Christofer Johnsson

Christofer Johnsson
Johnsson live with Therion in 2008.
Background information
Born	(1972-08-10) August 10, 1972 Upplands Väsby, Sweden
Genres	Symphonic metal, progressive metal, death metal, progressive death metal, thrash metal
Occupation(s)	Musician Singer-songwriter Producer
Instrument(s)	Guitar, keyboards, vocals, mandolin, percussion, piano, drums
Years active	1987–present

Christofer Johnsson (born 10 August 1972 in Upplands Väsby, Stockholm County) is a Swedish composer. He is a founding member and the guitar player for Therion and used to be in Carbonized, Liers in Wait, Messiah and Demonoid. He is a member of the order Dragon Rouge. On 21 March 2006, he announced he will no longer sing for Therion, though he will continue playing guitar for the group.

Inspiration and influences

In his childhood Christofer enjoyed listening to classical music, and gradually became more interested in his father's 50's and 60's rock music. Popular music played on the radio in this era generally had a lot of strings in it, and even though much of it didn't fall in his taste, it still managed to influence him. As a 7-year-old he heard his first progressive rock as a theme in a Norwegian children TV-program. As 9-year old, he started to listen to The Beatles, who also used brass and strings in songs like "Penny Lane". At an age of 11, his taste for music took a turn as he started to listen to hard rock and heavy metal bands like Accept, Judas Priest, W.A.S.P., Iron Maiden, Saxon, Motörhead, Venom, Manowar, Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, and Uriah Heep. Many of these bands had orchestral elements in some of their songs. When he was 14, he started to listen to more raw heavy metal bands like Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and especially, Celtic Frost. One of his friends played the B-side of a Scorpions album for him, and Christofer instantly fell in love with Scorpion's older albums. Uli Roth, who played guitar on these albums, had broken up with Scorpions and formed the band Electric Sun. Christofer managed to find a copy of one of their albums after a long search, and was disappointed at first. After a period of time, he gave it more of a chance, and ended up becoming insanely obsessed with the music. He mentions Uli Roth as one of his greatest influences in the symphonic Therion albums.

Personal life

Johnsson resides in a villa south of Stockholm with his family.

Fire incident

On 26 July 1992 Johnsson's parents' house was set on fire. Christofer was on tour and not home at the time of the incident. Only one inch of a backdoor was damaged before the fire was put out, but the event was blown up in media and caused many rumours in the metal scene.

References

• Interview with Christofer Johnsson in Metal Express magazine
• "Band members - The Official Therion Website". Retrieved 2006-11-24.