After interviewing Beauty in Chaos’ Michael Ciravolo I came to realize that creativity is not just something that all of us are born with. Creativity is something that must be nurtured, fed, and diverse. I say diverse because, honestly, diversity is the key to adaptation and really great music. That music you will remember long after you’ve heard it; again and again. And diverse is what Michael’s new album ‘Finding Beauty in Chaos’ is the epitome of, not only in the diverse guest roster but the music, layered and woven into seamless stylistic changes as if plucked from different parts of the creative heart.
And now we have this exclusive American premiere of the video from one of these tracks titled ‘Storm’. While mostly, in Western culture, we find that the music lends the soundtrack to the visuals, we find the opposite in ‘Storm’. The video is a sexy, smooth, and suave visual representation of Michael’s musicianship, Ashton Nyte’s dynamically weathered vocals, and Michael Rozon’s ability to find the right type and scope of production in every note and audio frequency. ‘Storm’, the video, is not only Beauty in Chaos but a ‘beauty in collaboration’. That perfect moment when people that think outside of the box join hands and surround the box. Imagine what the rest of ‘Finding Beauty in Chaos’ must be like. Watch with an open mind and let ‘Storm’ become a future memory.
‘Finding Beauty in Chaos’ will be available September 28! Check links below for purchase options.
About Beauty in Chaos & ‘Storm’
LA-based Beauty in Chaos is about to release the debut album ‘Finding Beauty in Chaos’ on September 28. Born of frustration and creativity, this is an audio assemblage curated by LA-based guitarist Michael Ciravolo and produced by Michael Rozon. This colossal work is previewed by the lead single ‘Storm’ featuring Ashton Nyte (The Awakening, MGT).
The video for this track was produced by Industrialism Films and directed by Vicente Cordero, who says: “Working with Michael and Ashton was a marvelous journey from start to finish, when they approached me they presented me with a song that completely blew me away and to this day is probably one of the best songs I have ever had the pleasure to work with, over the next couple of weeks we melded our minds, passion, hard work, and vision and forged a magnificent video which we are all proud of. The song had a theme of “through the storm, we will always find a light” which meant to all of us through all the hardships and chaos and failures there will be a light that we will always strive for when in our darkest times.”
“I had met with a few other video directors prior to meeting Vicente, and they seemed to immediately latch on to storm in the literal sense .. wind, rain, etc. Ashton and I talked at length about how to ‘present’ ‘Storm’ in a visual context and that was certainly not the direction we wanted. Ashton writes amazing lyrics, which is why our collaborations come together so easily in my opinion; sounds and textures working in context with lyrics. I may be in the minority as a guitarist, but I don’t feel his words are there to simply set up a guitar solo! We are acutely aware that ‘storms’ come into everyone’s life at some point. We worked closely with Vicente to set up some scenes and situations to exemplify that in a cinematic way with elements we had available. The line ‘there is always a light’ is very important to this song and we wanted to leave what the ‘light’ is open to the viewer interpretation. We are simply thrilled with how Vicente helped us visually portray this with just a dab of rock n’ roll elements,” explains Michael Ciravolo.
The debut album ‘Finding Beauty in Chaos’ features numerous luminaries in the music world, both as co-writers and performers. Apart from Ashton Nyte, these include Wayne Hussey (The Mission), Simon Gallup (The Cure), Robin Zander (Cheap Trick), Al Jourgensen (Ministry), Pete Parada (The Offspring), dUg Pinnick (Kings X), ICE-T (Body Count), Michael Aston (Gene Loves Jezebel), Michael Anthony (Van Halen), Dirk Doucette (Gene Loves Jezebel), Pando (A Flock of Seagulls), Evi Vine (Evi Vine), Betsy Martin (Caterwaul / Purr Machine), Marc Danzeisen (The Riverdogs), Kevin Kipnis (Purr Machine / Kommunity FK), Rudy Matchinga (Red Scare), Johnny Indovina (Human Drama), and Tish Ciravolo (Stun Gun).
“I look at this as an evolving entity that I am the ‘curator’. For this album, ‘Finding Beauty in Chaos’, I am the only guitarist and no keyboards are used, but you will hear loads of textures created from guitars and effect pedals. This is a convergence of textures and styles that I envisioned blossoming,” says Michael Ciravolo.
“Assembling, or in some cases, disassembling beautiful soundscapes, melodies, and chords, while injecting harsh bursts of sonics … or visa versa. Light in the dark, dark in the light is the contrast that helps in realizing the goal of creating something musical that is also very visual and cinematic.”
Originally from New Orleans and now based in Los Angeles, Michael Ciravolo has played guitar in Human Drama for the past 30 years, most recently on ‘Broken Songs for Broken People’ (2017). Perhaps best known as President of Schecter Guitar Research, he has also played live and recorded with Michael Ashton’s Gene Loves Jezebel since 1998, along with Tish Ciravolo (wife and founder of Daisy Rock Guitars).
The lead track ‘Storm’ was co-written with and features vocals by Ashton Nyte, who also collaborates on another two tracks on this album. This, like many of the tracks on this album, features layers of alternative rock bliss, crowned by powerful and penetrating vocals.
‘Storm’ is about seeking a light in the proverbial dark, destructive, and a tediously distracting world we find ourselves in. “And the storm can wait, wait outside for another sacrifice”.
“I sat down with the intent to write something that would encompass all elements of what I wanted this record to be … a mixture of beauty via chords and textures with an interjection of a little chaos and brashness” says Ciravolo.
Originally from South Africa, Ashton Nyte is a pioneer of alternative music in his home country. The frontman of The Awakening, he recently collaborated with Mark Gemini Thwaite (Peter Murphy, The Mission) on MGT’s debut solo album, not a surprising collaboration considering The Awakening’s extensive touring experience with The Mission.
“Storm is the first song Michael and I wrote together and it happened rather effortlessly. Musically and lyrically, the artistic synergy was perfect… it felt like it was made for my voice and instantly inspired lyrics and vocal melodies we are both proud of. Michael has a wonderful sense of mood and melody and his songs are a lush landscape for me to add what I do best, in a very fluid, natural way,” says Ashton Nyte.
This record was mostly recorded and fully mixed at Ciravolo’s SAINTinLA Studio by Michael Rozon, who Ciravolo says “is a world-class engineer, mixer, producer, and musician, who pushed me to give my better-than-best on every note. A true sound alchemist, he encouraged me to explore the sounds and textures in my mind.”
In addition to the full version of ‘Storm’, which is now available in streaming, excerpts from three tracks off the album can already be previewed on the Beauty in Chaos website. These include ‘Man of Faith’ (featuring Wayne Hussey and Simon Gallup), ‘Finding Beauty in Chaos’ (featuring Ashton Nyte), and ‘I Will Follow You’ (featuring Evi Vine).
Track listing:
- Road to Rosario (featuring Michael Aston)
- Storm (featuring Ashton Nyte)
- Man of Faith (featuring Wayne Hussey)
- 20th Century Boy* (featuring Al Jourgensen)
- Drifting Away (featuring Robin Zander)
- Memory of Love (featuring Johnny Indovina)
- Look Up (featuring Tish Ciravolo)
- Un-Natural Disaster (featuring dUG Pinnick and Ice T)
- The Long Goodbye (featuring Wayne Hussey)
- Beauty Lies Within (featuring Johnny Indovina)
- Bloodless and Fragile (featuring Ashton Nyte)
- I Will Follow You (featuring Evi Vine)
- Heliotrope (featuring Betsy Martin)
- Finding Beauty in Chaos (featuring Ashton Nyte)
Beauty In Chaos curated by Michael Ciravolo
Produced by Michael Rozon
No animals harmed and no synthesizers used in the making of this album
All Songs copyright 2017/2018 BEAUTYINCHAOSMUSIC except *
SOURCE: https://www.beautyinchaosmusic.com
LINKS:
https://www.beautyinchaosmusic.com
https://www.beautyinchaosmusic.com/bic-blog
https://www.facebook.com/beautyinchaosmusic
https://www.instagram.com/beauty.inchaos
https://twitter.com/MichaelCiravolo
https://soundcloud.com/33-3-music-collective
https://beautyinchaos.bandcamp.com
