LePage and Clay Gober of Polyphia, Javier Reyes of Animals as Leaders, Josh Baines of Malevolence and Sean Long of While She Sleeps. ==Death and legacy==

Johnson's death from an undisclosed cause was announced by Massive Monster on April 3, 2025. His death was marked by tributes from across the industry, and from within the Cult of the Lamb fandom. In Melbourne, local radio station 3RRR aired a two-hour mix of his work, playing tracks from across his career. The broadcast was part of the late night show REPRESENTED, which aims to spotlight artists from under-represented groups. His death occurred mid-way through production of Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven, leaving much of the music in place but some unfinished. He had earlier brought Ray Vavasis, an Australian singer/songwriter also known as Arrowbird onto the project. In the wake of Johnson's death, Arrowbird took over audio production and sought to complete the soundtrack using the material Johnson had left behind. This included completing stings and cutscene music by repurposing unused samples from Johnson including musical fragments, flute and voice work. The studio also hired his niece and former Willow Beats member Kalyani Ellis to compose music for a new minigame. The resulting soundtrack for the expansion, which released in January 2026, has been described as a "mixtape of his life". A River Boy follower was also added to the game as a tribute. Upon meeting the lamb, he says "It's good to spend time in nature. We all go back there, in the end." ==Style and influences==

Johnson struggled to place a genre label on his work, instead saying that it was simply "part of that beat movement that’s happening at the moment in Australia." He described his process as one of playing his instruments for long periods of time and then finding short samples from within those recordings to manipulate. Johnson described a range of inspirations on his music, including Hindu mythology from his upbringing and the landscape of the Tweed Valley where he grew up. He cited the musicians Mount Kimbie, The Knife, Rusko and Fly Lo as musical influences. For video game soundtracks, he also cited influence from Game Boy titles he had in his childhood, including ''The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening and Pokémon Red Version''. He also discussed David Wise's score for the SNES title Donkey Kong Country, in particular the underwater levels' track Aquatic Ambience. On a technical level, Johnson was also inspired by Hades' use of adaptive music to provide dramatic finishes at the end of boss fights, regardless of where in the track the player was at the moment of victory. ==Discography==

with Willow Beats • Willow Beats (EP, 2012) • ALCHEMY (EP, 2013) • water (EP, 2014) • Be Kind to Yourself (2017) Game soundtracks • Unicycle Giraffe (2019) • Yawa (2022) • Cult of the Lamb (2022) • Cult of the Lamb: Hymns of the Unholy (EP, 2024) • Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven (2026) ==References==