Bjorn Englen plays bass for Yngwie Malmsteen and has played in the past with Quiet Riot and MSG/Survivor frontman Robin McAuley. Since 1986, he has played more than 1,500 live shows, played on more than 20 albums and taught bass clinics worldwide.

Born in Vaxjo, Sweden, Englen was occupied for most of his childhood free time with soccer, but he started listening to music at an early age. Kiss was his favorite band. At age six in 1977, he and his buddies would dress up in full make-up and costume, just like the band, with Engeln acting as Gene Simmons (and sometimes Paul Stanley), spitting red food coloring all over the living room floor while pretending to play bass.

Englen played bass for real for the first time in 1984 while in seventh grade. “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!” Englen said.

As he got older and his musical chops improved, Englen realized it was time to move to a larger city in order to reach his goals of becoming a major recording artist and a professional bass player. Los Angeles and the Bass Institute of Technology became his target in 1993, and he studied hard under favorite teachers including Tim Bogert, Putter Smith, Steve Bailey and Alexis Skljarevski. After only a couple of months at B.I.T., Englen joined Ashen, a group composed of M.I. instructors; many live performances at major clubs in town followed.

After a friend showed him an L.A. Weekly article in 1994 saying that Quiet Riot was looking for a bass player, Englen sent a promo pack and soon got a phone call from lead singer Kevin DuBrow. Englen auditioned successfully and played on the band’s Down to the Bone album, fall 1994 tour and 22 shows on the 1995 tour.

After the tours, Englen formed Soul Sign, which recorded an EP and played numerous shows around California. The band took a long break but is currently working on its debut full-length album. Englen toured the United States with Wrestless Natives in 1996, started teaching at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, and did extensive live performing all over California. He worked mainly as a studio musician from 1997 to 2003, and went on to record with members of Heart, Sweet, Dio, Elton John and many other acts.

Englen played numerous shows from 2004 to 2006 with McAuley; since 2007 he has played bass for Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force. He also played several shows with Deep Purple in Japan in April 2009.