BEAUTY IN CHAOS

[ Interview with Michael Ciravolo from Beauty In Chaos by Diego Centurión. Photographs: Anabel DFlux. ]

BEAUTY IN CHAOS BRINGS THE NOISE WITH 'OUT OF CHAOS COMES' LP

Again we contacted Michael to find out the details of his latest releases, on the one hand, as a participant in TOS2020 and his new remix work with Beauty In Chaos, “Out of Chaos Comes”. It is a pleasure to update us on what Ciravolo and company are doing ... Links to previous interviews: https://issuu.com/revistathe13th/docs/the13th_n_50 https://issuu.com/revistathe13th/docs/the13th_n_63

Hi Michael! We communicate with you again since Beauty In Chaos does not stop producing things, and it makes us very happy to have new material to take advantage of talking to you.

Thank you very much, as you and Revista The 13th have always been very supportive of Beauty In Chaos, which is a wonderful thing that I do not take for granted.

In these times we cannot not ask how you are with this madness that the world is experiencing in this 2020.

‘Madness’ is a good way to put it. As bad as Covid-19 and the lockdowns are, with people losing not only their jobs, but some people have lost their lives…. I had hoped people would have found a silver lining. And my meaning is for more family time and time to live a life, even if it is differently. Political turmoil has my country divided, which is really hard to watch. As far as me personally, I cherish the extra time with my wife and daughters along with continuing to put out BEAUTY IN CHAOS music and videos!

Before getting into the new job "Out of Chaos Comes ..." I would like to ask you about ReMission International which I know you were very involved with. Tell us, how did the idea of that work with Wayne come about and how did the selection of participating musicians come together?

First, it is really a surreal thing to be involved with not only one of my favorite Mission songs, but also with this amazing group of artists, many who’s bands make up a big part of my record collection. As for how it came about, I approached Wayne about the idea of re-recording BIC’s ‘Storm’. I thought Ashton’s lyrics ‘there is always a light’ painted a positive picture in a dark time. He had also been told that “Tower Of Strength’ was beginning to be used as a sort of rally/anthem by the UK’s NHS. We also kicked around a few other song ideas with one idea being Bowie’s “Heroes”, as Wayne was really apprehensive about our idea to do something for charity as ‘selfserving’. He had other friends telling him that ‘Tower’ would be perfect, and I did, too. Finally, we convinced him on using the song. We both dug into our little black books for artists

… his being bigger than mine  I did manage to deliver Kevin Haskins (Bauhaus) and Michael Aston (Gene Loves Jezebel). When Wayne convinced Jay Aston to come on board, we pulled off a miracle since it is the first time these two estranged twins had been on a record together since 1987!

And how have the sales of the single "TOS 2020" turned out?

In today’s world I think it has done fairly well. With streaming, etc... today, I sadly think it is harder to get people to purchase physical music. And this project was done for all the right reasons. If this would have been the late ‘80s or mid-90s … and you had a song with members of Bauhaus, The Mission, Depeche Mode. Ultravox, GLJ, Siouxie And The Banshees, The Cult, The Cure, NIN, Gary Numan, Slowdive and more … and with the original MTV, I think this track would have been huge. Sort of a ‘goth/post-punk’ Band Aid! Nevertheless, I think it has raised much needed income for some great charities … all selected by the artists involved. I am honored and blessed to be a small part of it. I also urge people to still support it, as this virus is far from over.

The Covid does not give us truce and with winter it has returned again. Has it occurred to you to do something similar?

I honestly don’t think it would have a similar impact as what we did with ReMission International.

And to finish with "TOS 2020". How was the assembly work of all the participants?

Wayne recorded his guide vocal, his 12-string guitar part along with a basic drum loop and sent it out to everyone that hinted they would like to be involved. Everyone recorded their parts on their own WITHOUT hearing what anyone else did. Wayne then painstakingly went through all of the tracks, which I am going to guestimate was close to 100 to extract the best parts and to make them roughly fit. The amazing Tim Palmer then picked up the torch and polished it into a masterpiece that is today.

Now let's start with the excellent remix work that he has released, "Out of Chaos Comes ..." When you released the album "The Storm Before The Calm", did you already have a remix album in mind?

Basically, yes. I really enjoyed not only the outcome but also the process of the creation behind ‘Beauty ReEnvisioned’, so I figured why not do it again!

How long did it take you to think about the people who could remix and how long did they take to deliver?

To me, there were so many great and diverse remixes on ‘Beauty ReEnvisioned’, that I reached out to those artists first. Tim Palmer and MGT were probably the first emails, then I just went down my ‘list’. I am blessed to call a lot of very talented people friends. It wasn’t a real long process to think about who … but it

takes time to get the mixes in. With Covid, I think more people are home and honestly ‘looking for things to do’. Two wonderful, but usually very busy friends .. Tyler Bates and The Cure’s Roger O’Donnell, under normal times probably would not have had the time to do a remix. There are several new ‘contributors’ also on ‘Out Of Chaos Comes…’ Bentley Jones, Luxury Noise, DJ Mac Stewart, Phoenix Supernova, and Holy Wars’ Nick Perez, that in my opinion delivered world-class remixes. An 11th hour add to the digital version was by Julian ShahTayler. I did not know him personally but I had read and heard a few remixes he did for some mutual friends. I sent him a message on Instagram and sort of forgot about it. A few weeks later he responded and delivered one of my favorite remixes; a gorgeous version of ‘The Delicate Balance Of All Things’.

You have surpassed the capacity of wonder of the "Beauty ReEnvisioned", I think that the versions of this album are more extreme, more varied. What do you think?

With my experience of compiling ‘Beauty Re-Envisioned’ behind me, I really pressed the point on this one to ‘dismantle’ the original version even more. Diving into many of these remixes, you’ll find little or none of the song’s original tracks used in the remix. I really enjoy that. To me, a few of my favorite moments on ‘Beauty Re-Envisioned’ is where we did the complete ‘re-recording’ of the songs like with ‘The Long Goodbye (Au Revior), ‘I Will Follow Your (Cotton Socks Mix), and of course the stunning acoustic version of ‘Storm’. I am thrilled to have two of those moments on ‘Out Of Chaos Comes’ with Ashton’s acoustic version of ‘The Outside’ and a jump back to our debut record with Johnny Indovina’s new version of ‘Memory Of Love’.

This selection of musicians is truly amazing, but before I start talking about them. Have you invited someone and they couldn't be present?

There are artists that I have asked to co-write with that, for one reason or another couldn’t do it, but thankfully on this remix record, most artists I invited said yes. Only one artist couldn’t. I had really hoped to have Seibold (who did cowrite and sing ‘Almost Pure’) since I love his Hate Dept. remixes but unfortunately his studio was dismantled as he was moving his residence to another state.

The list is perfect, Tim Palmer, John Fryer, Tyler Bates, Roger O'Donnell, Bentley Jones, Paul Wiley, Cinthya Hussey, Simon Hinkler, Richard Fortus, Nick Johnston, among others, and the renowned Wayne Hussey, Mark Gemini Thwaite, Ashton Nyte. Tell us, how was the moment to listen to their reinterpretations of your songs?

Honestly, it is like opening a present on Christmas morning! Most of the time I have no idea what to expect when I get the final mix in my inbox. It is always a pleasant surprise. One in particular that absolutely floored me was when Wayne sent me his rough mix of our new version of ‘The Delicate Balance Of All Things’. Michael Rozon and I had the idea of a ‘stripped down’ version, basically

replacing the music around Wayne’s original vocal. I had heard his wife Cinthya’s version of the Smith’s ‘Every Day is Like Sunday’ and I thought she had a beautiful voice. I suggested he have her add some harmonies, but when I got his idea back… WOW, she had sung the lead vocal and so much more! At least right now, this is my favorite track on the album!

Tell us about the formats in which "Out Of Chaos Comes ..." will be released.

I am very fortunate that the small, but mighty 33.3 Music Collective label continue to offer our releases in physical format … Vinyl and CDs! In today’s digital streaming world this is sadly becoming very rare and honestly, if people don’t support purchasing these products for any artist they enjoy, soon it will only be digital. That will be a tragic day, in my opinion.

This year you have chosen two important dates for your releases. Strategy or chance?

We had planned for ‘The Storm Before The Calm’ to come out in early February, but we had a massive ProTools- computer crash as we started mixing, forcing us to delay the release about 6-weeks. I picked March 22nd as the earliest day I thought we would be able to finish the mix. When I posted that date, our publicist, Shauna said .. ‘Oh cool … that’s World Goth Day!’ So that was 100% coincidence. When it came time for ‘Out Of Chaos Comes’ I thought it would be cool and a bit humorous to sort of double-down on the dark wave, so I thought … what’s better than Halloween!

The last question has to do with the future. Are you working or have something new in mind?

I fully look at these remix records as sort of a ‘break’ for me, since I turn the keys over to other artists… but in all actuality there is so much to do on this. That being said, I do have a plan for what our ‘what’s next’ is. Later this month, I will head back into our studio to start formulating songs from ideas I have been kicking around on the guitar. I can say the next record will feature all female vocalists. I think all of the talented ladies that are already part of our BIC Family will return, and I have also started conversations with several others that are excited to be part of BIC. I am really looking forward to where this eventually grows. Also, there will still be two, if not more videos to come from ‘Out Of Chaos Comes…’ !

To end this interview and thanking you for this new possibility of being able to ask you questions, and thanking Shauna and Shameless Promotion for always offering us great artists like you.

THANK YOU!

Do you want to say something to our readers?

BEAUTY IN CHAOS is truly a family. All of these amazingly talented artists give their time and talents to this, with NO expectation of financial gain. Art for the sake of making art which in itself is a thing of beauty. I sincerely ask that everyone please take a look into each of these individual artist’s body of work. I promise you will not be disappointed!