Ivan Julian

Ivan Julian (born June 26, 1955) is a guitarist, singer-songwriter, and founding member of Richard Hell and the Voidoids and Lovelies.

He has also performed with The Isley Brothers, The Clash, Matthew Sweet, The Bongos, Richard Barone, and Shriekback, Jeremy Toback.

The child of a Navy officer, Julian spent his formative years moving a great deal, spending time in Haiti and Cuba before the family settled in Washington D.C.

And then at the age of 17, Julian toured the United Kingdom, Switzerland and the former Yugoslavia as a member of The Foundations, known for hits like "Build Me Up Buttercup" and "Baby Now That I Found You”.

In 1976 Julian returned to the U.S. to New York, where he was a founding member of the seminal Punk/ New Wave group Richard Hell and the Voidoids.

At this point there were more venues opening up such as the Mudd Club, Danceteria catering to a new minimal, percussive style of music and Ivan wanted to be part of it.

The songs on The Punk/Funk Voodoo Collection were recorded in the basement studio of Giorgio Gomelsky, Yardbirds producer and early manager of the Rolling Stones.

He persuaded Ivan Julian and the band to explore sounds outside of the boundaries of American pop music, most notably Fela Kuti.

Garland Jeffreys approached Ivan and offered to produce The Outsets forthcoming EP "The Ice Man", which also involved Bob Clearmountain as engineer.

Julian formed a group called Lovelies which included his then-wife, former Bush Tetras vocalist Cynthia Sley in 1988.

LP, Mick Jones and Joe Strummer wanted Julian to join them in the studio but he was touring with his band, The Outsets.