About Deadmau5
The name Deadmau5 is
attributed to an
incident in which a
mouse climbed into Joel
Zimmerman's computer and
died. The artist then
used the name Deadmau5
for his subsequent music
productions. There is no
doubt that Deadmau5's
number one passion was
computers and his first
steps into the music
industry involved
electro sounding tracks
made using his knowledge
of computers.
His first break came
when he contributed to
Methods of Mayhem, an
album by Tommy Lee in
1999 and the pair have
recently released two
tracks – Chicken and
Redic. During this time
he also took a job at a
radio station in Niagara
falls, his place of
birth, called the party
revolution and was known
as the technical
whiz-kid.
He tried relentlessly to
change the way music was
produced in order to
incorporate new
technology; yet nobody
was willing to take
advice on an unknown new
method.
His first release was
this is the hook and was
never intended as much
more than a joke. It was
released under the name
of B.S.O.D – blue screen
of death, a computer
term. This was an
unexpected success and
although it was meant to
satirise the predictable
nature of house music,
went on to gain the
number one spot on the
Beatport downloads list.
The big break occurred
when his track Faxing
Berlin was passed on to
Pete Tong who duly
played it on his BBC
radio 1 show. This
promotion helped make it
one of the most
influential records of
2007; many others tried
to imitate his new style
which amalgamated his
musical talent and
technical savoir-faire.
From here on the only
way was up and deadmau5
became the biggest
selling artist on
Beatport with over
30,000 downloads of
which Not Exactly and
Sex Lies proved to be
the most popular.
During 2008 he was
nominated twice at the
Juno awards and won one
for his track all you
ever want. He became the
highest new entry to the
DJ Mag top 100 poll,
placed at number 11, a
strong testament to his
incredibly rapid rise to
fame.
The Beatport awards were
his biggest success at
which he won “greatest
house DJ ever” for two
consecutive years,
whilst winning more
awards than any other
artist, including the
award for best
progressive house
artist. He has also been
nominated for a Grammy
award, even though he
didn't win it, for the
best remixed recording.
There was success in the
United states as well as
in the UK and he
achieved a billboard
number one with move
with me, a collaboration
with kaskade.
Deadmau5 has links to
many festivals and live
events: He draws large
crowds at the Reading,
Leeds and Creamfields
festivals in addition to
headlining at the Dance
arena in 2009.