Glen Parks

Glen Parks has a natural honesty many artists are not able to express, especially while blending multiple sounds and energies. Track to track, synth and indie rock elements switch on and off and sometime entangle, but this LA-based artist has perfected the blend of genres with finesse. As a solo project, the work holds an organic luminescent vulnerability, edging heartache and yet the live performance adding theatrical presence, both contained neatly, which has found this electropop extraordinaire a perfect candidate for festivals like DTLA PROUD, Olympia, Seattle and SF Pride.

Maintaining this solo project for almost a decade, Glen Parks was named after an actual plot in the artist’s hometown of Encinitas, CA. The stage persona was invented due to the anxiety stripped-down performance stirred. Costumery initiated a safety blanket, later developing into an attachment much more profound. “I play with ideas, styles and personalities that I wish I was until I’m confident enough to become them,” the artist explains. “Over the past two years, sometimes I feel more like Glen than Amanda. I actually go by Glen Parks when I introduce myself a lot these days.”

An imaginative childhood and undergrad at CalArts, creating soft sculptures and assemblage art installations, further informed the construction of this persona. “I’ve been playing dress up, both on and off stage, for as long as I can remember. I used to save parts of my Halloween costumes as a kid and wear them to school, tails and bells and such,” they laugh. “I think the act of decorating myself and my spaces helps me feel safe. I’m hidden but still there. I’m afraid of talking so I think I like to decorate... there are other things to talk about then my actual self/feelings.”

Welcomed into LA’s queer spaces (Queer as Punk, Exposure, Gay Guts) and touring with drag punk Pussy Tuesday has furthered an education in aesthetic: “I learned a lot that tour, like how to put on fake eyelashes and set makeup and hair. It was like beauty pageant training.” The persona has been a test of how feminine the artist can be while maintaining a sense of safety and yet freedom in their physical body.

“She lets me wear mesh shirts with my tits out and fringe down to my ankles in heels with studs while most of my day clothes are flannels, pants and flat docs,” the artist says of the altering wardrobe. “Amanda and Glen have separate closets.” The record artwork features playful femme photography and design, a collaboration between WUSSY’s Savana Ogburn and LA-based Iris Ray.

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“Soft Brown Heart” is one of many catchy dirges on Glen Parks’ upcoming full length, Will You Wish For Others, though its emotive eloquence and sugary slick veneer is a perfect example of symmetrical energy. An equal tame of bitter and sweet, “Soft Brown Heart” allows endearment yet never wiles too wildly into emo extremes of confessionalism. Easy on the ears and just enough stirring of feels, Glen Parks’ poppy disenchantment becomes elevated by electronics and their earthy vocals (well worth a gander for fans of Kristin Hersh or Stevie Nicks).

The new single is a break-up song, but one that examines grappling with one’s inner contradictory emotions more than the projection of the relationship that soured. “‘Soft Brown Heart’ literally means a heart made out of shit,” Glen Parks laughs. “I was in a long and toxic relationship and found out that I had been cheated on and lied to for months. Afterwards, I stayed in this weird place of wanting to be with them while having so much hate and then hating that I still wanted them.”

As a queer-identified individual (though sometimes using “gay” and “lesbian” to describe themself), Glen Parks’ writing in itself respects the amorphous nature of both emotions and gender: “I try in my writing to steer away from pronouns. The genders and identities of lovers, friends and people have varied throughout my life and it’s helpful for me to keep them neutral in my songs; the meanings of the songs can forever be changing.”

Now happily coupled with their girlfriend, dog and routine breakfasts, switching long stretches of homebodying, tea and recipe experimentation and others of drag shows, thrifting, parties and pool tables, Glen Parks works freelance, carving time for the writing process. Songs realize on piano or guitar, lyrics and timing loom into pop tuning, and melodies explore where they can go, structured through Ableton at last. The distinctive leaning on vocal harmonies contributes to the musical ambience, never bogged into vacant complacency. Producer Zach Schwartz a.k.a. DJ LMNOP worked alongside the artist on the excellent upcoming debut album, a collaboration made with ease, and recently two favorite queens were added to the live set: Joey Flamboyant on drums and Vicky Jean Mochi on bass. “Soft Brown Heart” is a small but fulfilling taste of what’s to come. - Wussy Magazine

Glen Parks is here to give you a show.

The up-and-coming queer electro-pop musician in Los Angeles has been performing under this name for the past eight years, but she recently decided to fully devote herself to the project and started collaborating with electronic artist Zach Schwartz in 2016.

Their music is dreamy, but also features pronounced and catchy rhythms. It’s electronic without being soulless. It’s somehow both sad and empowering at the same time. And all of these conflicting elements sometimes has Parks herself even admitting she never knows how to classify her own music.

The artist plans to release a full-length album by the end of the year, but in the meantime, here is the music video for the song ‘SHOW’ exclusively on INTO and Spotify.

It is the first of multiple singles that she plans to release over the course of the year. The ethereal video was filmed in the Los Angeles National Forest and features people riding stick horses and battling with rotten fruit.

We recently had time with the artist a few weeks ago to talk about her musical path and future.



Has being queer influenced what you put into your music?

I did try to make the lyrics all inclusive instead of using “he” and “she.” There’s no reference of gender in any of the lyrics. Actually, there’s one song that says “she,” but it’s not in relation to love. The costumes are also influenced by my love of drag queens.

Has drag culture always been an influence for you?

I have always loved drag. Recently I’ve been going to a lot more drag; our drag scene over here in East LA is so freaking inspiring. I did think about doing a tour where I just open up for drag shows, but I don’t think there’s a crazy market for bands opening for drag. Maybe I can start a trend.

Does dressing up make it more comfortable to perform, because you’re basically in disguise?

Yeah. I think so. When I’m just me by myself up there, it feels scary. When I’m me all dressed up, it feels a little safer.

Are you playing a character?

That’s something I’m trying to figure out. I do feel like Glen Parks is a character, but I think that she’s also in me. It’s like split personality disorder. She’s in there, and she comes out sometimes, but I don’t know if I know her personally.



In your last band, Ray & Remora, I seem to remember you having a music video that had Kim Gordon in it? Do you know her?

She was staying at my bandmate’s house, an Airbnb, and she oddly agreed to be in the music video. So I got to super awkwardly lip sync about a foot away from her face. I’ve run into her a few times since.

There was one time I saw her at this Eileen Myles reading, and we made eye contact, and we realized we knew each other. It was kind of awkward, because I thought we should hug since we knew each other and that’s what people do now, but it was kind of weird.

I ran into her again a week later at John Huck’s art opening, and we had the same interaction where we didn’t know what to do.

I’d like to ask you some more general questions about yourself, so here’s one: What’s the worst thing in the world?

There are so many things where I could be like, “That’s the worst!” To choose one reigning worst thing is hard. The true worst-est. But you know what I really don’t like? I hate when animals wake me up in the middle of the night.

Whether they’re mine or the dogs in the neighborhood barking, it truly irks me. I already have terrible insomnia, and then I finally get to sleep and the dogs start barking.

It’s funny, in my new costumes I keep dressing up like a vampire. I don’t really feel like I’m a vampire, but I literally only do things at night time, and then I don’t sleep, and I sleep during the day.

If you could punch one person, who would it be?

Who decided tampons weren’t free? I would fucking punch that person. That person should be punched by everyone.

Everyone can stand in a line and punch that person. - Into Magazine

Glen Parks is the nom de tune of singer-songwriter Amanda Walker. The name comes from a city park in Walker’s hometown of Encinitas, home to Swami’s Beach and spectacular sunsets, which may or may not have informed Glen Parks’ affecting dream-pop. Walker had begun writing a batch of songs under her the Glen Parks moniker a few years ago, before a chance encounter with Dan Crane led to the formation of the duo Ray & Remora. Their 2016 album “Startle It Up” remains one of the most lamentably underappreciated dream-pop albums in recent memory. (Their covers EP wasn’t bad, either.)

Although some of the Ray & Remora songs began as solo tunes, “Show” is the first Glen Parks song since 2014. The first single from her work with producer/DJ LMNOP (Zachary Schwartz), Walker’s heavenly voice glides over relentlessly stuttering synths, lamenting a “love that feels like gold” dissolving into a battle of wills. There’s a battle going on — and no small amount of symbolism — in director Lina Suh’s video for “Show” as well. It stars Acacia Fisher, Marlene Garcia-King, Eric and the songwriter herself. Watch as things escalate while “Show” swirls to a climax and then recedes to a wistful finish. - Buzzbands