SOLVED
@bdgregory thanks for the suggestion, I'll check out that forum for the future!
I could use the headphone jack, but going from a stereo headphone jack to a balanced input is clunky and you have to separate the L and R signals. That's not too bad, but I also just wanted to start learning about electronics and amps so I took on this project.
I actually figured out the issue, though. Apparently the + and - pins for an amp signal are different than simply using + and GND for the audio interface (same with a FOH sound board after testing). So I just made two different switched outputs, one for line out which is attached to + and GND (just on the amp frame) and one for an 8 ohm speaker out attached to + and -.