Producer Matt Chiaravalle has worked with such diverse and successful artists as Warren Zevon, Courtney Love, Debbie Harry, Joe Bonamassa, Jane Lee Hooker, Brendan James, Spooks, Spacehog, Mickey Leigh, Kittie, and Enisa. His warm and intuitive approach to production is informed by his keen understanding of the creative process. He grew up playing in bands—his previous band before going into production full-time released 3 albums in 6 years—and he learned the art of recording organically. “I’m able to relate to artists because I’ve been a touring musician. I’ve done it, I know the real deal,” he says.
The NYC-based producer draws from a wide artistic palette, creatively fluent with a full range of sounds, from the nuanced, delicate dynamics of singer-songwriters to the power and precision of rock bands. “With songwriters it’s so rewarding to take a song written at home on an acoustic and realize its full potential in the studio,” he says. In these situations, Chiaravalle is as equally at home as an engineer capturing spare magic as he is pitching in with guitar, bass, and arrangement ideas. When working with rock bands he taps into his former experience as a guitarist, songwriter, and band member. "I've realized that working with a band, it’s almost like you’re an extra member, and you have to be sensitive to band dynamics,” he explains.
Career highlights have been working with one of his heroes Warren Zevon and helping blues wunderkind Joe Bonamassa capture an elusive, unique, and widely praised vibe for his breakthrough album. Chiaravalle worked on Zevon’s hauntingly beautiful My Ride’s Here (Artemis) album, released a few months before Zevon was diagnosed with terminal mesothelioma. “It was refreshing and eye opening to work with somebody whose records I owned,” he says. Chiaravalle worked on blues virtuoso Joe Bonamassa’s Billboard chart topper, So It’s Like That (J&R Adventures). “He had a track called ‘No Slack’ that he couldn’t get to sound and feel like the demo. I asked to give it a shot and we nailed it, it made the record,” he says. Chiaravalle has also worked on records by such noted artists as Jeffery Gaines, Josh Joplin, North Mississippi Allstars, Assembly of Dust, The David Mayfield Parade, Ernie Halter, Lower East Side Stitches and projects with members of Luscious Jackson, Bad Brains, Orange 9mm and Murphy’s Law. He’s worked at such famed studios as Soundtrack Studios, Loho Studios, Theater 99, Mercy Sound Recording Studios and Serious Business Recording Studio.
Chiaravalle traces his roots back to the fertile 1990s Lower East Side New York punk scene. He recorded three albums as a songwriter and guitarist for the critically acclaimed rock band the Phoids. Chiaravalle polished his burgeoning production skills during those years, most notably by soaking in wisdom from producer Niko Bolas (Neil Young, Keith Richards, Kiss, Melissa Etheridge). Although his musical tastes and production abilities have grown, Chiaravalle holds fast to his foundational DIY ethos by turning in his projects on-time and on-budget, and still works to capture the sense of excitement and wonder of his early days recording his buddies’ bands on a Tascam 4 track cassette recorder. “Even though I work in professional studios now, I like to reach back to the freshness of two friends hovering over a four track collaborating organically,” he says.