Beauty in Chaos Revisit “Made of Rain” With “Almost Acoustic” Version Featuring Ashton Nyte and Whitney Tai

When Beauty in Chaos (BIC) released their 2024 album Dancing With Angels, the album was meant to be a series of singles or “sketches” featuring some of the artists who have been part of the Los Angeles-based music collective, formed in 2018. Instead, all the vignettes turned into something more whole, and founding member Michael Ciravolo reconnected with some of the artists featured on the first two BIC albums—Finding Beauty in Chaos (2018) and The Storm Before the Calm (2020).

A follow-up to the band’s all-female-fronted Behind the Veil from 2022, Dancing With Angels dipped into the more shoegaze and dreamier pop ends of BIC and closed on the brooding ballad “Made of Rain,” featuring BIC alum Ashton Nyte of The Awakening.

The track was one Ciravolo revisited on BIC’s 2025 release Signs in the Heaven, Reality Turned Upside Down, a collection of 29 reimaginings of previous BIC releases, including an “Almost Acoustic” version of “Made of Rain.”

Nyte returns to “Made of Rain (Almost Acoustic),” alongside Los Angeles-based singer and songwriter Whitney Tai, who first appeared on BIC’s Behind the Veil. The new version is accompanied by an intimate video shoot, shot and directed by Vincent Cordero (Industrialism Films), which Tai called a “warm amber glow in a velveteen speakeasy where tales of folk and longing send a message from the beyond.”

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Whitney Tai (l) and Ashton Nyte in “Made of Rain (Almost Acoustic)” video (Photo: Anabel DFlux)

For Ciravolo, the “Almost Acoustic” rendition was a chance to return to one of his favorite tracks from Dancing with Angels, musically and visually. “I absolutely love that we are able to create these ‘stripped-down’ versions of some of our songs, and more so, just how well these are received by our loyal BIC Family,” says Ciravolo. “The original version is very special and is probably my favorite song on ‘Dancing With Angels,’ but there is also something really beautiful about this ‘Almost Acoustic’ version.”

Originally written by Nyte, the “Made of Rain (Almost Acoustic)” also features Ciravolo on guitar and wife and bandmate Tish Ciravolo on acoustic bass, along with Rozon on pedal steel, and Heather Lockie on violin, adding a subtle Americana feel. Moving through the verses, Nyte is joined by Tai on the chorus and backing vocals, delivering a tranquil duet that carefully pulls the layers of the song back to something more natural.

“Ashton and Whitney’s duet is simply stunning, their voices totally complementing each other,” says Ciravolo. “I love the track’s minimalistic approach, highlighted by Michael Rozon’s haunting pedal steel and BIC newcomer Heather Lockie’s tasteful violin. Tish’s rock-solid acoustic bass and my quasi-Pink Floyd-inspired guitar lines support, without distracting, letting Ashton’s words and melody take the starring role.”

Photos: Anabel DFlux