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Artist Spotlight
Glass Mansions

From the heart of Austin, Texas comes a band that doesn’t just flirt with synth-pop and alt-rock — they crash the party in glitter and gasoline. Glass Mansions is the duo of Jayna Doyle and Blake Arambula, whose infectious, high-gloss sound blends pulsing electronic textures with raw, emotional edge. Think Paramore meets Phantogram, but with their own Southern shadow and cinematic spark. With anthems built for both dance floors and dark nights alone, Glass Mansions craft music that’s equal parts glossy rebellion and intimate confession. We caught up with them to talk about songwriting, staying independent, and how their music keeps evolving without losing its soul. Pop on their music and read our interview with Jayna below. 

Tell us about the origins of Glass Mansions – how did you meet, where did the band start and where are you now?

Blake and I met at a dive bar in college, catching a mutual favorite local band. Our similar tastes in music lead us to discover we made a good writing team, writing more of what we wanted to hear in alt/pop music and ended up in two other bands together prior to this one. After touring pretty heavily with our previous band, we ultimately decided to scale down to doing things as a duo -- which ended up being Glass Mansions. Prior to the pandemic, we were playing 150-200 shows a year, opening regionally for bands like Young the Giant, Shiny Toy Guns, and Joywave to name a few and ended up hitting a ceiling in our hometown state of South Carolina. We had been widening our tours to route around SXSW and fell in love with the hustle and energy of Austin, TX and in 2021 took the leap to move here to do music full time. We've had to start from scratch in proving ourselves here in ATX, but have already been able to share the stage with Phantogram, Robert Delong, Beach Fossils, Die Spitz, Urban Heat and play as an SXSW Official Artist the past three years.

Your music blends modern and '90s pop influences. How has your sound evolved over the years, and what moments have influenced and inspired this progression?

When we first started this band, we were heavily influenced by a combo of 90s dance music and indie sleaze artists like Metric, YeahYeahYeahs, The Sounds, Sleigh Bells. I think now more than ever we realize there are no rules in songwriting and we used to really trap ourselves with trying to make sure we wrote in a way that would best fit into a digestible box of a particular genre. The beautiful thing about Austin is that there is genuinely good, live music to be found 24/7 -- and I think what's influenced us most as of late is simply chasing authenticity in our sound and our lyrics and the message and intention behind them. In the past two years, I've experienced profound moments of seeing Nine Inch Nails play during a lightning storm at Red Rocks, seeing Yeah Yeah Yeahs live for the first time (finally), seeing new bands beaming with gratitude on stage at ACL Fest after it being a lifelong dream to play there, front row for Porter Robinson at a warehouse rave, and SO. MANY. LOCAL. SHOWS. What's inspired us the most, however, is the community here in Austin - the friendly nudge to just write, record, release and play whatever the f*** we want because life is too short to not make the damn art. I think you can hear that in our new music and see it in our live shows.

Your song Nearsighted explores themes of yearning and emotional purgatory. Can you discuss the personal experiences that have inspired such introspective lyrics?

Ooh, great question! This is something that has actually taken me a lifetime to understand and something I've finally been able to wrap my head around in therapy over the past few years. I experienced severe emotional abuse and emotional neglect in my childhood, most of which I thought was normal until recently. I've always been the kind of person to yearn for something bigger, always dreamed big and from childhood to college to being in a band to touring to getting in front of industry people – I've always been met with compression. It's partially a toxic Southern subculture, but it's Tall Poppy Syndrome through and through. When I think back on moments of what I personally recognized as "success" or moments I've been really proud of myself as an artist, I was met with criticism, downplaying, judgement, shame, silence... from my family and 'community’. It can be very confusing for an artist when in your gut you're so excited about your art and yet everyone around you, including previous band mates, project their doubts about themselves onto you. I've spent the majority of my life as an artist in an emotional prison, cautiously taking a step forward, hoping to be seen and then taking a step back to avoid the fuss it may attract. "NEARSIGHTED" was written right before we moved to Austin, when I was at my peak of desperation to escape from that emotional hell I'd kept reliving due triggers all around me I couldn't recognize for what they were at the time. I was quite literally too close to my situation to see it for what it was, just like with nearsighted vision and was barely surviving a depression that felt like a purgatory I'd be in forever if I couldn't find my creative autonomy. I finally did find it when I took the risk to bet on myself and move across the country to lean into my art and myself.

Your live shows are described as raw, passionate, and immersive experiences filled with fog and confetti. I was lucky enough to catch your set at Elysium during SXSW in March and was impressed with the energy you deliver. How do you conceptualize your stage performances to create such a distinctive atmosphere? What’s your ritual before performing?

Thank you and thanks for catching our set!! Lighting is very important to us and is a huge, intentional part of our live show. My bandmate Blake also works as a DJ and is constantly updating his lighting gear for those gigs, and the perk is that we get to try out and share those rigs for our live shows (we primarily use ApeLabs tubes). I have color/sound synesthesia and to help me feel our songs during the set, I program all the lighting to correspond in color to how I "see" and experience each of our songs individually, too. As far as a pre-show ritual, I like to burn incense and visualize how I want the show to go and focus on a specific message I'd like to deliver with that particular show itself.

In your journey as a DIY band, what challenges have you faced in the music industry, and how have they shaped your approach to your career? Do you feel that taking such a hands-on approach has helped you grow?

We've always been a DIY band, no manager, no booking agent, no PR, etc. We learned how to wear all the hats and do everything ourselves early on so that if and when the time came, we'd know what to expect from anyone fulfilling those roles for us. The downside of this, we work really hard and it's sometimes perceived as if we already have an entire team behind us – when it's just the two of us doing it all. I think a lot about how much more we could be doing with the right advocates on our team. I dream about having a tough manager that brings out the very best artist in me. It is rewarding to know we've done it all on our own, but it is bittersweet to think about what else we could have done. It's definitely helped us grow as business-minded people, but I still really hope to be able to just focus on the creative side of things one day.

 

As a duo, how do you navigate the creative process together? Are there specific roles each of you take on during songwriting and production?

In the past, Blake sends me ideas he's been working on – a beat loop, chord progression, sometimes a fully composed song – and then I'll sift through to find what speaks to me to write the topline and lyrics for. I'll edit and reshape his idea until we get it to a point to make the actual demo. There's also been a few strange incidents where I've dreamed up song ideas and came to Blake with a full song finished. We wrote A LOT during covid, and I got even more involved in the production side of things because I had the time to learn more about production in general. I spend a lot of time on the road now, touring with another band I work for, so Blake is sending me ideas on the road and hitting the studio while I'm out, so that I'm able to track vocals once I get back in town. I've been getting more and more familiar with Logic on my own and taking a stab at writing more from scratch on my own, too.

You’ve performed at a number of festivals like SXSW, Warped Tour, and Canadian Music Week. How do these large-scale events compare to more intimate venue performances in terms of audience connection and energy? Do you prefer playing on these bigger stages or the intimacy of a club show?

I think the opportunity to play these bigger festivals has helped us rise to the occasion performance-wise. I've always felt we deliver our best shows at bigger shows because it's more invigorating than intimidating and something happens to me as a front person where I can really feel the freedom to step into my role. But with that said, I do really love a small, intimate dive bar show. I've had the most magical moments of my life spent in 100 cap rooms seeing a band I love, having the time of my life with friends and making memories no one would ever believe. I want to create that for people and make sure that our smaller shows are very self-aware... it's not just us playing AT people, it's us and everyone in the room connecting and sharing this intimate moment of how everything connected us all to be there at that exact moment. I want to take that small club connection and feeling to the stage at ACL Fest.

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Your song STANDING O addresses themes of empowerment and resistance against oppression. How do you see your role as an artist in advocating for social issues?

I wrote "Standing O" as an anthem to fight back against the oppression that is threatening women's rights, the trans community's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, BIPOC rights… I've been VERY vocal throughout these times, advocating, actively protesting, being an activist as much as I can while still avoiding burnout from the repeatedly absurd and infuriating path our current administration continues to forge. We can't stay silent or complicit, we have to continue advocating and calling our representatives and being LOUD with our rage to pursue justice and freedom for everyone. I see myself continuing to not accept this current administration, continuing to share resources on social media, continuing to raise awareness from my tiny DIY band platform, volunteering my time and our band's time for any efforts or benefits in raising money for causes, charities, nonprofits, rallies, etc that help continue in the fight for the social issues I'm passionate about.

Jayna, you've mentioned experiencing synaesthesia. How does this sensory interplay influence your songwriting and the visual components of your music videos?

I mentioned that my synaesthesia does influence our lighting in our live show directly but it does also affect the songwriting process and our music videos. "Nearsighted" and "Standing O" both feel very red to me, with "Standing O" having undertones of silver and blue. Red is a reoccurring color throughout both music videos and the text used for both. When it comes to songwriting, (this is going to sound crazy) I try to write within monochromatic colors that correspond with the overall color that I feel for that particular song I am working on. For instance, if while writing "Nearsighted" (RED), Blake wanted to introduce an instrumentation that felt more GREEN it would be very jarring for me and I would try to reshape it in a way that at least felt more in the family of red (orange, coral) so that I felt like it fit better. This sounds silly, but it's the same sensation as being uncomfortable in your clothes or the Feng shui being off in your house – I follow this as an intuitive guidance in shaping my songwriting. I can tell you the songs I'm most proud of all feel like a shimmery copper and that's the color I'm always chasing when I approach a song, hoping it turns out that way.

After being given the Denon PerL Pros to try, did you find that the personalized sound profile changed how you heard your own tracks or longtime favorites? We'd love to hear what the first song you listened to was, and what that first listen was like.

Blake's gotten to try them out first and I'm jealous. This is what he had to say, “Once the app tuned the headphones to my ears, I was hearing things I’ve never heard before in full clarity. Even listening to our own music, I was surprised and had a moment of “wait did we actually record that part there?” 

With our own music, it’s incredible. Using the PerL Pros should be how everyone experiences our music from now on. You’ll feel like you’re front row at our next show. The first track I had to listen to is a personal favorite of mine - “Language” by Porter Robinson. I remember in 2014 when “Worlds” came out and I heard “Language” for the first time – I was resolved to experience it live. Once I did, that live experience stuck with me forever. When I set the immersion to high and closed my eyes, I was right back there in the live experience again.”


Looking ahead, are there any new musical directions or collaborations you're eager to explore that fans might be surprised by?

We're living in a creative playland here in Austin now, so who knows what the future may hold for us collaboratively writing-wise. I am REALLY excited about the creative collaborations we have been working on lately in the world of music videos and the killer new visuals we are getting ready to put out with our new single next month. We just shot our most ambitious music video to date and the edit is something we are immensely proud of. Some of the most talented people we've ever met have been involved on this one and it makes us really curious and eager to collaborate even more within our community. I've gotten quite a few songs I've written with a particular local artist in mind to guest on so we are working on that as well. We've never really collaborated in the studio with anyone guesting on a song or co-writing with us so I think our fans would be really surprised and interested to see that from us, too.


Finally, what is next for Glass Mansions?

Our new single, "VIOLET" is coming out next month! This one has been a long time coming and not a song we were originally going to even record until it became an accidental crowd favorite at our shows. Very excited to get that one and the insane music video for it out into the world. We're also sitting on another release that will come later in the year that is without a doubt my most favorite song I've ever written, so I'm extremely excited to have everyone finally hear it as well. We're going back into the studio, continuing to write and continuing to release our music in a way that feels authentic to us. We're excited to see where the next chapter takes us, and letting our music lead for once.

 

You can find Glass Mansions on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

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