Scene Point Blank: I know you are obviously promoting this release, Swing Your Lanterns. However, are you currently working on some new material?
Ivan Julian: I am currently writing the next LP right now but I am also working on something I have been meaning to do for some time, which is going to be an instrumental record. It is going to be called Speechless.
Scene Point Blank: Good title! Do you play a wide variety of instruments on your own releases?
Ivan Julian: Generally if I have a sound in my head, I will play it myself if I can. I cannot play the drums so I will always need to find a drummer. When I look at an instrument I want to explore how music comes out of it. My piano playing is based on an interview I read with Pete Townshend of The Who. In the interview, Peter mentions that Aretha Franklin plays her own piano. I was like, “What?! No way...” I had no idea that was the case. So I went out and bought some Aretha Franklin records and thought to myself I want to be that type of piano player that accompanies themselves while they sing. I have learned some classical pieces. I learned Moonlight Sonata when 9/11 happened. I thought to myself: if not now, when? So now was the time!
Scene Point Blank: I noticed you also used the Bulbul Tarang instrument on this release. I am not familiar with the instrument.
Ivan Julian: Actually, no one is really familiar with it in North America. More so in Japan or India. I was doing a recording session and there was this session musician named John Torn and he had one of these instruments. I asked him what it was and he started playing it. I thought to myself at that moment: this is cool, I am going to get one of these for myself. So I purchased one and started making these amazing sounds. Bulbul Turang as an instrument sounds kind of ominous. It actually translates into “nightingale” from the Indian dialect. It is also known as the Indian banjo. I took it and got sounds out of it. I like the organic aspect of it. I like to see how they mesh with electric instruments and how it is all brought to a certain place. I am trying to make the Bulbul Turang famous so everyone will have one in their hands, haha.
Scene Point Blank: Over the years I have watched my former roommates bring home different instruments since they both worked at guitar stores. One was something called The Stick or the Chapman stick. I tried to play it. it was like a cross between a guitar and a bass and maybe a bit like a harp. I believe Adrian Belew played one at some point. Another roommate once brought home a Sitar. Another friend is now trying to master this Greek instrument…
Ivan Julian: Oh yes, the Bouzouki!
Scene Point Blank: As a young kid did you not live in Cuba? Were you exposed to a lot of traditional Cuban music at the time?
Ivan Julian: Yes, my father was in the Navy so I grew up on Guantanamo Bay on the base.
No, it was a controlled military base. There was one radio station on the base. There was one main gate from the rest of Cuba and the base. The Cubans were allowed to come over and do menial tasks like drive busses but they had to leave by the end of the day. They had some arrangements. However, we were not allowed to go over there under [any] circumstances.
Sometimes we would hear Cubans singing. But, on the base, there was complete radio control with the one station. The only song I recall hearing at the time was “On Top of Old Smokey” by Burl Ives, ha. There were no rock ‘n’ roll stations or anything remotely like that. it was pretty isolating. It was probably what drove my hunger for music when we returned to the States in the late ‘6os when all the stuff was happening. At that time my ear caught it and I went wow.
I was there from the time I was 5 to 9 or 10. That was the only reality I only knew. So coming back to the U.S of A, as they called it back then, I really had to get acclimated. It was around that time that my friend's older brother took us to see Hendrix when I was 12. That was a life-changing experience.
Scene Point Blank: Where did you actually see him?
Ivan Julian: His first record was already out, Are You Experienced? I think he had just released Axis Bold as Love, his second album. He was playing at the Baltimore Civic Centre. It was a large auditorium. I think he had just been booted off The Monkees tour as the Moms couldn't dig it, haha.
Scene Point Blank: This must have been one of your first shows.
Ivan Julian: Yes. It was my first show -- a hard one to top!
Scene Point Blank: I mentioned in an interview recently that my first show was Peter Tosh. My introduction to live reggae and copious amounts of marijuana smoke, ha.
Ivan Julian: I did a tour when I was playing with Matthew Sweet. it was sponsored by he Tragically Hip. It went from one end of Canada to the other. It was called “Another Roadside Attraction.” It started in Vancouver travelling in a bunch of tour buses and we worked our way across the country. Ziggy Marley was on that tour.
Scene Point Blank: A lot of people outside Canada are not aware of The Tragically Hip. I don't think they really boomed over in The States.
Ivan Julian: It was so weird. They were headlining the tour. They would set up a little stage like in the middle of Alberta and 50,000 would show up.
They were huge. They came up to us and asked if they could open for us at CBGB's or something…and we were like, “What? You guys are like The Beatles here!” Evidently, I am not sure why they didn't gravitate across the border.
Scene Point Blank: Gord Downie would reference a lot of Canadian-type stuff in his lyrics. I think it really resonated with Canadians. He talked about small Ontario towns and hockey players and things like that. It's possible some of those references might not mean anything to some people in the States? When they did their last show they set up live feeds pretty much in every town in Canada from what I understand. They certainly became a Canadian institution.
Scene Point Blank: I wanted to ask you a bit more about your studio. Do you have a steady array of musicians coming in and recording at your place?
Ivan Julian: It is pretty consistent depending on the month. I am currently working on two projects that I am producing. Over the COVID thing I was doing a lot of mastering with South American bands. It is an analogue studio, however we do have Pro Tools of course. I am a big fan of tube gear. We have a whole wall of tube compressors, two of them I built. We have a two-inch tape machine because I love the way things sound on actual tape. Of course, once everything piles up on tape we bring it over into Pro Tools because it is just easier to work that way.
It's a pretty large room. It's actually a pretty cool space and it actually sounds good. We actually have James Brown's plate reverb. I went down to North Carolina to buy it. He used this reverb to record “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag.” It is great that we have the space to put it in. Every time I keep playing through it I hear “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag.” I manage to somehow write my own stuff, but it is fairly busy these days.
Scene Point Blank: I saw some gear for sale that was used by The Beatles in Abbey Road.
(A Pair Of E.M.I. BTR2 Tape Recording Consoles Used Extensively By The Beatles At E.M.I. / Abbey Road Studios During The Entire Time They Recorded There)
Ivan Julian: No, no , no , no, no…Please no more gear, haha!
Scene Point Blank: So do you do most stuff analogue and not digitally?
Ivan Julian: No, actually we do most stuff digitally as people don't want to usually spend the money on the tape and it does take more time, rewinding, etc. I would say we do about 40 percent of our stuff on tape. We record all the basics, the vocals and then we just record it into Pro Tools. It is just easier and quicker. Everything goes through tubes though. All our pre's are tubes. The reason behind that is that it doesn't corrupt what is called the Zero Axis. When you run things through transistors you get this glitch as the Sine Wave goes back and forth. When I bought the tape machine we got these tapes from the guy who sold it to us. They had some bands on them. While listening to them I was asking myself why does this sound so good? Why Why why...What is it? I realized what was happening -- it was not the actual sound of the instruments but it is the air. The air is not being split into 1's and 0's. it is not being quantized so with that. It does not sound harsh but, rather, it sounds warm and inviting.
That all being said, let's not kid around. It is all going to a digital medium anyways and unfortunately sometimes it is all going to MP3. It's basically going to get there one way or another. Haha.
Scene Point Blank: I was reading online in a forum that people were annoyed that stuff was recorded digitally and then pressed onto vinyl. I think purists would argue at one time stuff was mastered to be on vinyl now digital files can be sent in and just pressed on vinyl.
Ivan Julian: That is the difference between mastering vinyl and mastering CDs. I do both. Mastering to CD you just have to worry about the E.Q and the compression. People basically want it to be loud as everything else.
Mastering vinyl is a whole craft as you have to get the bass response and the middle of the record or the inner part of the record where it is rotating faster than on the outside of the record. It has to sound the same. The selection of songs has to be correct at that point. It's unfortunate that it is a dying breed or, simply put, there are not many people out there that really know how to do it.
Scene Point Blank: I think there were people that musicians sought out to master vinyl. You would see a name in the dead wax. Mastered by Porky, for example. In Canada, I don't think there are many places to press vinyl and those that do have long lineups.
Ivan Julian: A lot of the guys got older and the machines are not as available. Even if you have a machine you have to train someone on how to use it properly. There is a real process to it with the left and right sides of the grooves, the depth of the grooves, in terms of the volume. Knowing how to cut it and how to cut the mother which they actually use to press and make the record. I have a friend that, when he gets the test pressing, he wants it done on the mother and he wants to hear it within 30 minutes. Otherwise he goes away. There is an ethereal aspect to the whole thing. It is a whole magic card in itself.
Scene Point Blank: Did your son work on a video for the latest release?
Ivan Julian: Yes. He is 33 now. He is a multi-media artist and plays in noise bands. He plays in a band called Sunk Heaven. He does well in the noise circuit and he also is a video artist. He did a video for The Fauntleroys which was a one-off band I had with Alejandro Escovedo. He did a really good job on that video so I had him do one for “Voodoo Christmas” off Swing Your Lanterns and we just finished another one for the song “Tell Me Lies.” So, yes, I am being directed by my son, haha.
Scene Point Blank: Well that is cool if you can support and utilize a family member all the while helping them ply their trade.
Are you still in contact with Alejandro?
Ivan Julian Yes but he is all over the place, travelling a lot. We speak every couple of months. This band that we were in together was put together by Nick Tremulis essentially. Alejandro actually played bass. He is a really good bass player and not many people know that.
Scene Point Blank: Oh, cool. I am a big fan of his and his history with bands like The Nuns. I am interviewing his brother Javier. There are plans for a Zeros documentary apparently. Very interesting family.
Ivan Julian: I had these songs that I brought in and he put these amazing bass lines down. On my last record, The Naked Flame, we actually covered a Nuns song, “The Beat.” It's a great song. I have the 7” sitting on my shelf and I always thought that if I ever make a solo record I want to record that song. This was before I actually really knew Alejandro well. The song came out okay.
Scene Point Blank: Do you have a large record collection you have amassed over the years?
Ivan Julian. Ah well, it takes up half a wall. It Is a medium-sized collection. It isn't one of these collections that takes up a whole room. I wish it was. Haha.
I have what I need. I have this weird record that Richard Hell gave me that is Electric Lady Land, the Jimi Hendrix record. So on the first side is a song called “...And the Gods Made Love,” which is a slowed-down tape type of thing and then there is “Crosstown Traffic” and then it goes into “Voodoo Child.” However, when playing it is Blank Generation in the grooves: “Love Comes in Spurts,” “Liars Beware,” etc. etc.
Scene Point Blank: That is weird. Some pressing flaw?
Ivan Julian: I think it has something to do with the serial number. Somehow it got mixed up.
Scene Point Blank: I once bought a Motorhead cd but when I played it...it was Fleetwood Mac Rumours. I should have kept it. That type of stuff becomes collectible.
I like little weird things about albums. There is a record by a band called Spacemen 3 - Dreamweapon that actually plays from the outer groove inwards. It is a pricey record now I believe.
Ivan Julian: Wow. Really? How would they do that?
Scene Point Blank: I have no idea as I only owned the cd. There are other records that have hidden grooves. Play the record a few times and you might hear the hidden track. A guy from the U.K. named Johnny Moped did that on a record called Cycledelic.
Neat novelties that appeal to collectors.
I will trade you the Johnny Moped for the Jimi Hendrix/Richard Hell misprint.
Ivan Julian: Ha, sounds like an even trade.
Scene Point Blank: What are you currently working on at the moment?
Ivan Julian: Currently, I am working on my instrumental project, as mentioned, called Speechless and writing songs featuring my cheapo home electric piano made by Maestro. At Supergiraffe Sound we just finished tracking a 24-track tape session with The Midnight Confessions, a hot new band from Brooklyn.
Scene Point Blank: Anyways I should let you go. When you make it to Toronto I will definitely introduce myself.
Ivan Julian: That sounds cool. Look forward to it. Nice chatting with you.
