Having begun her musical career as a teen in New York, AJ now resides in the south of Australia.
Born in Westchester, NY, Axella Johannesson grew up in St James, NY.
She never liked eating meat, and gave it up in childhood. She did the same with religion, and has been an avowed atheist since before her teens.
Using birthday money to buy a Silvertone guitar from a Sears catalog, she used it to write her first song at 13 years of age. It was called Save the World, which she later described as, "pretty awful, as you'd expect. I didn't say how the world should be saved, just that it should be". If nothing else, it foreshadowed the activism that was to come later in her life.
Johannesson has always credited her mother's 45 RPM records of early-mid 1960s pop music, as well as her parents' and grandparents' music collections, with inspiring her to write her own songs. She grew up hearing The Animals, The Mills Brothers, Trini Lopez, The Ink Spots, The Beatles, and many others, played around hers and her grandparents' homes.
Johannesson spent her teens in cover bands, and performed her own songs at coffee house gigs with her acoustic guitar.
She became an activist in the fight against the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant and was also active as a consumer advocate on issues affecting Long Islanders. Johannesson moved to Australia in late 1989.
The on-line music revolution in the mid-to-late 1990s allowed her another outlet for her songs. Her music appeared on sites such as MP3.com, IUMA, Ampcast, Garage Band, and others. She achieved several genre Number Ones on MP3.com, with her song, "Come and Go" , and a cover of Mary Wells "My Guy", being the most successful. She held the number one spot site-wide for a month on Ampcast with the song, "Mama Never Told You About Me", written jointly with Jon Andersen of Texas. Her music has received airplay on internet, community, and commercial radio in many countries.
So far, Johannesson made two CDs available, Fighting the Good Fight , and Mama Never Told You About Me , as well as a number of singles. She continues to reside in Australia, and and is currently at work on a new CD project.
Yes, of course! There's nothing like being on stage with a good band behind you!
JL Hooker, The Animals, 60's pop, Led Zep, Jefferson Airplane, nearly everything Motown and Stax, The Rolling Stones, Muddy Waters, The Beach Boys, The Yardbirds, Foghat, and Led Zepplin, et al
Lots of guitars, drums, bass, some amps, keyboards, harmonicas
