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. Born Athanasios Demetrios Maroulis in Brooklyn, NY'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 (entering through Ellis Island) in the '20s. Maroulis, who grew up in Brooklyn, was only 19 when in 1984, he became a 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, was never a major name in the goth field; however, 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 seemed 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 1987-1991. 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 the Cleopatra Label Group; 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, CA, 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 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 as one of the people who believed he was innocent of the crime). Many fans of '40s film noir consider that movie a definitive example of the genre and that's why Maroulis and Heller called their project the Blue Dahlia as they wanted the group's name to be as '40s-minded as possible. Focusing on well-known standards like Cole Porter's "Night and Day" and Hoagy Carmichael's abovementioned "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 Maroulis decided to move back to the East Coast. Based in his native Brooklyn, Maroulis continued to sing lead for Spahn Ranch and the Blue Dahlia and maintained his ties to Cleopatra. Though he was no longer working out of Cleopatra's Marina del Rey office, Maroulis worked for the company on a freelance basis and continued to provide liner notes for countless reissues and compilations. The early 2000s also found Maroulis becoming the director of publishing and film licensing for the Metropolis label and starting his own label, Sepiatone Records, on the side. ~ Alex Henderson