- Techno/EDM producer/DJ born Joel Zimmerman in 1981, from Niagara Falls, Ontario Canada.
- His music career started after high school. He worked with an online music licensing company, and as a programmer. He began using computers to generate music.
- He adopted the name deadmau5 after using his computer in his early teens, only to have it shut down, with a smell of burnt electronics. Zimmerman found a dead mouse inside the computer, and his friends started calling him “the dead mouse guy.” The ‘mau5’ came from his shortened name in an online chat room – the chat room did not allow names more than 8 characters long. Professionally, he has used the moniker since 2002.
- Deadmau5 has released 8 studio albums. His first, Get Scraped, was released in 2005. His 3 most recent studio albums – Album Title Goes Here (2012), while(1<2) (2014), and W:/2016ALBUM/ (2016), all reached #1 on the US Dance/Electronic Albums chart, and Album Title Goes Here made it to #6 on the Billboard 200 chart.
- He also has released numerous compilations, EPs, and remixes. His biggest selling single is Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff (featuring Rob Swire) from 2008 – over 1 million copies were sold in the U.S., and the song reached #1 on the US Dance/Electronic Songs chart.
- Public appearances by deadmau5 include him wearing a giant cartoonish mouse mask. There is a similarity with Disney’s iconic Mickey Mouse, and in 2014, there were some legal wranglings between Disney and deadmau5 over the trademark. Apparently, all has been resolved.
- My interest in EDM music started with his 2 collaborations with fellow DJ Kaskade from 2008 – Move For Me and I Remember. I found them listening to music on a flight from Europe to home, randomly checking out the music channels on the airplane’s entertainment package for the flight. The earliest forms of electronic music always appealed to me – progressive stuff with synthesizers from the 70s like Emerson Lake & Palmer, Yes, and Rush, as well as purely synthesized music from artists like Walter Carlos and Synergy. After many years of neglecting this genre, I was ready to listen again – and deadmau5 was the re-entry for me.
- Check out this video of Strobe from an EDM festival in 2019. It will give you a perspective of the energy and the over-the-top visuals that occur at these shows.
I could listen to Deadmou5 all day long. My 11 year old daughter nailed it when she said “I don’t think most people know how great he is”.
I like how he got his name – cute story –
What happened with Disney and the mouse ?
Hi Jennifer, thanks for the comment. Disney asked the patent office to investigate deadmau5’s trademark registration. Then, when Disney used Ghost ‘n’ Stuff on a Mickey Mouse video on the Disney website, deadmau5 sent a takedown notice to them, saying that he had not authorized it, and that the use of his name falsely implied his endorsement. Disney said there was no merit to this, since they had properly licensed the song. deadmau5 also said that Disney has attempted to co-exist, since they asked him to collaborate with them on a Fantasia project. Anyway, by 2015, deadmau5’s attorney stated that everything was resolved amicably. I guess that means that he can still do the mouse thing!