Meet Kristina Johnsen

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristina Johnsen.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
Growing up, I was surrounded by a musical family. One great grandfather was a professional violinist, another immigrated to the United States from Italy with a mandolin as one of his few possessions. My parents and grandmother are all hobbyist pianists, and many other members of my family have picked up instruments over the years. Born in Houston, Texas, and raised in Lansing, Michigan (I did the opposite move of Lizzo, who was born in Detroit and grew up in Houston, lol), I moved around often (11 times throughout my youth) but music stayed with me through it all.

Starting in childhood, I loved music in every form—singing in choirs, performing in musical theater, writing songs, learning classical violin, and eventually picking up guitar and singing at church. In college, I studied Visual Communication Design and received my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, but never lost sight of my true goals in music.

A little over two years ago, I packed up my things and moved from the Midwest (Chicago and then Michigan) out to Los Angeles to pursue music more seriously. Since then, I’ve been playing shows around LA, creating in writing sessions, and jamming whenever I have the chance. I also have been actively involved in the LA Songwriters Collective, one of my favorite parts about living in this city. In 2017, I released my first EP, Garibaldi, and have released two music videos, with a third coming soon.

About a year ago, I started fighting a mysterious illness and found out by the end of the year that I had been fighting Lyme disease along with its complications. Although it’s been a tough battle, the long recovery time allowed me to push myself as a writer, and dive into my artistry that I often pushed to the backseat during times when I was performing as much as possible. It’s been refreshing and eye-opening to spend so much time experimenting and refocusing. Additionally, it’s been a great time to gain confidence in the studio and expand my production skills. Through this time, I’ve found myself even changing up the instruments I’m playing—although primarily a guitarist, I’ve been mixing it up writing often on piano and with synthesizers or to drum patterns.

I’m learning that the best part about disrupted plans is the perspective gained when you are forced to let go of what you thought you couldn’t do without. I’ve been slowly getting better since, but the experience has drastically shifted my approach and has pushed me to become a more honest songwriter in my lyrics and topics. I’ve also felt a greater freedom to get sonically experimental, as well as write in different genres for different types of artists. Since then, I’ve been working on new music to hopefully release later this year along with a new music video that should be releasing in the next few months!

Please tell us about your art.
I’ve been writing songs for fun for most of my life but started focusing on writing and performing my own work for the past 10-15 years. My main genre inspirations fall mostly within Alternative, Pop, Rock, and Folk, but I listen to all kinds of stuff. Florence + The Machine has always been incredibly inspiring to me, and I love tons of British music—everything from lesser-known acts like Rationale to mega-stadium acts like Coldplay to Brit-loved but truly American bands like The Killers (my all-time favorite band). I love a good conceptual narrative to run through music, and still love listening to albums when I can.

Many artists don’t write for ‘the album’ anymore, which makes sense with the popularity of streaming, but I can’t get enough of an overarching theme or sonic journey through a concept album. Maybe it goes back to my days in orchestra, choir, and theater and TONS of listening to classical music. If you had asked me my favorite artist at seven, I would have said, Tchaikovsky.

With my writing, I hope to inspire people and write things that I need to hear and want to say at the time that I write them. I do my best thinking through the writing process, so it’s worth it for me to make my lyrics reflect that kind of analysis. I don’t feel like I always have to have an immediate thesis come through; I love songs that are their own journeys into understanding and deep thought.

Every song is an opportunity to add something good or thought-provoking into someone’s life, so I never like to waste words saying things that I don’t believe or care about. For example, I love a lot of upbeat ‘party’-type songs, but I am the furthest thing from a partier, so it’s unlikely that you’ll hear me writing about dancing in the club or stuff like that. I’m more likely to write about wondering why Sour Skittles are in the checkout aisle at Vons instead of regular Skittles.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing artists today?
Noise or internet information overload is the biggest current challenge for artists. We’re at a time when anyone can say anything that they want and connect with others who are interested, but the easy opportunity to share also makes it easy for things to get lost in the masses of information out there. I think there are always people in every generation that make the art that needs to be made at the specific time, but it may or may not mean anything to culture if it isn’t able to find people who understand and appreciate it.

There are always good artists, people who become excellent at their craft through hard work, poignant topics to talk about, and people who are in the right place at the right time. None of that really changes with technology. Art is still art and connection with people is still just as powerful. The communication method/how you reach people has changed the most.

To combat noise, the business side of things becomes more important than in prior years, where it almost becomes equally important to make great art as it is to be able to talk about it and present it to the world through the internet. Breaking through a sea of information trying to grab people’s attention is the main challenge for today’s artist. Even though it’s a difficult challenge, it’s an opportunity for artists to get creative with solutions and to focus on what matters to other people. In the words of Albert Einstein, “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
My music is available on all streaming platforms, including Apple Music, iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube. You can catch all of my music videos and some live performances on my YouTube channel, and I often post random videos to my Instagram feed. Info about upcoming shows is usually on my Instagram, Facebook, and website.

In a few short weeks, I’ll be releasing a new music video for my song, “Eggshells.” I’m so excited for it to come out (it was filmed in my home state of Michigan). You can sign up for my email list through my website, follow me on Instagram and YouTube, and check out my other two videos for “Bold” and “In The Air” in the meantime until the new video comes out!

Contact Info:

• Website: kristinajohnsen.com
• Email: kristinajohnsenmusic@gmail.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/kristinajohnsenmusic
• Facebook: facebook.com/kristinajohnsenmusic
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp6n-DmAnCSGas-QOyHc_AQ

Image Credit:
Photo Credits: Evan Morse, Gina Johnsen, J.W. Hendricks, Kristina Johnsen, Peter Zuehlke, J.W. Hendricks, David J. Toman (music video still from “Bold”).

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