Jens Johansson

Jens Johansson
Jens Johansson performing at the Ilosaarirock 2009 festival
Background information
Born	(1963-11-02) 2 November 1963 (age 53) , Sweden
Genres	Power metal, heavy metal, progressive metal, neoclassical metal, jazz fusion
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Keyboards
Years active	1982–present
Associated acts	Stratovarius Cain's Offering Yngwie Malmsteen Dio Rainbow Johansson (The Johansson Brothers)
Website	www.panix.com/~jens

Jens Ola Johansson (born 2 November 1963, , Sweden) is a Swedish keyboardist and pianist who currently plays in the Finnish power metal band Stratovarius. He is notable for his high-speed neoclassical and fusion style.

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.