Lead image by Jonathan April

For any die-hard electronic music fans out there, the antics of Glen Jamn (or @glenjamn3 on YouTube) might not come as much of a surprise for you. But for those who don’t know, this dude is literally Mr. AAA pass.

Strapped with a camera that we’re almost certain is glued to his hands, Glen attends almost every big festival, club-night, house party and everything in between, and documents what goes down. He has been doing this for nearly 10-years.

We caught up with the LA local to talk about his plethora of video logs that flood his YouTube channel, stacked with behind-the-scenes hangs and exclusive performances from a broad range of familiar faces the electronic music world has to offer, such as Skrillex, What So Not, Brodinski, RL Grime, Shlohmo and pretty much everyone else.

Stoney Roads: How long have you been doing this? What got you into it?

Glen: I can distinctly remember the moment it went down for me. Basically, I didn’t really pay attention to dance music at all (real talk) until I took my second pill of E at a little known music festival called Coachella in 2006. I basically followed my crew that I was with (S/O Cat, Roger, Nick, Chase) and followed them to the Sahara tent that night. They were like, “We have to see Daft Punk.” I was like, oh those dudes that made that anime cartoon soundtrack? (SO NAIVE I KNOW, but I’m being honest). Then I felt like an idiot having said something, and just went along. I was in the Sahara tent as the Audio Bullys played before Daft Punk went on and I was like, “yo, save my seat, I gotta puke” (being my 2nd pill of E ever. I don’t really do that stuff no more, but damn). So I remember vaguely going to the port-a-potty and holding myself up to just heave because shit was too hard for me in the Sahara tent during that Audio Bullys set.

Then, post puking, I made it back to my friends, then I took a swig of water, got refreshed, then Daft Punk started their set, and I was just like transfixed at something that felt like a surprise just for me. A bunch of robots playing the sickest shit ever with a visual show that was just fucking poetic. Like, I didn’t even know that pyramid had and LED screen til later. You can say that it was the perfect combo of drugs and music and visuals to basically get me to realize that I needed to try and grab as much footage of whatever this scene or whatever this was. So, then I after that day, I was like, I gotta chase this feeling and now it’s 2017… so like 11 years?

SR: Do you remember your first AAA festival pass? How was it? What went down?

G: OK, I also remember this vividly 😉 Around the time Daft Punk was in LA doing their ALIVE 2007 tour, I ran into Kavinsky who was opening the tour w/ SebastiAn at this bar in Echo Park called the Short Stop. I think we were both there because DJ AM was doing a surprise set (RIP to the best homie in the world) and I went up to him and asked him if he wanted to hit this joint I had and proceeded to talk to him and realize how much we got along even though I didn’t speak French. I didn’t do the whole fanboy shit because I’m born and raised in LA, land of vlogging wannabes and I know better… but yeah, me and Kavinsky kicked it for a bit later and was like, next time I’m in town, hit me up and I was like DOPE! So, yeah months later, Kavinsky was in town with the entire Ed Banger squad and he literally put me on a guestlist for the LA Weekly Detour festival that was going on in Downtown LA and told security I was with them and then I was onstage watching Justice do their Rock and Roll god shit in front of City Hall in downtown in like 2007. I mean, I had a shitty little camera and took some blurry photos and vids, but I was just down for the cause and I was glad that led to being homies with Busy P and all the rest of the crew because I was a fan, then a friend, which meant I wasn’t a fuckboy in their eyes.

SR: You’re onto your third YouTube channel. What exactly happened to the first two?

G: Hahah, welllllllll… I started going on Youtube when it first started, I think like 2005ish? I was all about sharing moments I got myself into and putting them up on a channel and having it somewhat timestamped as to when it happened because I would upload it right after it happened, ya feel me? Anyhow, once I got into wanting to jump onstage for DJs and shit (if I knew them or not, I was just like hey, whatsup?) and recording little moments of their sets and sticking them up on Youtube, I would get a bit more daring and try and sneak my cameras into festivals. So… basically, I got my first channel taken down on Youtube because I got slammed for sneaking into Kanye’s Glow In The Dark tour in April 2008 w/ my new Sanyo Xacti video camera (an upgrade to the shittier camera I had plus it had a sick zoom) anddd, a couple days later, I went to Coachella and tried to hold my arms steady as I filmed Prince singing a cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” in it’s entirety that same weekend… and lemme say, Youtube shut my ass down. I had just gotten my first Million views on Youtube and bam, Kanye’s people and Prince’s crew shut me down. I felt stunned when it happened, but I realized that I fucked up for approaching the unapproachable at the time with ninja footage… So, when I started “Glenjamn2” and “Glenjamn3” I created them as like the next “versions”. Now, there is a 3 strike system on Youtube and I work mostly with artists, labels, and festivals to not stop on anyone’s toes, but yeah I’m glad I’ve been doing this for so long that I have allies in the biz that will help me get strikes taken down because I hope to be seen as a “friend to the music community” as an archivist. But yeah, I WISH everything was on just one channel, but I was a sneaky little fool back then. I think I have like “Glenjamn4” and “Glenjamn5” registered too just in case lol.

SR: You have shared some amazing moments with big names in the electronic music world. But have you ever had any bad experiences?

G: Oh man, most of this journey has been fucking amazing. I have experienced the highest of the highs rolling with the best artists on the planet doing their thing. I do admit that my style of filming is more guerilla, but I do it as like “an uncle w/ the vid camera at the BBQ” except applying that friendly vibe to LIVE music… I dunno, I just liked doing it. Anyhow, to your question, YES. I have been choked out by security, been kicked off stage, had my cameras almost broken (knock on wood) because of that aforementioned guerilla/home video vibe of shooting. Sometimes, they don’t understand my style and they kick me off and stuff… but there are usually great resolutions to those knocks from security guards. Like, since I kept showing up to these same fests and shows with the same security guards, we realized we just got off on the wrong foot and now we high five each other at gigs because we are all humans that just get caught heated at moments. Same can be said with some Tour Managers for acts that they’re not familiar with my invasive filming schtick… but months, years later, we hug each other again because I’m a pretty nice guy if you get to know me. One TM that shall be unnamed for a big EDM thing dude (I try not to associate too much w/ that new glitzy EDM shit because ya know) tried to step up to me twice at two different occasions on some entitled shit and not having my invasive vibe… so I blew him kisses from the stage during the dude’s set. I’m sure the DJ was nice if we talked, but his TM was a dick.

SR: Out of all of your videos, what are some that you cherish the most or were the most fun to experience? 

1: THOMAS BANGALTER (1/2 DAFT PUNK UNMASKED AT
CINESPACE)

Pedro (Busy P) hit me up and said that it was his birthday that night at Cinespace and something special was gonna go down and maybe I should bring the camera… Well, SHIT WENT DOWN. Not only did all the Ed Banger all stars show up and do their thing, Thomas from Daft Punk came up all unassumingly at the end and just dropped some knowledge and said peace. There’s a vid out there of him also dropping “">” which he made w/ DJ Mehdi (RIP to the legend) standing right behind him. This was a moment in time that I felt was just for me. It was a three part video that I uploaded, but one of the parts got taken down because #PRINCE #RASPBERRYBERET 😉

2: KANYE ALL DAY CREWLOVE

This was a clip of when the Bromance dudes decided to throw an impromptu afterparty at Coachella in 2015. I mean, Louis and the Bromance crew brought out all our closest friends to DJ the function. I think Ryan Hemsworth, Skrillex, Brodinski, Guillaume Berg, Virgil Abloh all played that night plus whoever was around. Then, in the middle of Virgil’s set, a big dude in a hoodie gets up on stage and takes off his hood to the roar of a ton of kids. Kanye showed up and played “All Day” like 5 times over and over and crowd surfed and all that. I mayyyy have put it on private or unlisted or something but yeah it happened 😉

SR: Any visits to Australia on the cards in the near future? Who are some Aussie artists you have/would love to catch on camera?

G: Oh man, I would love to go to Australia. From shooting multiple festivals w/ a lot of Australians artists I’ve met over the years, I have made some amazing friendships w/ some of your people. I loved the old Modular crew (I think I took some photos for them in LA back in the day), Beni, Dangerous Dan, Nina Las Vegas, Anna Lunoe, Alison Wonderland, Bag Raiders, Generik, Wax Motif, Yolanda Be Cool, and a bunch of other Aussies.

I felt like I caught a bunch of some cool Aussies on camera in my collection of vids in the years, so I dunno who I would wanna film next. Funnily enough though, I went to get recorded on Alison Wonderland’s podcast radio show thing last week because she saw some crazy TBT photos I was posting on my instagram from the good old bloghouse days and we talked about that. Then I mentioned how I still have never been Down Undaaa and maybe hopefully I might get to roll thru with her for her Australia tour later this year? Who knows? I wanna see if Mad Max was a documentary or a fictional film 😉

SR: Where do you see yourself and your brand in five years time? What are your plans for the future?

G: Ahh man, that’s funny because I purposefully dedicated the last ten years to weirdly capture this music scene and a different perspective of it as a fan/friend/babysitter to a lot of these artists as they grew up in this scene. But yeah, I’m probably gonna slow down with the filming festivals and stuff after this year because I’m actually really trying to hunker down and work on either a documentary or a series utilizing all this footage and telling my perspective of it because I just chased the scene. Hopefully in 5 years you will have already seen it. I am gonna use my knowledge to hopefully consult other brands/labels/businesses on how to approach this music/lifestyle/fashion scene from a more honest perspective. As I start leaving the music festival scene vibe (I mean it would be weird to see me all old lurking behind teenager EDM djs ya feel me?) I am trying to focus on my other inspiration of this culture in the world of fashion. I have been working with a tradeshow based in Paris called MAN/WOMAN to help see a different side of fashion where I get to crack jokes and see the people behind brands. I’m also talking with Edison Chen right now to see if I can roll to his brand new INNERSECT experience in Shanghai linking fashion and music blah blah blah… but you get where I’m going. I’m just following my gut and it says to go check out that new world we live in where music and fashion are becoming one symbiotic organism. So I’m gonna try and see that from the inside as the “dude with camera at the BBQ.”

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You can find more from Glen on his official YouTube channel, which is copping brand new uploads almost every day. What are your favourite videos from Glenjamn’s deep catalogue?