Up close and personal with Jens Johansson

Tell us everything about your equipment onstage and in studio.
JJ: Most anything that I can get my hands on. Korg Polysix for solo sounds. Roland JV1080 for touring.. with "orchestral expansion" board.
 
Do you see yourself as a Swede or a cosmopolitan?
JJ: More Swede than cosmopolitan I think.
 
If you weren't playing in Stratovarius, which existing band you would like to play in?
JJ: Stratovarius!
 
Do you do any sports?
JJ: No.
 
Are there any interesting musical projects you haven't participated in yet? Would you, for example, write music for a video game or a multimedia artwork?
JJ: If I had time, sure!
 
What's the worst part of being a professional musician?
JJ: Lots of harrowing travel, economy always uncertain.
 
How long does one have to study playing keyboards before he/she is a "ready" musician?
JJ: I guess it depends on the he/she, the type of music and the audience.
 
Three examples:
A) 8-year old girl from Kerava, Finland, 6 months of piano lesson, audience is a bunch of proud relatives. Should be OK.
 
B) 25-year old piano virtuoso, 20 years of practice (lessons, conservatory, what not), audience is a group of music professors at the Moscow Academy of Music, should be OK.
 
C) 30-year old keyboard player, never really played anything per se but knows how to operate a sampler, audience is buyers of hip-hop album, should be OK as well. But if you put the guy with the samplerin front of the relatives in Kerava and they might not understand anything! So it all depends!
 
Do you play any other instruments besides electronic and acoustic keyboards?
JJ: No, not really, I'm afraid.
 
What sort of music you like to listen to?
JJ: Music from the high baroque, and strange rock music.
 
Are you a leader by nature?
JJ: No!
 
How much do you decide about Stratovarius' keyboard melodies or do you just follow Tolkki's orders?
JJ: In Stratovarius, I only obey orders! Except for the solos.(Well, in some ancillary areas such as chord voicings or orchestration I might come up with ideas, but I trust Timo and he would have the final say I suppose. There has never been any problems so far, like fistfights or so. I'm too old to squabble about which notes to play nowadays!)
 
What will you do once you get fed up with being a musician or your musical career is otherwise over?
JJ: I don't know! What's the right answer? Produce? Teach? Get a suntan? ...drink? :)
 
This program is 68000 assembly language. What do you think it does?
 
start:
lea word,a0
loop: move.b (a0)+,d0
beq.s finish
cmp.b #$e4,d0
beq.s alter
cmp.b #$e5,d0
beq.s alter
cmp.b #$f6,d0
beq.s alter
cmp.b #$fc,d0
beq.s alter
cmp.b #'a',d0
blo.s donotalter
cmp.b #'z',d0
bhi.s donotalter
alter: and.b #%11011111,d0
donotalter: move.b d0,(a0)+
bra.s loop
finish: rts
word: dc.b "hemidemisemiquaver",0
JJ: Nice! A capitalization routine, also works for Scandinavian umlauts (ANSI).. ? Am I getting rusty, or is there a bug? A0seems to be incremented twice, so the result would be "hHmMdDmMsSmMqQaAeE." No? Odd length strings would cause it to skip the zero termination and cause who-knows-what.. a privilege violation perhaps if you're lucky. I guess it should be "loop: move.b (a0),d0" ..
 
...for the ones interested, Jens answer was more than correct. :)
 
Tell us your views about....
 
- religion?
JJ: I'm basically anti-religion.
 
- alcohol?
JJ: Pro alcohol.
 
- grunge/alternative rock?
- tattoos?
- hardcore metal?
- piercing?
JJ: If it makes someone happy, I'm for it. Then why not religion as well?Well, people never went on crusades to tattoo heathens or equipping infidels with nipple rings. Only one thing pisses me off more than religion, and that's scientology! :)
 
- money?
JJ: Necessary evil..
 
- furs?
JJ: I'm for animals having fur.
 
- UFOs?
JJ: I don't believe in extraterrestrial visits..
 
- marriage?
JJ: What parents should enter into!
 
- techno pop?
- gangsta rap?
JJ: If it makes someone happy, I'm for it. I guess!! :)
 
- groupies?
JJ: They fill some type of need, I suppose.
 
- independence?
JJ: Who wants to be dependent? :)
 
- nature preservation?
JJ: I don't care so much about nature per se, because there's still quite a lot of it. Especially if you count the part of the universe we don't call "Earth". But humans should take care not to exterminateany species of animal or plant.
 
- drugs?
JJ: I'm pro-drugs. (Aspirin, penicillin, etc.) As far as "non-medicinal" drug use (say, heroin, cocaine, etc); I've done some experimenting, alas very mild if you compare to what some of my fellow musician brethren in this world do in their spare time. All this in the name of science of course. Anyway, I can say with beyond a scintilla of a doubt that the only drugs worth looking into are: 1) coffee 2) alcohol (in the form of either a) beer or b) vodka ). Most of the other stuff is a) expensive and/or b) illegal and/or c) worthless as an experience. (Surprisingly often all three!)
 
- nuclear tests?
- pets?
JJ: I'm pro nuclear tests on pets.
 
- commercial success vs. critic's praise?
JJ: Critic's praise, I suppose. The internet will make the concept of commercial musical success (in the sense of selling actual, physical phonograms) obsolete in a few years anyway...
 
- ecoterrorists?
JJ: It's misguided efforts, as most people just automatically take the opposing view. It's not that I mind them blowing up minks and all that, I'm just not sure if it helps anyone. Mink or non-mink alike. I'm pro-animal testing as well <gasp!>. At least for medical research, but obviously not for cosmetics or anything excessive like that.
 
- fanzines?
JJ: I like 'em!
 
- internet?
JJ: I like it!
 
What's your goal in your musician's career?
JJ: To make music. Duh! :) *thinks a while* I guess I could be a bit more precise: to build a catalog of recordings to live off (yeah, right) when I get old and lazy.
 
What are the things you hate the most?
JJ: Cruelty, stupidity combined with arrogance, death.
 
What's your goal in life?
JJ: To make music and laugh a lot.
 
What's the best part in performing onstage?
JJ: You never know what's going to happen.
 
How about the worst??
JJ: When the unimaginable happens!
 
Which novel did you read recently?
JJ: It was "Timequake" by Kurt Vonnegut..
 
The best album of 1997 in your opinion?
JJ: Well, if I exclude anything I was involved in myself out of (false) modesty, perhaps I'd pick my friend Jonas Hellborg's record "Time is the Enemy". Or perhaps the Symphony X record "The Divine Wings of Tragegy".
 
The worst disappontment of 1997 among released albums?
JJ: That we didn't go GOLD with Visions in Finland!! It was so close!!
 
Your greetings to the visitors of Stratovarius WWW page?
JJ: Hello! Please buy Stratovarius records and give to all your friends!
 
Your New Year's Promise??
JJ: I didn't make one, but I think I ought to cut down on the ice cream..
 
Thanks. :) Have a Merry Christmas and a kick-ass New Year!!!
 
Review by Mape