Les Carlsen

Biography
Loved the music of Elvis Presley, his showmanship and presentation were inspiring. The Beatles had major impact on my life. I was highly motivated to perfect my singing, every day after school I would sing to my Beatle albums, Rolling Stones, Dave Clark Five, and a host of other English groups. I began jamming with local guys that were into guitars, keys and drums. Wow, life became all about music.

My first serious group was The Topics. We wore black blazers, white shirts, black ties, silver pants and of course, Beatle boots! We played mostly high school pep dances, oh yeah! The scene then started getting a lot heavier when Jimi Hendricks shared his experience with the world. It seemed that all the guitar players were freaking out about the new possibilities, huge amps, controlled feedback and just reckless abandon. The Who were breaking their instruments on stage, controlled chaos prevailed. Janice Joplin just blew me away. I wanted rasp, and guts, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, time to learn more about my voice. Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, James Brown a few of my favorites.

I started an underground group called The Worm, we played a late night after hours club in Seattle called The Vault. When The Worm surfaced from there, we changed to The Front Page, a name our new manager gave us. We played on the Pat O’Day dance circuit in mostly roller rinks and attracted hundreds of kids, due to radio ads that promoted the circuit. Drugs, break ups, lost direction, then Hair came to Seattle. I auditioned and made it in the show. I took it seriously and began a new journey in the world of live theatre. I spent two years traveling with the show and during that time managed to write original songs that were recorded on Revelation Records. The group was called Joshua. Heavy guitars, and melotron made for a very interesting sound.

Fred Shwartz was the name of my next group- two guitars bass and drums. We had a country rock feel and I really enjoyed performing with that band. We made some great music together. There was no one in the group by the name of Fred or Shwartz for that matter so we spent a lot of our time explaining the name. We opened for T-Rex, Blue Oyster Cult, Y and T! Got great reviews, nothing happened, broke up, still haven’t found what I’m looking for!

Decided to work with the one person I loved the most, my wife, Joyce, whom I had met and fallen in love with when we were in Hair together years earlier. Our act, The Carlsen- Macek Band, became very popular in the Northwest club scene in the early eighties and because of that we were selected to open shows for Heart, Three Dog Night, The Beach Boys, Quiet Riot, Steppenwolf, Cliff Richards, and BB King. We performed and were choreographed by Kenny Ortega who we had also met in Hair in 1970. We recorded two albums that were released outside of the USA. This led to six Saturday night performances on National TV in Italy. We worked well together for years as performers and song writers. During that time both of us studied voice with Maestro David Kyle. The idea was, once again, to improve as singers. It was through this encounter that I feel the groundwork was laid to meet the rigorous vocal challenges of being the lead singer of Bloodgood. Because of the fact that Jesus is actually who He claimed to be, life has changed for me and I will Never Be The Same! The song titles and the lyric content within, have allowed me to communicate my passion through the course of five studio albums, three live albums, several dvd’s of various live Bloodgood shows, taped interviews, and appearances on national television, newspaper, and magazine articles. I should also point out that this website will enable us to reach out directly, to people who share common goals with us concerning the task at hand. Let the Truth be known throughout the entire world that Jesus Christ is alive and well! Having said that be filled with joy and carry on!

Hosted by producer, songwriter and musician Don Cromwell, DC LIVE brings the listener a vast array of music talent and personalities. Drawing from his years of experience and contacts within the industry, guests will include both established and new artists, producers and song writers, as well as behind the scenes professionals.

Recently Les Carlsen had the pleasure of appearing on DC LIVE and the old chemistry of Les and Don, who had worked together before was still there. To view this appearance, please check this out.

For more about the Rockstar Radio Network and DC LIVE please visit www.rockstarradionetwork.com.

Recently Les Carlsen had the pleasure of being invited to guest host their popular show REWIND where he did a retrospective that included Bloodgood’s popular Rock Theatre. Check it out!

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Part 2 For more of JCTV visit their website at www.jctv.org