Today we’d like to introduce you to Bjorn Englen.
Hi Bjorn, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up in Sweden listening to all sorts of music starting with Kiss at age six, then all sorts of popular music. Around the age of 12, I got more heavily into rock and metal. After forming a punk band with a friend at age 11, hitting with drumsticks on a pillow and a 1-string guitar, I decided to pick up the bass. Mostly influenced by a garage band bassist across the street, but also because most of my friends were playing either drums or guitar, but I nevertheless thought bass was the coolest.
Mostly self-taught I went on to play with several local bands until the age of 21 when I realized that my hometown and Sweden was severely limited at the time in order to reach my goals as a world recording and -touring musician. I decided to take the leap and move to Los Angeles where I attended the Musicians Institute for one year and got to meet like-minded young people from around the globe as well as playing every genre of music. Very healthy. Three months into classes I got hired by a band made of teachers of the school to perform around Southern California and to record an EP. School ended a year later and I then also left the band.
Despite the destructive wave of grunge music I decided to stay in LA and ended up getting a job at a 24-hour gym where I worked the night shift. One night a friend walks in and tosses the LA Weekly on my desk and says: “Look, Quiet Riot is looking for a bassist!” My reply was “Well, ok, but who’s in the band now?” Turns out it was all the original members reuniting, so I decided to send them a demo, bio and a photo. About a week later singer Kevin DuBrow called and said he thought I might be what they’re looking for. They ended up receiving 120 demo tapes from various bassists and auditioned 40 of them. The first song at the audition was “Bang Your Head” – the first song I had learned on bass exactly 10 years earlier.
I went on tour the US with Quiet Riot in February and March of 1995. When I arrived back in LA a good friend called me and said: “Let’s jam!” The jams started what today is my band Soul Sign. (We have a new record coming out this spring and we are very excited for people to hear it)
However the grunge wave was to say the least brutal for the music scene in Los Angeles, and I ended up working as a session bassist throughout the 90s with members of Foreigner, The Supremes, David Lee Roth, Dio, Ozzy, Elton John, Rainbow, Korn, Heart, Guns N’ Roses, Sweet, Steve Vai, George Lynch, Vixen, Buddy Guy, Alice Cooper, Paul Rodgers & many more. The session years were very healthy and paid the bills, but I ended up losing “the fire” and who I really was.
Things took a turn for the better in 2004 to 2006 when I recorded and toured with MSG/Survivor vocalist Robin MCAuley I got the fire back and in 2007 I started working with guitar god Yngwie Malmsteen touring worldwide until 2012 when I joined forces with another guitar ace Tony MacAlpine for 7 years. In 2012 I also joined the continuation of Dio “Dio Disciples” (currently known as Dio Returns) whom I’m a member of still today. The band mainly consists of longtime Dio members and managed by Wendy Dio. In 2011 I was concurrently in three of the biggest guitar heroes’ bands: Yngwie Malmsteen, Tony MacAlpine and Scorpions’ Uli Jon Roth – Lots of songs, licks and tour dates to remember! Lol
Throughout the years I have also spent a lot of time educating upcoming musicians and professionals through lessons, master classes and clinics incl. Los Angeles College of Music, Rock’n’Roll Fanstasy Camp and Musicians Institute as well as clinics and masterclasses worldwide for various instrument sponsors and at schools worldwide. I continue to teach students of all levels, ages and styles – online and in private.
I am constantly recording as a session musician for various artists worldwide, and my own band Soul Sign has a new record coming out this spring along with tour dates worldwide, including Southern California.
I hope to see you all out there!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
LOTS of struggles… Early on I would desperately take any gig just so that I could pay the bills and eat. People would call and ask: “I have a gig tonight. It pays $30. Do you play jazz?” I would say “Yes, of course”. Driving to the gig, I’d think to myself: “Oh, no, what have I done? I just lied to the guy. I don’t play jazz!” Sure enough I would somehow always get through the gig and get a callback, lol. This despite also being a few minutes late because of a leaking radiator and having to pull over and fill up several times on the way. Just so that they wouldn’t worry about the reliability of my car I never mentioned why I was late. I guess the moral of the story is: Get out of your comfort zone!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I would say I’m proud of many things including playing with one of my heroes Yngwie Malmsteen, the Dio band as well my own band Soul Sign. I’m very proud of all the members of this band!
What sets me apart is my unique style and versatility. Not only staying true to myself but also playing and staying open to LOTS of different styles of music and bass playing has made me who I am. I wish more bassists, especially in the rock genre, would use this approach and play more walking and moving bass parts adding much more to the music and the songs, like players like John Paul Jones, Paul McCartney, John Entwistle, etc did back in the day. One of the main reasons (besides the cookie-cutter approach) rock music, in my humble opinion, has stagnated in the last 30 years is the limitation of bass playing.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Yes, how important it is to sometimes stop, take a step back and reflect on what you’re doing, have done and want to do.
I have also realized how crazy sometimes the online rat race has become.
Contact Info:
- Website: bjornenglen.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bjornenglen
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/BjornEnglen
- Twitter: twitter.com/bjornenglen
- Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC2P5jGNWRHvhucIUm0Qh3dw
- Yelp: https://m.yelp.com/biz/the-ultimate-bass-lessons-los-angeles-2
- SoundCloud: https://m.soundcloud.com/sidesignproectmusic/leonardo
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/soul.sign/?hl=en
Image Credits
Jerry Averill Lars Andersson Scott Strelecki Julie Bergonz Alex Solca
