Richard Hell & Voidoids Founder Member Ivan Julian Has Song Featured In ‘Shameless’ Soundtrack

Late last year, a soundtrack album for the long-running Showtime series Shameless was released featuring “The Naked Flame” by Ivan Julian. The series ended in 2021 after 11 seasons, followed by a six episode mini series.

Julian is now releasing Swing Your Lanterns, his latest solo offering. Ivan’s had a long and distinguished career as a provocative songwriter and one of New York City’s most distinctive guitar stylists. As a founder member of Richard Hell & The Voidoids, Julian was an essential part of the original Punk scene while sowing the seeds for Post-Punk with the pointedly lopsided rhythms structures and scorched, askew guitar lines that comprised the Voidoids’ oeuvre. Swing Your Lanterns is being released by Pravda Records.

The album was produced by Ivan, recorded to 2” tape at his own SuperGiraffeSound studio in Brooklyn, New York as well as Raxtrax Studio in Chicago, Illinois. Julian himself performed on a multiude of instruments including guitars, organ and even electric Bulbul Tarang (an instrument found in India and Japan). He was joined in the studio by drummer Florent Barbier (Elliot Murphy), Keith Streng (The Fleshtones) on percussion and backing vocals, Nick Tremulis on guitar and backing vocals, bassist Derek Brandt, as well as James Burke and Jared Michael Nickerson also on bass, to name just a few.

The songs on Swing Your Lanterns reflect Ivan’s experiences over the last five years and beyond set against the contemporary sociopolitical stage, asking the question: where do you stand during troubled times, and will you remain vigilant? The album plays like a series of novelettes depicting the underlying human condition, our aspirations, loves, and losses.