Remembering Daft Punk Through the Eyes of a Superfan
In February, Daft Punk announced they were splitting up after nearly three decades as a duo of electronic masterminds. Preaching the gospels of the galactic dance floor to the masses, the robots’ love of raving and rock defined their work over their many eras — all while remaining mysterious and masked. They released only four albums and went on official concert tours just twice, leading to them become mythical figures in a genre they inevitably helped define.
Their journey has best been encapsulated by videographer Glenjamn, who has happened to catch some of their biggest moments on camera. Glenjamn cites himself as a “historian," making it a mission to document raw concert footage to record their evolution, from a 2006 Coachella appearance to their final set of live appearances.
And he’s done so in such a way that he has an enormous cache of unique footage of Daft Punk — some in which one of its members has their mask off. These clips were recently minted an NFT and are available for purchase to give fans the behind-the-scenes Daft Punk experience that they so covet. Glen says that doing so for these raw videos is more for a statement than making any money. “I'm all about trying to get respect for the work," he says. "So I'm down to not really make any money off of it right now. I'm down to let it ride because I understand the value of things.”
Here’s Glenjamn on his selection of exclusive YouTube clips that make up his Daft Punk NFT series.
Daft Punk Coachella 2006 - First Five Minutes
"This is the video from 2006 that got me into wanting to film future moments in the electronic music space. This was also a pivotal moment in electronic music history. It’s an example of the tech limitations of trying to record a five-minute video with inferior digital camera technology at the time compared to now. It was shot in 480p and the audio was a bit choppy because of the limitations of my Kodak v570 camera."
Daft Punk LA Sports Arena 2007 - Around The World
"This was a very significant moment in my personal history as a music 'blogger' back then, I had to sneak in this camera into the concert because I remember there were a lot of security searches that went on back then."
DJ AM as Daft Punk - Hard Haunted Mansion 2008
"This video explains how DJ AM pulled off an amazing trick at Hard Haunted Mansion in 2008 by fooling the audience into believing that Daft Punk was actually playing. Remind you, DJ AM was also inspired by the robots during the Alive 2007 tour, and dressing up like Thomas Bangalter during Halloween was an amazing way to showcase his incredible mix of Daft Punk songs while fooling kids down below in the crowd. This may have also helped jump start the Daft Punk rumor mill of trying to predict when they would play next again in the future."
Daft Punk Unmasked Cinespace 2009
"This is Thomas Bangalter unmasked at Cinespace in Los Angeles. It was probably the apex of Bloghouse in the LA club space at the time. This video means so much to me, for the scene, and why so many people love this video now."
Pharrell Williams - Lose Yourself to Dance LIVE at Holy Ship - 2014
"This is Pharrell playing a Daft Punk song from Random Access Memories in the Bahamas in 2014 during Holy Ship — a month before Daft Punk would win Grammy Album of the Year for the LP. This video is a random 'Whoa' moment of one of Daft Punk's most famous collaborators playing to a crowd of ravers on a beach during the famed Holy Ship Electronic Music Cruise tours."
Daft Punk Popup Store Walkthrough
"I shot this on an iPhone from Maxfield's LA in 2017 during the legendary Daft Punk popup shop. This was another epic moment, as it was the most immersive Pop-up merchandise experience I had ever witnessed.
