Timeline Photos

I Loved the music of Elvis Presley, his showmanship and presentation were inspiring. The Beatles had a 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!

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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 and controlled chaos prevailed. Janice Joplin just blew me away. I wanted rasp and guts, rock and roll, rhythm and blues... It was time to learn more about my voice. Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and James Brown were a few of my favorites.

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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. Life became drugs, break ups, and lost direction, and 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 theater. I spent two years traveling with Hair and during that time managed to write original songs that were recorded on Revelation Records. The group was called Joshua (later re-mastered and released as Les Carlsen 1971). Heavy guitars, and Mellotron made for a very interesting sound.

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Fred Shwartz was the name of my next group. With two guitars, bass and drums, we had a country rock feel. I really enjoyed performing with that band, and we made some great music together. There was no one in the group by the name of Fred or Shwartz, 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 hadn't found what I was looking for!

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I 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. 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 were choreographed by Kenny Ortega who we had also met in Hair in 1970. We recorded two albums that were released outside of the US. This led to six Saturday night performances on National TV in Italy.

 

During that time both of us studied voice with Maestro David Kyle. The idea was, once again, to improve as singers. Looking back I realize that this was the groundwork laid for me to meet the rigorous vocal challenges of being the lead singer of BLOODGOOD.

We worked well together for years as performers and songwriters, but the nightclub scene became a downward spiral of drugs and alcohol.

 

All that changed when we met Jesus! Music now became a ministry.  I was called to preach the gospel through heavy metal music, and Joyce became a support person behind the scenes running lights and managing the road tours for my new band, BLOODGOOD.

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​BLOODGOOD was one of the earliest Christian Heavy Metal bands. We toured in the US under very difficult circumstances, blazing a trail that had not been traveled. We faced extreme opposition from both the world and the church, a story best told in the documentary film "Trenches of Rock", produced and directed by Paul Michael Bloodgood.

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I'm presently recording my first solo project where I've written music and played guitar. I know there is  a vast selection of music available these days and I'm grateful that you have opened my website and will listen to my music.

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​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!