Hello Michael – Thank you for taking the time out to speak with us today. What is on today’s agenda for you?
While I wish I could say my agenda was all Beauty In Chaos, my ‘day job’ as President of Schecter Guitars requires my attention, too. As for BIC, today is all about approving the mastering of the 8 remixes that will be the vinyl version of ‘Out Of Chaos Comes…’ as we need to get it off to the pressing plate since vinyl pre-production is about 4 times longer than CDs. I should also see a rough edit of our planned debut video/single. Once the LP is off, the focus goes to the additional 6 tracks that make up the 14-song CD. Once that is off my plate, the focus is the remaining songs for the digital release. Lots and lots on the agenda … besides also being a husband and a father!
You are based in LA but are originally from New Orleans. Were you involved with music before relocating (and how long ago did that happen)? Do you maintain connections to your hometown?
Yes, I was born and raised in New Orleans! After driving multiple 2,600 mile round-trips to NYC to ‘showcase’ for record labels, we decided we needed to make a permanent move. For some reason we opted for LA over the Big Apple in Summer ’85. Maybe there is a song in there! Both of my parents are gone, but I still have some family left there. We try to get to back to New Orleans at least once a year. It is a great city, one that I did not appreciate as much growing up. The age-old ‘the grass is always greener’ syndrome; but I know the city made me who I am today. Honestly, I never thought I’d be in Los Angeles this long, but I have put down new roots and have my beautiful family here.
You were with Human Drama for several decades and also played with Michael Aston’s Gene Loves Jezebel. What was it like making the transition from these groups to Beauty in Chaos?
Even though I co-founded Human Drama in the early ‘80s, I have been in and out of the lineup over the years so my involvement with the sound and the direction began to be less over time. As for GLJ, that band is always about the Aston twins, and then later, Michael Aston. With BIC, at the end of the day, I ultimately make the final decisions. Not that I don’t have help, since I value the input from the many great artists that are part of BIC. As a ‘curator’, I guess the initial visons are mine, but I am smart enough not to let my ego get in the way and I always try to involve everyone. It is a new challenge, but it is one that I welcome.
Please tell us about your new album ‘The Storm Before the Calm’.
After we released ‘FBIC’ and its remix counterpart ‘Beauty Re-Envisioned’, both which are ‘big’ listens; i.e… lots of songs … I felt we should do something along the lines of an EP. Even though I felt ‘FBIC’ was amazingly cohesive for the amount of artists involved, I felt it could be better with a shorter listen. I also had been listening to some of the darker parts of my record collection; ‘Disintegration’, ‘First And Last And Always’, and ‘Pornography’… and I wanted to make this record a bit darker and linear. The first four songs we wrote, “Delicate Balance…”, “The Outside”, “Almost Pure” and “A Kind Cruelty” were meant to be that EP. But in typical BIC fashion we strayed a bit with “Temple Of Desire” and the gorgeous “Stranger”, which was included to lead in to the ‘what comes next’ arena! So our dark album got a bit less dark with the addition of these two new songs and it became a full album. Once we strayed a bit, I decided to throw the puzzle completely on the floor and included the 29 minute+ soundscape title-track on the CD version.
The formula of rotating guest artists, with some artists returning to work with you on each release (i.e. Ashton Nyte, Wayne Hussey, Evi Vine) keeps your music dynamic and unpredictable. What was the moment when you decided that you’d found the winning formula for your project? Or how do you see it?
Formula sounds a bit contrived, I think …. The evolving, revolving entity that is BIC just seems to work. I am not really a singer, though I am sure that I’ll sing a BIC song before this is over! I love the idea of figuring out how all of these artistic pieces can work together. Our ever expanding BIC Family is certainly mutually beneficial as I do think BIC has helped introduce some artists to a fan base that may not have heard of them, and visa versa. Both the Mission and Ashton Nyte’s fans have been amazingly supportive of BIC. As far as some artists returning … I do really look at BIC as a family and once someone is in, they are in as long as they would like and have the time to contribute! I would love to think that both Wayne and Ashton, both who have been a big part of BIC, would continue to be. I have sort of put it out there that the next ‘studio’ BIC record would feature all female singers. While I love the idea of expanding the fold with some new artist, I sincerely hope that Evi Vine, Betsy Martin and of course, my wife will be part of the next evolution.
How has the past 1/2 year of Covid-influenced limitations affected Beauty in Chaos, if at all?
BIC is a bit of a different animal than most, meaning that it is not a traditional ‘live band’, which are hindered by the inability to play shows due to Covid. We had to be ‘creative’ when it came to filming our videos: finding a location, getting a crew was tricky, and also dancing around ‘curfews’, etc… However, we did manage to release our ‘Stranger’ video, which I am very proud of. I know many bands have decided to hold off on album release during Covid, since it’s hard to promote it if you can’t play live. But with BIC, we felt it was better to put out our new album, to give your BIC Family new music, which hopefully, in a small way, make this time more bearable.
Can you tell us a bit about your relationship with producer Michael Rozon?
Besides being one of my best friends in the world, he is truly the reason I decided to start Beauty In Chaos. I have probably stated this before, but recording the last Human Drama album (“Broken Songs For Broken People”) was a frustrating process. I guess I wanted the direction of this album to be a bit different and was attempting to interject more guitar. Michael picked up on the frustration in me and simply turned around and said “why don’t you do your own album?”. With that, and a lot of encouragement from him… BIC was born. He is listed as the producer, but he is so much more. He pushes me to be a better player. He has the patience of a Saint and puts in countless hours to make our records sound as great as possible. He is also a fantastic musician and is co-writer on several songs on ‘The Storm Before The Calm’. To say there would be no BIC without him is not an understatement.
You are also involved in the new ReMission International charitable single ‘TOS2020’ – a Band-Aid type collaborative remake of The Mission’s ‘Tower of Strength’ single to fund raise for Covid frontline workers. Can you tell us about this colossal project?
When the Covid pandemic started, I had an idea about re-recording our song ‘Storm’ since I felt Ashton’s lyrics, especially the line ‘there is always a light’, had such a positive message in these dark times. I reached out to Wayne to see if he would be part of it, and he told me he had been approached about doing something similar. It seemed that ‘Tower Of Strength’was becoming sort of an ‘anthem’ to the British healthcare workers on the front line of the fight against Covid-19. He was reluctant to use TOS, as he did not want this to come off as ‘self-serving’. We kicked around a few other song ideas, ‘Heroes’ being one. After a bit of thought, and I think myself and a few others finally convinced him the ‘TOS’ was lyrically perfect. “You raise me up … when I’m on the floor”. He opened up his little black book and reached out to a lot of his friends… many who jumped onboard to participate. I was able to rally Bauhaus’s Kevin Haskins and GLJ’s Michael Aston to be involved. I am truly blessed and honored to musically have been a partner in all of this and very humbled by having Wayne cite me as one of the reasons this came about. Many of the artists that are part of TOS2020 make up a big part of my record collection. This was project was done for all the right reasons and with zero egos. Hell, Wayne and I even got the estranged Aston twins to put their 2-decades of differences aside to lend their voices. Wayne really deserves all of the credit since besides writing this great song, he put in an insane amount of hours (and still does to promote it) to make this happen. I sincerely urge everyone to buy a copy in any or all of the formats, as unlike many ‘charities’ … all of the money goes to the charities, which was selected by every artist involved. Being from New Orleans, I selected The Covenant Housewhich provides shelter and medical care to homeless youths.
What lays ahead for Michael Ciravolo and Beauty in Chaos?
Right now, we are hard at work finalizing the next release which is planned for Halloween. As we did after our debut release, “Finding Beauty In Chaos’; we decided to turn the keys of ‘The Storm Before the Calm’ over to a some very talented mix of producers, artists and Deejays to do another ‘remix’ record which is dubbed ‘Out Of Chaos Comes…’. I really enjoyed the process that yielded ‘Beauty Re-Envisioned’ so I figured why not do it again! This record will be available on Vinyl, CD and Digital … with upwards of 25 reinterpretations. We also have filmed 2 videos from the remixes and have a third one planned. The debut single/video, which should premiere in early October will be a cool take on ‘A Kind Cruelty’ by the legendary producer Tim Palmer (David Bowie, U2, The Cure, The Mission, Robert Plant). The Mission’s Simon Hinkler also adds a fantastic guitar solo, ala ‘Deliverance’ to this version! And, I also plan to start on new material as soon as the record is off to press! As for me personally … I am trying to really enjoy the time that Tish and I’s daughters are home, even if it is hard to watch them have to be in college online. Being face to face with our amazing daughters beats FaceTime all the time!
Thanks again for chatting and we wish you continued success and interesting music adventures.
Thank you for taking the time for this interview … none of this is ever lost on me on just how important working with Amplify has been to our success! Thank you! Please do come explore and support our music at https://www.beautyinchaosmusic.com/music-store and https://beautyinchaos.bandcamp.com/album/the-storm-before-the-calm
