Rivers Johansson - Devil's Backbone by Man Demolish Records published on 2022-09-29T21:28:31Z Rivers Johansson is proud to announce the upcoming release of his brand new single “Devil’s Backbone”. A song, or in the words of Rivers himself “a sermon” about a person fallen from grace. A morality tale of lower nature vs the pursuit of the divine. “‘Devil’s Backbone’ came to fruition at a low point in life, pre-pandemic when I struggled to find my place in this world. I was in a full-tilt existential crisis and creating this collection of songs was the only passage out of chaos and into the light”. Rivers continues with the statement; “Art saves lives, it connects you to something higher than yourself and certainly saved me from a bizarre corrosive self-inflicted nihilism.” ‘Devil’s Backbone’ amongst the other tracks for Rivers’ upcoming album ‘Long Way Down (One Last Thing)’ were recorded at Uber Studios in Hull, the U.K. by producer and musical savant Rob Burgess. Rob has worked with many musicians and has a long history of producing songs for a who’s who of the Hull music scene. Rivers Johansson has been writing, recording and performing his unique brand of Blues since 2014. Johansson helms from the small town of Beverley, East Yorkshire. At his base, he is a one-man blues band, a mixture of dirty, hard-hitting slide blues thrusting along like a locomotive to the sound of his kick drum creating a gnarly, raw blues-rock sound. For ‘Devils Backbone’ and his upcoming record he opted for a full band sound and recorded drums, bass, keys, saxophone and vocal harmonies to add an extra layer to his music. “There is even Opera on this record” Rivers says “That’ll piss off the blues purists” he muses. “I wanted to push myself as a musician and make a more musical album. To achieve this I added more varied instruments, vocals and arrangements. I wanted to keep myself on my toes and keep myself guessing. There is excitement in an abrupt left turn in music creation. I enjoy the fight. I always question my choices and motives, I do this ultimately to serve the song, I live for walking that knife edge when creating music. That’s where the magic is, within that struggle”. Rivers' main musical inspiration is without a shadow of doubt Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds “he is everything to me” Rivers states, “I wouldn’t exist as a creative without him”. “My other influences range from Muddy Waters to Nirvana, I was a 90s kid and Kurt Cobain captured my heart and mind. Those influences I am proud to say are all over this record”. Genre Rock