BEAUTY IN CHAOS

[ Interview with Michael Ciravolo from Beauty In Chaos by Benjamín York. Photograpss: Anabel DFlux, Tish Ciravolo. ]

MICHAEL CIRAVOLO REVEALS THE ORDER BEHIND BEAUTY IN CHAOS

In Issue 50 (December 2018) of our magazine, we conducted an interview with Michael Ciravolo, in which we spoke about the first Beauty In Chaos album "Finding Beauty in Chaos". Now with the release of his new record “The Storm Before The Calm”, we reconnect with the mastermind behind this collosal project. Link to the previous interview: https://issuu.com/revistathe13th/docs/the13th_n_50/32

Hello Michael! Thank you for agreeing to speak with us today. We’d like to talk with you again about the latest Beauty In Chaos release and collaborations. To start with, please tell us how this current lockdown has affected you, if at all.

Always love talking with you guys! Not being a ‘traditional’ live band, the covid shutdown did not derail us like it did many bands. We had the album finished prior. We had actually planned to release the album in February, put in the ‘11th’ hour’ we had some rather unexpected Protools and studio issues before we finished that last few mixes. This delay pushed us up against Michael Rozon’s schedule to work with Al Jourgensen on the next Ministry album. I had to make the decision to push the release back ‘til May. Releasing a record with many out of work due to shutdowns was probably not a great business decision, but all involved thought it was far more important to get new music out to our BIC Family that are stuck indoors. I don’t regret the decision. I had hoped to have a new video out to coincide with the release, but it was impossible to get the locations we wanted. With that behind us, we have shot footage for ‘Stranger’ which features Holy Wars’ Kat Leon, We will have this cinematic clip out in July.

While there are many artists who are recording and releasing music under quarantine circumstances, others have chosen to postpone activity. What was it like to release this new music under current limited conditions?

Since we don’t depend on live shows to promote the release, it was not really a second thought for us. If that wasn’t the case, I might have thought more along those lines. I do understand why an artist would hold off on releasing. For BIC, it was important to us all to get the new record out for our BIC Family during these unprecedented timed.

Between your first album and this new one, you also released "Beauty Re-Envisioned" (2019). Tell us a little about that release and collaborators. ‘Beauty Re-Envisoned’ was a wonderful accident! What I mean by that is that Tim Palmer, who is one of my all-time favorite producers had agreed to mix two songs that were going to be on ‘finding beauty in chaos’, bit in my excitement to have Tim onboard

I didn’t tell him my self-imposed ‘no keyboard’ rule, which Tim unknowingly broke! Instead of telling Tim ‘great mix but can you mute the synths’, the idea of a remix record was born. Honestly, after the amount of blood, sweat and tears poured into ‘FBIC’, the idea of handing over the keys to others was quite appealing. I really do love hearing where the talented crop of artists, including John Fryer, Kevin Hasking, Statik and Kitty Lectro took the songs. ‘The Long Goodbye’ (Au Revoir) and ‘20th Century Boy’ with Marc Bolan’s son Rolan are amongst my favorite things BIC has done.

BIC's music is quite elaborate and Michael Rozon’s production is important, who has been working

with you on this project from the beginning. Above all, it is important that the producer really knows what you want to capture in each song. I have read that you want your albums to not sound like a compilation and I think it is at this point where the producer is important. I also understand that Rozon plays a role in composition. What is it like to work with Michel Rozon as a producer?

Besides being one of my friends, BIC would not have or continue to be

possible without him. It was his belief of say ‘you should do your own record’ that launched this thing. He is not only an amazing producer, but also a crazy talented musician. He pushes me to be better and to not settle. We both are acutely aware that an album with multiple singers can fall into sounding like a ‘compilation’, but I think we have done pretty well to date to avoid those trappings. Most importantly is that we have a lot red wine fueled fun doing what we do!

I recall Ashton Nyte and Wayne Hussey from the previous two albums. They both return this time to participate in the new album. Although they are part of the BIC family, have you thought of doing any work with them separately or with any of the artists participating on your albums outside of BIC?

Besides being a big part of all of our BIC records, I am blessed to call them both friends. I would happily be part of anything they asked of me. Besides being great singers and lyrists, they are both really really good guitarists. I have been asked by Wayne to be part of a ‘Band Aid’ style project called ReMission International. We are recording a new version of The Mission classic ‘Tower of Strength’ with all monies going to Covid-related charities. The list of artists involved is amazing; including Gary Numan, Martin Gore, Midge Ure, Michael and Jay Aston, Billy Duffy, Budgie, Kevin Haskins, Rachel Goswell, Julianne Regan, Andy Rourke, Evi Vine and more. I am truly blessed to be part of this. The song will be mixed by Tim Palmer and should be out in early July.

Particularly I feel that choosing a favorite song from the new album is a difficult task, but "The Delicate Balance of All Things" is my favorite, narrowly beating "The Outside" and "Temple of Desire". If you had to choose a single song that is representative of "The Storm Before The Calm". Which one would you choose?

I set out for this record to be a bit darker

and more linear than ‘FBIC’, starting out as a 4-song EP. With that concept in mind, "The Delicate Balance” or “The Outside” are certainly a great representative of the vibe I wanted. As far as my favorite, it has run the gamut and now rests on ‘Stranger’, which should prove to be the perfect segue to our next studio album.

This pandemic has seen two outcomes – on the one hand, frustrated or delayed plans and, on the other, time to think about next steps. Which of these is the case for BIC?

I’ve tried to really find the silver-lining during all of this. I love having our daughters home, as face-to-face time beats facetime, anytime! They both helped out during our recent ‘Stranger’ video shoot, which will premiere in July. As far as BIC, I always like to have a solid idea as to where I want to see us go next. I know it probably sounds crazy talking about the NEXT record when ‘the storm before the calm’ has only been out a month, but that seems to be how I work best. I really enjoyed the entire process of taking a back seat on ‘beauty re-envisioned’... so, I figured, why not go down that path again! With the pandemic, lots of my producer friends were sitting home idly and jumped at the chance to do something; meaning BIC remixes!

Listening to the new album, it seems it includes keyboards, which were not permitted on the first album. I think it is an album that closes a circle, as if the base of BIC’s music has been finished, and now you have the foundations to build the building. Am I wrong?

As for my own imposed ‘limitations’ I placed on the first record, it was strictly a war I was fighting within myself. Really wanted to see if I could do it. I do think limitations can be a creative catapult. For the new record, there are some synths, but not as much as I thought we would use, as I still really enjoy layering from the electric guitar. If I have a ‘knack’, I guess it is that. To me BIC is an entity that I want to not only revolve but to evolve. As to your comment, I think of Beauty In Chaos as more of a straight line … maybe looking back a bit but always moving forward.

To finish, thank you for your time. Do you already have new songs or plans for upcoming releases, in regard to new sounds or videos?

I really appreciate you taking this time and I take none of this for granted. As for the ‘what’s next’? After the ‘Stranger’ video, we will be focusing on wrapping the next remix album, currently dubbed ‘Out Of Chaos Comes …’. Barring anything unforeseen, we will release this album on Halloween 2020! In between all of this, I plan on starting new songs, in fact that has already begun. As of now, I’d love to see a new BIC record, or at least a string of ‘singles’ out in early 2021. Really looking into a crystal ball I see picking it up from ‘Stranger’… a record with all female singers. In fact, I’m working on a new song with Cyn M. of Silence In The Snow. Both my wife, Tish and Evi Vine, who have great songs on ‘FBIC’ will certainly be back. And who knows … I’d love to perform BIC live. It’s just a question of who, when, where … and how.

Thank you Michael and Shameless Promotion PR for bringing us such brilliant artists!