Deadmau5

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Deadmau5
Birth name	Joel Zimmerman
Also known as	Halcyon441
Born	January 5, 1981 (1981-01-05) (age 28) Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
Genre(s)	Progressive House, Electro House, Trance, Techno
Occupation(s)	DJ, Producer, Remixer
Years active	2005 - present
Label(s)	Mau5trap Recordings, SongBird, Play Records. Play Digital, WeWillDoo
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 instrument(s)
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"), whose real name is 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. He works alongside numerous other DJs and producers, such as Steve Duda under the BSOD alias. His 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.^[1]

Contents 1 History 2 Controversies 3 Discography 3.1 Albums 4 Recognitions 4.1 Awards 4.2 Nominations 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History

Joel Zimmerman was born in Niagara Falls, Ontario on January 5, 1981. In 2008, 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"^[2]

'Deadmau5', Zimmermans' DJ name comes from an incident where a mouse crawled into his computer. 'Dead Mouse' was too long for an IRC login name, so he abbreviated it to be the german spelling "Deadmau5"^[3]

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".^[4] He was also named "Producer of 2007" by DJ magazine's 2007 Top 100 winner Armin van Buuren,^[5] and by runner up Tiësto. ^[6] 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.^[7] In 2009 he also received the most awards, and won 1st place in both nominations, as well as becoming the "Greatest house DJ ever" two years in a row.

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.

Deadmau5 was recently confirmed by Festival Republic to be playing the Reading and Leeds festivals, in England this year. He will be headlining the Dance Arena.

Deadmau5 is also headlining the Dance Arena on Friday July 10th at Oxegen festival in Ireland.

[edit] Controversies

In December 2007, Marcus Schossow, Maor Levi and Dj Eco^[9] created a project named Deadrat6 as a joke on Deadmau5, claiming his tracks sound alike.^[10] A similar faux project was also created under the name of Sinterklaa5.^[11]. As a counter-move, Deadmau5 created a track under the artist name "Marcus Fatsow",^[12].

The rivalry between Deadmau5 and Schossow escalated at an event in April 2008 in Oslo, where, according to Marcus Schossow, Deadmau5 refused to play at a club if Marcus Schossow was going to play afterward. This led to Marcus Schossow being refused entry and made the night a Deadmau5 solo event.^[13]

In an October 2008 interview with the Irish Daily Star Deadmau5 was quoted as follows:

“It puts me to fucking sleep, to be quite honest; I don’t really see the technical merit in playing two songs at the same speed together and it bores me to fucking tears and hopefully, with all due respect to the DJ type that will fucking go the way of the dinosaur, I'd like them to dis-a-fucking-pear! It's so middle man, they’re like fucking lawyers! You need them, but they’re fucking cunts. God bless them, they’re my number one customer right, so I’m not gonna go dis every fucking DJ. But to say you become this massive, "up on a podium" performer by playing other peoples productions, at the same speed as someone else's productions and fading between the two of them, I don’t get it...”^[14]

Joel apologized for this comment on November 4, 2008. He explained that the interview was bad, and that it did not express his opinion about DJs correctly:

"let me start by admitting…. i did not grow up in the EDM scene. I dont [sic] consider my career to be about “being a DJ”. i dont [sic] have “DJ roots”. I never had any intention of becoming a DJ. and my conception of “DJ’s” [sic] in general from this standpoint has always been... being forced into some nightclub when i would have rather stayed home, and watch some dood mash the “play / stop” button and occaisionally [sic] move a pitch slider. Love it or hate it... that’s just been my conception of the traditional “dj”. Mind you, im [sic] not a total fucking idiot, and i recognize talent when i see it... and there are many talented DJ’s [sic] out there for sure. In my eyes, those would be the individuals who utilize technology to deliver the music in ways that are both skillful and innovate, moreso [sic] than my vision of the “play/stop/pitch” DJ. To me, the club is about “the party”... the people make the night... the DJ obviously needs to use that to his advantage, it’s give and take."^[15]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

• 2008: Random Album Title
• 2009 For Lack Of A Better Name

[edit] Recognitions

[edit] 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.

[edit] Nominations

• 2008 Dance Recording of the Year for "After Hours" with Melleefresh
• 2008 Beatport Music Awards Best Remix of 2007, won as Third Best Remics 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"

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Deadmau5 at MySpace
• Deadmau5 at Allmusic
• Deadmau5 at Last.fm
• Deadmau5 at Discogs
• Deadmau5 discography at MusicBrainz
• Bebo Profile
• Deadmau5 at TheDJList
• Deadmau5 - I Remember (Music Video @ Snooty LB)

Persondata
NAME	Zimmerman, Joel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Deadmau5
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Canadian DJ and record producer
DATE OF BIRTH	January 15, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH	Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH