Obelisken

Originally born in France and reimported back to the UK at a young age, Les moved around a bit in early life and eventually settled just outside of Brighton, on England’s south coast. After leaving school and going to college, 16-year-old Les found himself inspired by a growing number of 90s heavy guitar-based bands, primarily from the grunge and metal scenes, and decided one day to teach himself guitar, having never played a note before. He bought a beaten-up old piece of glorified firewood from a close friend, along with possibly the worst amplifier ever constructed by human hands and set about teaching himself from a book (YouTube did not exist back then!). After about a year he then decided to teach himself bass and, shortly after that, started joining local bands with friends, either as a guitar player or bass player. It was during this time in early bands that Les also discovered an appreciation for playing drums, playing his band-mates’ kits whenever he got the chance.

Over the years that followed, Les continued to hone his craft(s) on guitar and bass, playing in bands from grunge, doom, thrash and other sub-genres of rock and metal. After graduating from University, he played for many years throughout the early 2000s as bass player and founding member of Southampton-based thrash band Eternal Torment, releasing the EP Arms of Oblivion and playing numerous live shows including London, Brighton, Southampton, Liverpool and elsewhere across the south of England.

The 2010s saw Les getting involved in numerous projects, including a full album release and several live shows as bass player with a Reading-based melodic metal band, founding member and soul musician/songwriter of the (“long term-temporarily” dormant) Viking metal band Battleblood, bass player with a rock covers band and bass player in a (now sadly defunct) Southampton-based power metal band Lightning Strike (fun story… he joined the band after meeting the existing members just 2 weeks before their first live show, having attended the first of just 2 rehearsals prior to the gig and even helped to write a missing chorus to one of the songs!). He also had a brief tenure as bass player for the legendary UK thrash band Deathwish.

This period also saw Les start to branch out into recording, teaching himself how to record full bands at home and in the studio. Armed with the capabilities of a new digital DAW, Les then stared schooling himself in the ways of soft synths, ambient sound design, field recording and furthering his pursuit of drums. In 2018, Les decided to take a career break and complete something of a “Bucket List” item; designing, building and assembling to final finish a unique, custom electric guitar at the Totnes School of Guitar Making. This 3-month residential course remains among some of Les’ fondest and most rewarding memories.

Fast-forward to the end of the 2010s and into the thus far “interesting” 2020s, Les started playing local open mics, learning how to play the cajon for the first time in a pub full of people after having been called up unexpectedly to join in the fun! This experience and those that followed vastly improved Les’ ability to join other musicians live on stage and accompany them with bass guitar or cajon, often improvising/learning the song in real-time having never played or even heard it before. Let it not be said that Les likes to throw himself into things in interesting ways!

Nowadays, Les can be found playing guitar with the Worthing-based rock alchemists Mirrors of Madness (formerly known as Two Tonne Vice) as lead guitarist and collaborative songwriter, resurrecting his Battleblood solo project and resuming his interest in ambient and dark ambient sound design, under the name Obelisken.

When he’s not making loud (musical) noises and talking geeky nonsense about pickups and tone woods to anyone who will indulge him, Les also has a broad range of interests outside of music including videogames, art and photography, martial arts, yoga, outdoor walks, film and books, and medieval weaponry.

What a guy…