Glen Sobel is one of those rare people that was actually born and raised in Los Angeles. On his own web site SObel reveils:

"I was 11 when I first started playing in Junior High beginning band. Then I went on to marching band in High School. That's right, I was a band geek. Went to band camp and everything. Our Drumline was bad ass, winning city wide competitions with the marching band."

There's too many to list as early influences. A few would be drummers like John Bonham, Terry Bozzio, Dennis Chambers, Vinnie Colaiuta, Steve Smith, Lenny White, Billy Cobham, Buddy Rich.

Glen Sobel was a student of Gregg Bisonette's years ago so you could say he was not just an influence but a mentor. The same can be said about Chuck Silverman, another great mentor/teacher of Sobel.

Lately Glen Sobel has been listening to John Scofield "Up All Night" (w/ Adam Dietch), Meshuggah "Chaosphere" (w/ Tomas Haake), James Brown "Revolution of the Mind", Korn "Untouchables", Pantera "Reinventing the Steele" and
Luke Vibert "Drum n Bass for Papa".

Any advice Glen Sobel would give to aspiring drummers?

"Always keep an open mind. Expose yourself to as many musical situations as possible and don't limit yourself to being just a "rock" drummer or "funk" drummer. Try to do it all. Also, know when and when not to play. The spaces in between the notes are just as important as the notes themselves. Practice keeping good time with a metronome and always play from the heart.

Other interesting facts about Glen Sobel:
* Instructor at Los Angeles Music Academy (LAMA) 1996-present.

* Instructor at Percussion Institute of Technology (PIT) 1994-1996.

* Winner- Guitar Center National Drum Off Competition 1991.

* Ranked #5 in "Guiness World Records" competition for Drumometer, a device that counts how many single strokes are played in a minute.

* 2019: switches to Vater drumsticks