Link to their website: http://glassbeach.band/
Description:
Glass Beach is an indie rock band with inspiration from all over the place and an energy that’s absolutely electric. They have several songs about the genderqueer experience, which come off as being very personal, as three out of the four members are nonbinary! They have only one album to date, accurately titled “the first glass beach album”, which was released just recently in 2019, and re-released in 2020.
Albums: “the first glass beach album” (2019), “Alchemist Rats Beg Bashful” (2021)
Singles: “1015” (2020), “running” (2020), “classic j dies and million streams on spotify” (2020), “beach life in death” (2021), and “welcome to the black parade” (2021, cover of song by My Chemical Romance)
Members:
- J McClendon: Glass Beach’s main vocalist, songwriter, producer, and mixing engineer, who also plays keyboard and guitar! They’ve been making music their whole life, and started recording it at age 13. They performed with several other bands and created several solo albums under the name “Casio Dad”. J’s is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns.
- William White: William is currently the drummer for Glass Beach, and also produces and plays a variation of other instruments for other music groups. William met Jonas, who would later be Glass Beach’s bassist, and moved to LA in 2016, where they moved in with Jonas and their roommate, and Jonas’s roommate, J. Together, they created Glass Beach, which would be William’s first time drumming for a band. William uses they/them pronouns.
- Jonas Newhouse: Jonas is the bassist for Glass Beach, and also works on theatre productions and streams tabletop RPG games on Twitch. Before being in Glass Beach, Jonas released several solo albums in their teenage years under the name Zed, and started the band 8-bit Johnson with William when they met them in college.
- Layne Smith: Layne plays several instruments for Glass Beach, after joining the band in 2020, a couple years after it was formed by J, Jonas, and William in 2016. Layne has worked with several other groups, being a pianist, bassist, and “pseudo-drummer”. Layne has a degree in audio engineering, and now does some freelance audio engineering, studio recording and mixing, post-production, and has created some solo music as well.
More information on them can be found on their website, linked above, please give it a look to
Notes
- J also has a solo album, all clumped into one video, posted on the Glass Beach YouTube, titled “jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj”. It consists of alot of little songs, mostly instrumental and chiptune, that J made by themself during the 2020 quarantine, just to keep them busy. The album definitely has that “losing my mind of boredom in 2020” kind of energy!
- This is my favorite band ever!! Their vibe is so funky and energetic and every song they have is such a banger!!! The lyrics is their songs are so impactful to me, and the way they use their music to sing about the transgender experience is so so cool and special!!!!! –Sylvie
