Deadmau5

Deadmau5

deadmau5 (pronounced "dead mouse"; real name Joel Thomas Zimmerman) is a progressive house and electro house DJ 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, Get Scraped, was released in 2006, followed by others in the next few years. 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.

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.

He was nominated for a Grammy in 2009 for his remix of the track "The Longest Road" by Morgan Page featuring Lissie in the category of "Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical"

History

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". He was also named "Producer of 2007" by DJ magazine's 2007 Top 100 winner Armin van Buuren, and by runner up Tiësto. 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. (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). He also had a radio station dedicated to him in Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP portable gaming consoles, as well as the iPhone.

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.

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.. In 2009, he was nominated for Grammy Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical ("The Longest Road" (deadmau5 Remix) by Morgan Page featuring Lissie).

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"

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 played at Belsonic in Belfast, Northern Ireland on August 28, 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. He has performed on BBC Radio1 multiple times which include an Essential Mix set on August, 19 2008 and a shared set with Pete Tong live at the Warehouse Project in Manchester on October 11, 2008. He played back to back shows that were broadcast via BBC Radio1 live from Ibiza on August 31, 2009 and September 1, 2009. Deadmau5 was offered and accepted to play another set live on New Year's 2010 along with Justice, Eric Prydz, and Plump DJs.

Information on his album For Lack of a Better Name was posted on his official Myspace page.

“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”.

Deadmau5 performed at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada on February 19, 2010 during the live medal presentations in men’s luge doubles and biathlon (women’s 15-km individual and men’s 20-km individual). His track "Moar Ghosts N' Stuff" was aired on national TV throughout America when it was played over loudspeakers during Hannah Kearney's gold-medal run in women's moguls.

Controversies

Marcus Schossow

In December 2007, Marcus Schossow, Maor Levi and Dj Eco created a project named Deadrat6 as a joke on deadmau5, claiming his tracks sound alike. A similar faux project was also created under the name of Sinterklaa5..

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.

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...”

Zimmerman 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 don't consider my career to be about “being a DJ”. I don't have “DJ roots”. I never had any intention of becoming a DJ, and my conception of “DJ’s” in general from this standpoint has always been being forced into some nightclub when I would have rather stayed home, and watch some dude mash the “play / stop” button and occasionally move a pitch slider. Love it or hate it... that’s just been my conception of the traditional “DJ”. Mind you, I'm not a total fucking idiot, and I recognize talent when I see it... and there are many talented DJ’s out there for sure. In my eyes, those would be the individuals who utilize technology to deliver the music in ways that are both skilful and innovate, more-so 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."

DirtyCircuit

In 2008, an artist called DirtyCircuit claimed to have been threatened with legal action after using a sample called "LP_Faxing Berlin C_128bpm" that came bundled with FL Studio, and of which deadmau5 claimed copyright. The case caused a slight discomfort among the users of FL Studio, and some have pointed out potential inconsistencies in the EULA of the software.

Discography

Main article: deadmau5 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.

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

External links

• Official website
• Artist Site at Ultra Records