Light Asylum: A Certain Person

Uniting the steely cool of Grace Jones with an elegiac synth-pop sound, Light Asylum frontwoman Shannon Funchess slinks between murky forests and ecstatic strobe lights in her band’s new music video “A Certain Person.” Filmmaker Eden Batki trailed Funchess and keys man Bruno Coviello last summer on the band’s west coast tour, capturing the duo performing at fog-filled venues, exploring the Portland wilderness and soaking up the atmosphere in a twinkle-lit lodge in Santa Cruz, described by the singer as “a haunted old resort where Joan Crawford-types would holiday.” With fans including LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, Funchess spent years singing back-up vocals for the likes of !!! (Chk Chk Chk) and TV On the Radio before finding her own sound, culminating in the release of the band’s recent debut EP, In Tension. “I grew up listening to Siouxsie and the Banshees, Depeche Mode, The Cure and The Human League—the new wave and the romantics,” she says. “Having all these inspirations, it took me a long time to figure out what exactly I was supposed to be doing.”