A Pizzazz Magazine Exclusive

Publisher Don Lemmon

Pizzazz Magazine: When did you begin playing bass and where?

Bjorn Englen: I have played bass since 1984, starting out in Sweden where I was born and raised.

Pizzazz Magazine: Drop some names! Who have you jammed with over the years?

Bjorn Englen: Robin McAuley (of MSG), Quiet Riot, RickiHendrix, Bleed, Soul Sign, Heaven & Earth, White Diamond, and Tamplin - as well as members of Foreigner, David Lee Roth, Dio, Ozzy, Elton John, Night Ranger, Heart, Macy Gray, Jeff Scott Soto, Leather Wolf, Rough Cutt, John Norum, Sweet, Beautiful Creatures, Sheena Easton, The Beach Boys, Blue Murder, Steve Vai, Vixen, Berlin, Buddy Guy, Chaka Kahn, Tony McAlpine, Paul Rodgers, Saga, Yngwie Malmsteen and many, more....

Pizzazz Magazine: What is your educational background?

Bjorn Englen: In 1993 I attended BIT at M.I. in Hollywood CA, where I taught the Hard Rock Live Performance Workshop from 96-97. Since then I have taken on a number of private students. Many you can see playing around town weekly. I have also studied Recording Engineering at L.A.R.W.

Pizzazz Magazine: What was the toughest moment you experienced as a bassist?

Bjorn Englen: In September 1999 when I took on Don Lemmon as a student in preparation for the filming of the motion picture American Dreamer this spring of 2000 which was postponed thank god. Laughs. Seriously speaking there has been many tough moments. You don't choose to be a musician because it's easy or because that's what you want to do. It is simply who you are and what you live for.

Pizzazz Magazine: What advice can you give an upcoming student?

Bjorn Englen: Keep as many doors open as possible, and stay focused. Think quality - not quantity.You do not need to rush through what you are taught. Learn at a pace your mind and body allows. Speed comes in time. Practise a little every day as opposed to 3 hours once a week.

Pizzazz Magazine: You are on Stuart Smith's HEAVEN AND EARTH album.

Bjorn Englen: Yes and we toured Canada and parts of the U.S. with a.o. Def Leppard and Sammy Hagar.Among the album's 15 tunes you will hear great artists like Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi, Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple, Carmine Appice of Ozzy Osbourne, Chuck Wright of House of Lords, Steve Priest of Sweet, Joe Lynn Turner of Rainbow as well as myself showing off a bit of my trademark tapping techniques on 'Telstar 2000.' This album by the way was voted Album of the Year by many industry related magazines, executives and organizations. It beat out many more well known acts for that distinction and is already termed 'Classic.'

Pizzazz Magazine: That Stuart Smith album really is one of the best albums I ever heard. Stuart is a funny guy as well. He told me once he was one of the top 3 guitarists alive. So what about SOUL SIGN?

Bjorn Englen: This is a 3 song CD single full of more of my signature bass lines. Toss Alice In Chains, Mr. Big, Malmsteen, Queensryche, King's X, and TNT all in a salad and you will have... Soul Sign. The band features the drummer from Secret Beauty Cream and Los Angeles underground legend Dave Keckhut on lead vocals. It is a full length album teaser of all new songs which is coming soon. This CD was fully funded by myself and has my style written all over it. If you ever meet the boys in the band, ask them about the time Dave was missing and they found him asleep in the sound booth! Didn't you used to hang out with Dave a few years ago? He is such a crack up!

Pizzazz Magazine: I did, but I certainly wont admit it. Actually, we worked together when I first came to LA in 1990. Wow. It's been a long time now. I hear in Sweden they don't have fire departments, just garden hoses. Is that true?

Bjorn Englen:And we not only have fire departments but telephones too you nut case!

Pizzazz Magazine: Plug something!

Bjorn Englen: Order the amazing Metal X-mas album "Released by X-mas" and get the Soul Sign EP "Control" for FREE !!! "Released by X-mas" features artists like Soul Sign, X-Union, Sanity, Mind collapse and Locomotive Breath (just to name a few) performing their own version of famous X-mas songs. For JUST $15 (includes shipping anywhere in the world)! It's yours, PLUS remember you get Soul Sign's "Control" absolutely FREE!! Drop me an email and let me know how you want to place your order!

Pizzazz Magazine: What will your web site have to offer?

Bjorn Englen: How To Practice, Getting Your Sound, Scales, Chords & More! Web Cam! ALL COMING SOON! Drop me a line to get private instruction. I travel a lot, so even if you're don't live in California (or the U.S.), do not hesitate in contacting me. I might even be doing private instruction on line soon.

Pizzazz Magazine: What is new with Soul Sign, Bleed, bass playing?

Bjorn Englen: A new Soul Sign album should be done before the end of next year. Bleed just released an EP (featuring Robin McAuley of MSG on vocals), which has received overwhelming response worldwide. I have also backed up Robin doing MSG and UFO tunes with some shows in SoCal and Chicago so far. This has been a lot of fun, as the band is great and Robin is great to work with. I'm still doing sessions and teaching in between albums and tours. When you play almost every night there's really no room or even need to practice, even though I still highly recommend adding at least 30-40 min/day of working on weaknesses. That'll boost your abilities tremendously.

Pizzazz Magazine: What do you think of the Van Halen reunion and the FINAL KISS tour?

Bjorn Englen: Reunion ? They never broke up AND I personally really like them with Sammy. Dave was really good in his early solo years. Kiss - Of course a good business guy is gonna say it's their last tour. Even if they meant it I still think there's a huge chance they'll be back anyway.

Pizzazz Magazine: Anything new and exciting in Sweden musically?

Bjorn Englen: Lots of Swedish artists have got a breakthrough internationally in the last 10 years. All these new Record Labels back have helped pushing the music a lot.There is so many great musicians back there. They're just a little too shy and scared in order to make it a lot of times. I just attended Sweden Rock Festival last summer. I was one out of 24.000 people to see bands like Judas Priest, Scorpions, Heart, Europe and many more rock like never before. Rock'n'Roll is alive over there more than ever !

Pizzazz Magazine: Have you written any new songs? Heard anything interesting in the music world we on the street haven't yet?

Bjorn Englen: I'm slowly writing new stuff, mainly for Soul Sign. I also have over 15 songs written for my debut solo album, which I probably won't start recording for a while. I really don't have any big inside news. The business is really only worth puking on any ways, but I'm still in it. Pretty sick, huh ?

Pizzazz Magazine: What defines a bass player's sound?

Bjorn Englen: It's mostly in your fingers - how you attack the string, left hand vibrato etc. This comes from playing A LOT. As far as the equipment, everything is important, from having new, clean strings, good pick-ups, a good bass, to a good rig/amp - especially a good powerful speakercabinet. For bass it's important to have lots of power. Don't think that cause the guitar player's playing through a 100 Watt amp you can. Most likely you'll need at least 600-1000 Watts to keep up. And in Rock'n'Roll often both drummers and guitar players like to be way too loud. So trying to talk some sense in them is the first step. Quit the band is the second. If the gig is still worth keeping, get lots of power and use some good earplugs.

Pizzazz Magazine: Ok, well, what determines the sound?

Bjorn Englen: Solid state amps are great for traveling and maintenance. Getting something you like and that suits your style, volume and taste is important. I'm extremely happy with my EBS Amps. They sound great and don't color the sound unless you dial them in to do so. AND they go to 11. I'm not kidding (laughs) ! As far as basses, you should have at least two properly working basses. Lots of gigs require that you bring both, at least so that you have a back up. Get a bass that sounds good BEFORE you plug it in, and has what you need in order to do your gig/s.

Pizzazz Magazine: How did you get into the bass?

Bjorn Englen: Initially I wanted to be a drummer. My mom even got me a drum kit till she realized that she didn't want drums in the house. But I had actually thought of bass before that. See everybody played either drums or guitar. The 80s, when I grew up, was bad for bass. Most bands had two guitar players and often the bass player was originally a bad guitar player. So they turned him down and put him in the background. I still thought bass was cool, especially checking out bands like Iron Maiden with Steve Harris, geeezze!

Pizzazz Magazine: To you, what is a band?

Bjorn Englen: It's like a bus. Somebody has to drive it and get it through it's journey. People are going to get off and on the bus at different points, but if you repaint the bus or change the number, people won't recognize it and will most likely miss it. Very few bands are, in my opinion, true bands in the sense of every band member being and feeling that they are an equal part of it.

Pizzazz Magazine: Losing a passenger is also a loss of uniqueness though.... Van Halen without Roth for instance.

Bjorn Englen: A new band member will sometimes create a new sound for the band, which hopefully is to the better.

Pizzazz Magazine: What was the last CD you bought, movie you saw, video you rented, book you read?

Bjorn Englen: I really don't buy much anymore. It's like the more you produce, the less you buy. Just imagine working at a chocolate factory - Would you be craving chocolate when you get home? I rarely read books. The last movie I saw (rented) was High Crimes. Very intense.

Pizzazz Magazine: What are, in your humble opinion, the top ten CD's to get a hold of?

Bjorn Englen: That's a tough question as I enjoy many different styles and artists. As far as finding good "rock bass albums" these would be good chioces:

The Artist, The Album, The Bassist
1. Mr. Big, "Lean Into It", Billy Sheehan
2. Led Zeppelin, "Led Zeppelin II", John Paul Jones
3. Talisman, "Humanimal", Marcel Jacob
4. Dream Theater, "Falling Into Infinity", John Myung
5. Rainbow, "R.B.'s Rainbow", Craig Gruber
6. Kings X, "Dogman", Doug Pinnick
7. Van Halen, "F.U.C.K.", Michael Anthony
8. Iron Maiden, "Powerslave", Steve Harris
9. Queensryche, "Empyre", Eddie Jackson
10. Jeff Beck, "Truth", Ron Wood

Now come hear me!

For Bjorn Englen's Official Website: CLICK HERE