Ken Owen is an English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 drummer

Drummer

A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...

. He was born in Billinge, and grew up in Gayton, Merseyside

Gayton, Merseyside

Gayton is a village in Wirral, Merseyside, England, located between Heswall and Parkgate. It is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral and is situated in the parliamentary constituency of Wirral South...

. He is best known as one of the founding members of Carcass

Carcass (band)

Carcass are an extreme metal band from England, who formed in 1985 and disbanded in 1995. A reunion was enacted in 2008 without one of its original members, drummer Ken Owen, due to health reasons....

, for which he also handled some of the vocals. After the band broke up in 1995, he started Blackstar

Blackstar (band)

Blackstar was a British heavy metal band, formed as a retooling of the band Carcass in 1995 without Bill Steer along with former Cathedral guitarist Mark Griffiths....

, along with two other Carcass members. In February 1999, he suffered from a brain haemorrhage at home and spent ten months in hospital slowly emerging from a coma, making it impossible at the time for him to continue playing the drums.

More recently, he has started playing drums again, but mostly makes music using the computer software program Reason

Reason (program)

Reason is a music software program developed by Swedish software developers Propellerhead Software. It emulates a rack of hardware synthesizers, samplers, signal processors, sequencers, and mixers, all of which can be freely interconnected in an arbitrary manner...

. In 2008, he joined Carcass on stage at the Wacken Open Air

Wacken Open Air

Wacken Open Air is a summer open air heavy metal music festival. It takes place annually in the small town of Wacken in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany...

 festival, Damnation Festival

Damnation Festival

The Damnation Festival is a one day music festival currently held annually at Leeds University, Leeds, England and organised by Gavin McInally. The 2011 edition of the festival will be held on November 5...

, 2009 at Bloodstock Open Air

Bloodstock Open Air

Bloodstock Open Air is a heavy metal festival held annually at Catton Hall in Walton-upon-Trent, England, since 2005. Previous line-ups have included bands such as Opeth , Children of Bodom , Nightwish , Cradle of Filth , Testament , Arch Enemy , Europe and Twisted Sister .Originally on one stage...

 and in 2010 at Vagos Open Air

Vagos Open Air

Vagos Open Air is a metal festival held annually in Calvão, Vagos, Portugal since 2009. It is organized by Ophiusa Eventos and Prime Artists firms....

 to play a short drum solo.

He is currently a student at the Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies in Nottingham

Nottingham

Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...

.