Career
In an interview with HitQuarters, Johansson claimed that the main impetus for his becoming a music producer was the lack of good recording studios in the Malmö area at that time in which to record his own band. As a result,
"my friends and me decided to build a studio for recording our own music, and then I started to record other bands here and ended up as an engineer/producer. lieutenant wasn’t something I had planned."
Untutored in the art of recording, he acquired his skills through "trial and error".
His main inspiration at that time was classic recordings from the 1960s and 70s, and in fact attempted to capture an old style in a conscious reaction against the production methods employed at that time, which he and his friends thought were bad.
His first five years as a producer were largely focused on developing the Swedish indie band The Cardigans, for whom Johansson has produced five of their six albums to date, beginning with the 1994 debut "Emmerdale", excluding their fifth studio album "Long Gone Before Daylight" due to artistic differences. As someone as new to the studio as the band these sessions were an equally valuable learning experience for both parties.
Johansson has gained particular international recognition through his production work with The Cardigans and Franz Ferdinand, but has also worked with a long list of other recording artists such as:
a-ha
A Camp
Anouk
Nicole Atkins & the Sea
Mathieu Boogaerts
Melanie C
The Cardigans
Eggstone
Sophie Ellis Bextor
Tomoyo Harada
Mayumi Iizuka - album "SMILE×SMILE"
Tom Jones
Kira and The Kindred Spirits
David Kitt
The Little Flames
The Mighty Roars
Oklahoma Go
New Order
Bonnie Pink
The Redwalls
Saint Etienne
Solveig Sandnes
Suede
Titiyo
Emilíana Torrini
Martha Wainwright
Wild Beasts
WIT
Bertine Zetlitz
Cia Cia Her
Åtta Bier ti minimum far
As Animals.