Kevin Johansen is the biggest Argentine rock star ever to come out of Alaska. Really.
His canny combination of English and Spanish lyrics coupled with eclectic musical forays into rock, rap, reggae, salsa, samba, cumbia, country, and tango have made him one of Argentina's most popular musicians.
Now Johansen is turning his attention back to his native country. This month, he will embark on his first big tour of the United States in support of his album "Sur o No Sur," which will be released by Sony Music in November. Johansen and his band, The Nada, have scheduled stops in New York, Chicago, Miami, and Los Angeles, where they hope to win over fans with the same breezy, bilingual tunes that have already made him a staple on Argentina's airwaves.
"The only reason that my songs come out in Spanish or in English, or both, is because of my background and the places I've lived," he says.
And that background is varied. Johansen was born in Fairbanks, Ala., in 1964 to an Argentine mother and an American father. He spent most of his childhood in the San Francisco Bay Area before the family moved to Argentina when he was 12. As a teenager in Buenos Aires, Johansen embraced Argentina's culture, customs, and language. Still, the bilingual singer found himself curious about his American heritage.
"When I was 25, I moved up to New York to try to find out how North American I felt, and how South American I was," he says with a laugh during a recent interview on his sunny patio in Palermo Viejo, a trendy neighborhood of Buenos Aires. In New York, he says, "I found out that I felt comfortable with both cultures."
(From http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1024/p18s01-almp.html)
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