Deadmau5

Deadmau5
Deadmau5 in his costume performing at Coachella 2008.
Background information
Birth name	Joel Zimmerman
Also known as	Halcyon441
Born	January 5, 1981 (1981-01-05) (age 28) Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
Origin	Knutteh
Genres	Progressive House, Electro House, Trance, Neo-trance, Techno, House
Occupations	DJ, Producer, Remixer
Years active	2005 - present
Labels	Mau5trap Recordings, Ultra Records, SongBird, Play Records. Play Digital, WeWillDoo, EMI Records, Ministry of Sound, Virgin Records
Associated acts	Chris Lake Kaskade Melleefresh Billy Newton-Davis BSOD (w/ Steve Duda) WTF? (w/ Tommy Lee, Steve Duda, DJ Aero)
Website	deadmau5.com myspace.com/deadmau5
Notable instruments
Nord Lead 2x, Moog Synth, Ableton, Allen & Heath Xone 3D, Allen & Heath Xone 4D, Lemur Input Device, FL Studio, Reason, Monome 256, Reaktor, Cubase, Kaossilator, Nuendo, Native Instruments Maschine

Deadmau5 (pronounced "Dead Mouse"; real name Joel Zimmerman) is a progressive house and electro house producer from Toronto, Canada. His extensive discography includes tracks such as "Arguru" and "Not Exactly", which have been included in compilation albums such as In Search of Sunrise 6: Ibiza, MixMag's Tech-Trance-Electro-Madness (mixed by Deadmau5 himself), and on Armin van Buuren's A State of Trance radio show. His debut album, Random Album Title, was released in 2008, with its follow-up compilation album of old and new songs, For Lack of a Better Name, in 2009. On October 28, 2009, DJ Magazine announced the results of their annual Top 100 DJ Poll, placing Ultra Records artist Deadmau5 at #6, a jump from #11 the previous year.^[1]

As well as his own extensive solo back catalogue, Deadmau5 is recognised for his work alongside numerous other DJs and producers, such as: Kaskade, MC Flipside, Rob Swire of Pendulum, and Steve Duda under the BSOD alias.

History

Joel Zimmerman was born in Niagara Falls, Ontario on January 5, 1981.

'Deadmau5', Zimmermans' DJ name, comes from an incident where a rat crawled into his computer and died. 'Dead Mouse' was too long for an IRC login name, so he abbreviated it to be the "leet speak" spelling "Deadmau5".^[2] During concerts, Zimmerman wears a trademark mouse helmet to go with his moniker. Comfortable with computers at an early age, Zimmerman started making music with trackers.

Before Joel hit to the top of the charts on Beatport in 2008, he explained to BBC 1's Pete Tong that, "I couldn't have done it without Melbourne's DJ Popeye. Liam's such a good bloke and his live shows really set a benchmark for what I wanted to achieve with my career... he's a real revolutionary within our music scene. I'd have to say he's probably my biggest influence"

Deadmau5 received two nominations for the Juno Award for Dance Recording of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2008 for a track with Billy Newton-Davis and Melleefresh. He did not win an award for Melleefresh's "After Hours" song, but he won the award for Newton-Davis' "All U Ever Want".^[3] He was also named "Producer of 2007" by DJ magazine's 2007 Top 100 winner Armin van Buuren,^[4] and by runner up Tiësto.^[5] In 2008, he placed number 11 in the DJ Mag Top 100 poll, tying Infected Mushroom (2006) for the highest new entry in the poll's history, showing Zimmerman's fast rise to prominence. On May 1, 2008, Deadmau5 became the most awarded DJ/producer of the Beatport Music Awards. He was named "Best Progressive House Artist" by Beatport.^[6] (In 2009, Beatport also awarded Deadmau5 the most awards that year, winning 1st place in both of his nominations, as well as being given the "Greatest House DJ Ever" award, two years in a row).

His debut album, Random Album Title, was released electronically in September 2008 via Ultra Records in the U.S. and Ministry of Sound in the UK and Europe. Physical copies of the album were released in November 2008.^[7]

In the United States, Deadmau5's collaboration with Kaskade, "Move for Me", reached number one on Billboard magazine's Hot Dance Airplay chart in its September 6, 2008 issue.^[8]. In 2009, he was nominated for Grammy Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical ("The Longest Road" (Deadmau5 Remix) by Morgan Page featuring Lissie).

His scene handle was used for a radio station in Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.

In 2009, he was the best-selling artist on Beatport with more than 30,000 digital downloads with his singles "Not Exactly," "Faxing Berlin," and "Ghosts N Stuff"^[9]

Deadmau5 headlined the Dance Arena on Friday July 10, 2009 at Oxegen festival in Ireland. He also headlined LovEvolution in San Francisco on October 3. He also played at Belsonic in Belfast, Northern Ireland on August 28 and at the Leeds, Reading and Creamfields festivals on August 29 and 30 in the Lock Up/Dance Tent/Mixmag stage, drawing a large crowd at each of the events.

New information on his most recent album For Lack of a Better Name was posted on his official Myspace page.^[10]

“On September 22, 2009 (U.S only, rest-of-world release October 5) deadmau5 launches his brand new mix album , the Grammy-nominated, Juno Award-winning electronic music sensation who has racked up more than 5,000,000 hits on MySpace will unleash his second album for ULTRA Records — titled 'For Lack of a Better Name' — and then set off on a massive fall tour throughout North America.

On 'For Lack of a Better Name', the follow-up to his critically acclaimed 2008 debut 'Random Album Title', deadmau5 takes a different turn by incorporating various styles of music into multi-blocks of songs. The album will include "Ghosts N' Stuff", featuring Pendulum's Rob Swire”.

On the 28th of October, 2009, DJ Mag released its list of the world's top 100 DJ's, as voted by the public. Deadmau5 climbed from #11 (2008) to #6.

Discography

Albums

• 2006 - Get Scraped
• 2006 - Vexillology
• 2007 - Full Circle
• 2008 - Random Album Title
• 2008 - At Play
• 2009 - It Sounds Like
• 2009 - For Lack of a Better Name
• 2009 - At Play 2

Recognitions

Awards

Juno Awards

• 2008 Dance Recording of the Year for "All U Ever Want" with Billy Newton-Davis.
• 2009 Dance Recording of the Year for "Random Album Title"

Beatport Music Awards

• 2008 Best Electro House Artist.
• 2008 Best Progressive House Artist.
• 2008 Best single for "Not Exactly".
• 2008 Best remix, 3rd place for Burufunk vs. Carbon Community - "Community Funk" (Deadmau5 Remix).
• 2009 Best Electro House Artist.
• 2009 Best Progressive House Artist.

DJmag.com Top 100 DJs Poll

• 2008 Highest new entry, voted 11th best DJ.
• 2009 Voted 6th best DJ. (up 5)

Nominations

• 2008 Dance Recording of the Year for "After Hours" with Melleefresh
• 2008 Beatport Music Awards Best Remix of 2007, won as Third Best Remixs 2007 for Burufunk and Carbon Community's "Community Funk" (Deadmau5 Remix).
• 2009 Grammy Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical ("The Longest Road" (Deadmau5 Remix) by Morgan Page featuring Lissie)
• 2009 Juno Dance Recording of the Year for "Move For Me" with Kaskade
• 2009 Juno Dance Recording of the Year for "Random Album Title"

References

External links

• Official website
• Artist Site at Ultra Records