Johan Christher Schütz is a Swedish songwriter and music producer. He has also released music as a solo performer. Life and career Early years Born and raised outside the small town of Mjölby, Östergötland, he started singing and playing musical instruments, such as drums and electric organ, very early. Aged seven, he found a guitar in a dumpster, an experience that he says changed his life, as he decided to dedicate his life to music. Despite this, he entered the Kungshögaskolan College in Mjölby with the intention to study art, but the restrictive curriculum made him return to music. During a period in 1999 he lived in London after receiving a songwriting grant from Swedish royalty collection society STIM. He studied Portuguese at Stockholm University, and in 2015 he moved back to the UK. Musical theatre In 2008, Japanese musical theatre production company Takarazuka Revue licensed a Japanese version of his song Passion for one of their shows, which inspired Schütz to start writing for musical theatre. The Swedish musical Tivolisaga, translated as Carnival Tale, based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet but with the main characters renamed Punch and Judy, was written in close collaboration with director Johan Pettersson. It premiered in Norrköping, Sweden, in August 2013 in a small production at Arbisteatern. Following the success, Schütz and Pettersson staged a new Swedish production of Jonathan Larson's rock musical RENT, with Schütz as musical director. Since 2016, Schütz is a member of the BML workshop in musical theatre songwriting in London, a workshop modelled after the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop in New York. Solo releases Schütz has released five solo albums as a singer and performer, starting with Passion in May 2004, with jazz and bossanova influenced pop that was generally well received by the Swedish press. The second release Blissa Nova from November 2007 has a more contemporary and authentic Brazilian sound and had an even better reception by the Swedish press and also saw Schütz invited to do his first Japan tour. On his third album C'est La Vie he sang in Swedish for the first time, however the international edition included 5 songs translated into English. In 2010 Schütz started writing songs for a fourth album and announced it would be released under the pseudonym Peacebird, and released two charity singles during the spring of 2011, Peace! (Give the People the Power Back) supporting the