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| Bjorn Erik Englen was born in Vaxjo, Sweden. Although soccer is what kept Bjorn occupied most of his free time as a kid, Bjorn started listening to music at an early age and Kiss was his favorite band.
1977 - At the age of six, he and his buddies would dress up (full make-up and costume) just like the band with Bjorn acting as Gene Simmons and sometimes Paul Stanley, spitting red food coloring all over the living room floor pretending to play bass. 1984 - "I remember the very first time I played a bass. I was in 7th grade, and a friend of mine showed me a 12 bar blues in the key of "A" with me just playing the root-notes, and I was completely stoked!" Bjorn laughs. As Bjorn got older and his musical chops more refined, he realized it was time to move to a bigger city in order to reach his goals of becoming a major recording artist and a professional bass player. 1993 - Los Angeles became the target and his decision to attend the Bass Institute of Technology (B.I.T.) at the Musician’s Institute in Hollywood was firm. He made the move to L.A. and took his studies at B.I.T. seriously. Bjorn studied hard under favorite teachers like Tim Bogert, Putter Smith, Steve Bailey and Alexis Skljarevski. After only a couple of months at the school, Bjorn joined the group Ashen, made up of all M.I. instructors, and many live performances at major clubs in town followed. 1994 - One night a friend showed him an article in The L.A. Weekly saying that Quiet Riot was looking for a bass player. After sending them a promo package and soon got a phone call from lead singer Kevin DuBrow who was very impressed and wanted to get him in for an audition. Bjorn did pre-production work and promo with the band (3 members from ‘Metal Health’) for the upcoming album ‘Down to the Bone’ in1994/95 as well as 22 shows of the 1995 Tour supporting the album. Shortly after getting off the tour bus he formed the band Soul Sign. They recorded an EP and have since played numerous shows around California. The band took a long break but is currently working on their debut full-length album. 1996 - Bjorn toured the U.S. with Wrestless Natives, and started teaching Live Playing Workshops at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, as well as doing extensive live performing all over California. 1997 to 2009 - he worked mainly as a studio musician and went on to record with members of Foreigner, David Lee Roth, Dio, Ozzy, Elton John, Deep Purple, Journey, Dream Theater, Rainbow, Heart, Judas Priest, Whitesnake, Sweet, Steve Vai and many more… In 2004 to 2006 he played numerous shows throughout the U.S. with MSG/Survivor vocalist Robin McAuley. Since 1986 Bjorn has played over 1500 live shows, played on over 30 albums and taught bass through clinics world wide as well as at M.I. (BIT) and Rock Nation. Since 2007 Bjorn has played bass for Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force and as a member of the band toured Europe and the US in 2008. 6 sold-out co-headlining shows with Deep Purple in Japan were completed in April of 2009. Bjorn will tour Sweden with Soul Sign in March, 2010 and Russia with Yngwie Malmsteen in April, 2010. Bjorn would like to thank: Doug Margetts, Micke Ringdahl, Billy Sheehan, Don Lemmon, Patrik Johansson, John Paul Jones, Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Harris and anyone else who's been of guidance, support and/or inspiration. |
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