Ciao! is an NYC electro singer-songwriter, who, at least for the moment, wants to remain just…Ciao! Maybe we’ll get to know his real identity when his album is released in August 2022, but at the moment, what we get to hear is the premiere of “Vampire,” the initial single from Scary HaHa.
Yet, this anonymous status may not just be a publicity stunt. According to Ciao!, Scary Haha recounts some of the artist’s recent battles with severe illness, treatment, recovery, and uncertainty, taking listeners to places that very few musical projects have gone before. “This is more than a harmonic version of a ‘cancer memoir,’” Ciao! explains.
“In one sense, it’s a factual diary of a personal disaster. But it’s also an admission and celebration of the various thoughts and feelings that arise when things like mortality and disability spring up to stare us in the face.”
Listening to “Vampire,” you get the impression that since much of the material for the album was written in hospital beds and the homes of friends while Ciao! dealt with debilitating treatments and surgeries, the artist had ample time to carefully think and re-think how to construct his music.
We get a carefully layered song with multi-tracked vocals and instruments, where that nuance and detail come to the fore and truly work as a perfect introduction to an album with a scary thematic, indeed.
