When Shannon Funchess opens her mouth to sing, her voice booms and commands attention. She and her music partner, Bruno Coviello, make up the artful, inspiring, dark, electronic act, Light Asylum. The duo has accomplished a feat I’d describe as being nearly impossible: making experimental music go pop.
We got to speak with Shannon and talk about the group’s creative process, accidentally being “outted,” Lady Gaga’s gay agenda and how music can sometimes be the only thing to get you out of bed in the morning.
AfterEllen.com : When I first found out about your band I thought, “Oh this is great! It’s like a mix of Portishead and Joy Division.” Who are some of your musical influences?
Shannon Funchess: I grew up singing in a church choir at a Southern Baptist church and since I was like eight or nine I didn’t really like the idea of going to church. You know, it was boring and I didn’t want to sit still. It was really strict and so I decided to make the best of it and joining the choir seemed like the most fun way to be in church. I could just go there and enjoy the music. That’s when I discovered that I like to sing and that I liked music a lot.
So a lot of my early influences were gospel and blues and then American folk music. I’m a big fan of women like Odetta and Nina Simone, Kate Bush, Yaz. Since I grew up in the ’80s, I have always been into like new wave music like Depeche Mode and Siouxsie and the Banshees. English and American bands, for the most part.
AE: You can definitely hear those influences. It’s interesting, as an experimental artist whose finished product is still easily palatable, how do you find the right balance of new and different while also making it easy on the ears? I mean, when you usually describe music as being “experimental” as a genre, my usual reaction is “Ugh, artsy fartsy,” but your music, I think, is easy to dance to, to rage to. It’s something that can be enjoyed more by the masses. Is that something you plan on during your creative process or is it just something that happens or doesn’t happen?
SF: I think it happens pretty organically. The influences definitely come across but we want to appeal to the masses; to more than just the Brooklyn art crowd. Though we like performing in those environments we definitely want to make music that people can dance to and can reach a larger audience.
So I think in the creative process — like I said, it happens pretty organically. We listen to a lot of different kinds of music and talk about music and share music a lot. We agree on the aesthetics and try to keep in mind what moved us about particular genres and styles of music that we like. We try to put the feelings of that music into our music, without it being regurgitated. I just wanted to share that ecstatic feeling that I had as an early teen about the music I was listening to that made me sneak out of the house to the dance club when I was like 13. [Laughs]
It’s unfortunate, there aren’t a lot of underage dance clubs anymore that kids can sneak out to. We love playing all-ages shows but it’s really hard to find those venues. We really want to reach those kids and, in order to do that, we need to keep it fresh and, in order to do that, we can’t make music that they can’t relate to. There’s like a huge age difference between us and the kids and I feel like we take our musical influences from before and make it more modern and have pop appeal, but without being so pop, Lady Gaga or whatever.
AE: Yeah, like not templated.
SF: Yeah, keep our integrity. We make music with intention.
AE: Yeah, it’s actually pretty interesting, when I interviewed Tami Hart of Making Friendz and Men, she told me she saw you in concert a few years back when she was a teenager growing up in a small town and she felt like your music saved her life.
SF: Oh wow! That’s awesome.
AE: Did you have any bands that made the same impact on you when you were just a 13-year-old sneaking out of the house?
SF: Yeah, definitely, I’d say those bands for me were like, Cocteu Twins and Bahaus, the Cure. Yeah, for sure, because when you’re a kid, it’s like that serious. You feel so alienated and freakish and that you don’t belong.
AE: Well, you said that you grew up in a Southern Baptist church — were you from the South originally?
SF: My family is from Mississippi but I was only there for a few years of my life when I was really small. Then we moved to Europe, we were in Italy for a few years and then back to the states and we lived in eastern Washington, where I grew up until I moved to New York in 2001.
Eastern Washington — it’s not the smallest town. It’s not like Iowa or anything but it’s pretty redneck but there was a lot going on and a lot of D.I.Y. stuff and punk shows. So, music was all — it was everything. It was my life. If it wasn’t for live shows and all-ages dance clubs I probably would’ve offed myself at an early age. [Laughs] I started going to punk shows when I was like twelve and would ride on my friend’s older brother’s shoulders and dancing around in the pit.
But, yeah, I can totally relate to music saving people’s lives. Lyrically, I try to keep things open so that people can see themselves in the music or the songs and relate to them, because that’s how I felt. The music that I grew up listening to that I really appreciated, it was like they were talking straight to me. They carried me through many dark teenage periods when I felt like a freak and didn’t fit in to any of the societal norms.
AE: At what point did you come out?
SF: I think it just happened. I think I was actually outed last year in Portland, Oregon through a magazine. After we did an art special that happens every summer in Oregon — I can’t remember what it’s called. There was a magazine, a gay magazine, that outed me. I mean, I’ve always done performance art and stuff, but I guess I never really thought about it.
AE: Well I guess that kind of answers the next question I was going to ask: So now I’d assume the answer is “not much,” but how much of your queerness do you feel is part of your music?
SF: When we first started performing we were playing like art galleries and gay parties. I think maybe one of the first times we played at Glasslands was for this party thrown by this woman, Anna Calabrese, and it was called Secret Faggot, so I guess the outting happened much sooner than what I just told you but it wasn’t anything we ever thought about. Like, we never said, “Oh we’re a gay band,” but obviously we are because both of us in it are gay. And we collaborate with other gay artists on a regular basis. We’re not afraid of the label but we don’t label ourselves as a queer band.
AE: No, that makes sense. There’s a gay band and there’s a gay, comma, band. I feel like it differs from band to band a lot. Like, queercore for example. If you take that as a genre, then that’s what they really want to be known for.
SF: Yeah, but it’s like — we don’t want to alienate anybody. We don’t want anyone to think they can’t listen to our music because it’s only music for queers. Not that there’s anything wrong with it. It’s like you said, we have a much broader appeal. We don’t want to be stereotyped or be put into one genre that you know, people make up and it lasts for like 15 minutes and then you’ve got another label. We have a much more expansive vision. If it helps queer kids to fight and survive then I think they’ll claim it for their own, they don’t have to label it. Like, Lady Gaga, she just like totally [went after] the gay male audience [to get their love and attention], but it’s not genuine, she’s just trying to sell records, you know what I mean?
AE: Um, yes, I do know what you mean.
SF: She just uses them and they allow it, but we would never. I mean, even though there’s a gay man in our group, you know, we don’t, like, pander to the community.
AE: Well, right ,and really it should just be all about the music.
SF: For us it is.
AE: Right, and with Gaga, it’s so templated. I mean, even though she considers herself so avant garde and so different, it’s like, all that stuff has been done before, and we get it already.
SF: Right! We don’t have a formula, and we like it that way.
AE: And I think it works well and it leaves room for more creativity.
SF: It’s time for music I think, and artists, to rewrite the game. We want to be on the forefront of helping that happen so we can kick the door wide open for new young artists to shape and renew the industry. It’s past due. Especially for queer kids. I don’t know if I sound contradictory, but I don’t think they want to be known as queer artists, if they’re true artists, they just want to be known as artists and be free to create. And also support other queer artists, let’s make a safer place for them. I think that’s already starting and I’m really excited about it. There’s a lot of queer artists making s–t happen right now and they’re having great turnouts. Like Scissor Sisters and Fischerspooner before them.
AE: Yeah and like Tegan and Sara. It’s exciting to see bands not being called “cross-over” artists anymore because they’re not crossing over from anything, they just so happen to be gay but they’re making whatever kind of music, but they’re labeled “gay band” before anything else.
Now, you’ve toured with !!!, who I’ve seen in concert and it ended up probably being the concert I got sweatiest at, maybe ever, from dancing around. What is a Light Asylum show like? I’d imagine there is dancing but not the same kind.
SF: I’d say it’s pretty intense and we bring a lot of emotion to the stage. It’s a really good balance, like Bruno, is like a pillar just holding it down and I’m kind of all over the place.
AE: Ah yes, a yin and a yang.
SF: It’s a burst of energy, I get ecstatic all over the place. I think people really like that about our shows. Like when you think of a two piece electronic group you don’t normally see a lot happen onstage. There’s usually a laptop or two and not that much going on. I think people really dig our shows because there’s a lot of energy coming off the stage. We like to take people places and tell them a story and have them traveling by the end of the show. We get great responses — they cry, they dance. I think they’re elated by the end of the show.
AE: Pride month just ended here in the states — how did you celebrate it?
SF: In New York, doing something really gay. And we just want to wish everybody a very happy post-gay day and keep on celebrating.
You can currently purchase Light Asylum’s EP In Tension on iTunes and stream their music on the band’s website.
