Native New Yorker Athan Maroulis is an amazingly diverse and eclectic vocalist who has performed everything from industrial, goth rock, and alternative rock to vocal jazz and traditional pre-rock pop. Maroulis is best-known for his position as lead singer of the industrial/goth/darkwave band Spahn Ranch, but he proved to be equally convincing as a '40s-style crooner when he started singing lead for a standards-oriented vocal jazz/traditional pop outfit known as the Blue Dahlia. In the 2010s and early 2020s he fronted the dark electronic trio NOIR.

Born Athanasios Demetrios Maroulis in Brooklyn, New York's Park Slope section on September 22, 1964, the singer is the grandson of Greek immigrants -- his grandparents on both his mother and father's side immigrated to New York through Ellis Island in the 1920s. Maroulis, who grew up in Brooklyn, was only 19 when he became lead singer for an East Coast goth band called Fahrenheit 451 (which took its name from the famous Ray Bradbury novel). Fahrenheit, whose influences ranged from the Stranglers and the Doors to the seminal goth band Bauhaus, never became a big name in the goth field, but they did enjoy a small cult following (primarily in the northeastern U.S.) and shared bills with well-known bands like Gene Loves Jezebel and White Zombie. Fahrenheit also opened for the Ramones at a New York show; unfortunately, some of the Ramones' fans in the audience were unreceptive to goth rock and threw beer cans at the stage. When Fahrenheit broke up in early 1987, its members went on to join different bands. Singer Shell Stewart joined the Lucifer Scale, while drummer Ed Enzyme became a member of the Undead and bassist Pete Lisa hooked up with the infamous Cycle Sluts from Hell. Maroulis, meanwhile, left the New York area and moved to Philadelphia, where he sang lead for a local industrial outfit called Executive Slacks from 1987 to 1991. After Executive Slacks' 1991 breakup, Maroulis joined another Philly band, Tubalcain, in 1992. Maroulis was still a member of the obscure but noteworthy Tubalcain when, in 1992, he started singing lead for Spahn Ranch -- a band that became better-known than Fahrenheit 451, Executive Slacks, or Tubalcain.

At first, Spahn Ranch had an industrial orientation and could be quite abrasive, but eventually, it became increasingly melodic and evolved into more of a goth/darkwave combo. While Maroulis' previous bands had lasted two, three, or four years, Spahn Ranch (which started recording for Cleopatra in the early '90s) has had a longer run and was still going strong when the 21st century arrived. In 1992, Maroulis moved to Los Angeles, although he maintained a Philly collection for a few more years because of Tubalcain (which broke up in 1994). In 1995, Maroulis started working for Cleopatra; eventually, he worked his way up the company's ladder and became an in-house promoter, publicist, and A&R person. Until September 2000, Maroulis worked out of Cleopatra's office in Marina del Rey, California, an upscale L.A. suburb -- and the gig was perfect for him because he has such eclectic taste in music. Cleopatra has put out everything from industrial, goth, punk, and heavy metal to Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole reissues, and Maroulis had no problem writing an abundance of press releases, bios, and liner notes for Cleopatra's various labels (including the jazz-friendly Stardust, which is named after Hoagy Carmichael's famous standard).

Maroulis has been heavily into jazz and traditional pre-rock pop for a long time, but until 2000, most people assumed that he was strictly a rock vocalist. That year, Maroulis and producer Skip Heller started a new group called the Blue Dahlia. A radical departure from anything Maroulis had done in the past, the Blue Dahlia cast him as a suave, sophisticated, romantic, '40s-style crooner whose jazz and pop vocals recalled Billy Eckstine, Mel Tormé, and a young, Columbia-era Frank Sinatra. The Blue Dahlia (not to be confused with the alternative pop/rock/dream pop outfit from Michigan) is a total celebration of '40s popular culture; in fact, the nostalgic group takes its name from Raymond Chandler's classic 1946 film noir crime thriller (which starred Alan Ladd as a World War II veteran who was falsely accused of his wife's murder and blonde sex goddess Veronica Lake, who believed he was innocent of the crime). Many fans of '40s film noir consider that movie a definitive example of the genre, which is what led to Maroulis and Heller calling their project the Blue Dahlia, as they wanted the group's name to reflect the 1940s as closely as possible. Focusing on well-known standards like Cole Porter's "Night and Day" and Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust," the Blue Dahlia recorded their self-titled debut album for Stardust/Cleopatra in 2000; a second album, A Tribute to Frank Sinatra, came out on the same label the following year.

It was also in 2000 that Spahn Ranch recorded their final album, the aptly named Closure. Shortly thereafter, Maroulis made his way back to Brooklyn where he continued to produce reissues for Cleopatra and their Stardust subsidiary. He also started his own label, the short-lived Sepia Tone, which issued collections from Marlene Dietrich and the King Cole Trio. Maroulis spent the remainder of the decade continuing to operate behind the scenes, writing liner notes, producing reissues, and making guest appearances on albums by Razed in Black and Black Tape for a Blue Girl. He joined the latter act in a far more robust manner in 2009, serving as lead vocalist for the LP 10 Neurotics and touring with them both at home and abroad for nearly three years. In 2012, Maroulis formed the brooding electronic trio NOIR, who released their debut album, Darkly Near, on Philly-based Metropolis Records. He continued to tour and record with NOIR into the next decade. ~ Alex Henderson, Rovi