Axella Johannesson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Axella Johannesson | ||
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| Background information | ||
| Born | January 11, 1958 | |
| Origin |  Mount Vernon, New York, USA |
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| Genre(s) | Blues Rock |
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| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter | |
| Years active | 1973–present | |
| Label(s) | Smokin' T | |
| Website | Axella.com | |
One of the first "music cyber stars", due to the ability to distribute her music primarily via the Internet, Australian Singer/songwriter Axella Johannesson was born January 11, 1958 in Mount Vernon, New York, United States.
Johannesson's family moved to Selden, New York in 1963, as part of the great exodus to the suburbs. She later moved to the Smithtown area with her mother and sister, when her parents separated prior to divorcing. "Things were kind of weird back then," she said. "I attended six elementary schools by the time I got to fourth grade."
When her mother remarried, the family settled in St. James, New York, and within four years, her two brothers were born. During this period, Johannesson became both a vegetarian and an avowed atheist, and remains so to this day.
Johannesson credits her mother's 45 rpm recordings of '60s pop music, her father's recordings of Trini Lopez and Hank Williams, and her stepfather's diverse collection of recordings by artists including The Animals and Charlie Parker, along with her grandparents' recordings by artists including The Ink Spots and Nat King Cole, with helping her to learn to enjoy many styles of music. Listening to these artists throughout her childhood caused her to decide to try songwriting.
"I was 12 or 13 when I wrote the first one, and in retrospect, it was pretty awful, as you'd expect. Those were the 'Hippie' days back then, and I think the song was called, 'Save the World', or something like that. I didn't provide any plan for how the world should be saved, however, just that it should be saved."
Johannesson continued writing songs during her school years, while singing in cover bands. She also enjoyed performing solo with her acoustic guitar, playing "coffee house" gigs.
Johannesson went on to work in consumer advocacy, which saw her giving testimony before state and county legislatures on issues in the public interest. She wrote extensively about public utility issues and was a registered intervenor, which allowed her to have input on behalf of consumers in public utility tariff cases. As Executive Director of the Long Island Coalition for Consumer Awareness, Johannesson participated in the fight against the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant. She campaigned to put seat belts on school buses, and pushed for what became known as "The Lemon Law", a law written to protect car buyers. She was a frequent contributor to Suffolk Life Newspaper on consumer issues, and was heard regularly on "The Joel Martin Show" on WBAB radio in New York.
After an unsuccessful marriage which produced her daughters Wendy (b. 1978), Reanna (b. 1979), and Michelle (b. 1981), Johannesson eventually settled in Traralgon in Victoria, Australia, where she remarried.
With the rise of the internet, Johannesson was one of the first to achieve "cyber fame" via on-line music delivery sites (OMDs) such as IUMA, Besonic, and mp3.com, among others, in the 1990s. She achieved several genre number ones on those sites. She also held the number one spot site-wide for a month on Ampcast.com in 2001, with "Mama Never Told You About Me", co-written with Jon Andersen of Texas.
After years of writing rock songs, and releasing the albums Fighting the Good Fight and Mama Never Told You About Me, Johannesson decided to pay homage to her roots by recording covers of some of her favorite '60s pop songs. Thanks to her early exposure to rhythm and blues records, she began to write and record in that genre ("I'm old enough to sing the blues now"). Her song "Ugly Man Blues", a comedic song recorded in 2004, received much airplay on internet radio, as well as being played on commercial and public radio world-wide. Finding it extraordinary that people on the other side of the planet were listening to her music, Johannesson said, "When someone told me that he heard one of my songs on the radio while sitting in a bar in Los Angeles, it blew my mind! I never would've thought that I'd live long enough hear someone say that!"
More recently, Johannesson has branched out into writing music for short films.
Although she still records, Johannesson's live performances are becoming relatively rare. "I don't have a band, but that means I also don't have the hassles that go along with having a band... I'm not going out of my way to put another one together at this point in time, because when they break up, it's almost like losing your family. I've got a studio in my house, and when I feel inspired, I pick up a pen or an instrument, and go for it. It's very liberating."
