Deadmau5

**Joel Thomas Zimmerman** (born January 5, 1981), known professionally as **Deadmau5** (stylized as **deadmau5**; pronounced "dead mouse"), is a Canadian electronic music producer, DJ, and musician. He mainly produces progressive house music, though he also produces and DJs other genres of electronic music, including techno under the alias **Testpilot**. Zimmerman has received six Grammy Award nominations for his work.

He has worked with other DJs and producers, such as Rob Swire, Wolfgang Gartner, Sofia Toufa, and Kaskade. He has also collaborated with Steve Duda under the group name BSOD (Better Sounding On Drugs), and was part of the group named WTF? with Duda, Tommy Lee and DJ Aero. In 2007, he founded his own record label, Mau5trap. Deadmau5 is currently one of the highest paid electronic music producers in the world, and is a masked music artist similar to Marshmello and Daft Punk. His works have been included in compilation albums such as Tiësto's *In Search of Sunrise 6: Ibiza*, and presented on Armin van Buuren's *A State of Trance* radio show.

In 2000, an early 12" single produced on vinyl titled "I Don't Want No Other" was released by Zimmerman and Derek Caesar, under the group name Dred and Karma. A 2006 compilation album titled *Deadmau5 Circa 1998–2002* was self-released under the alias Halcyon441. His debut studio album, *Get Scraped* was released in 2005, with follow-up *Vexillology* in 2006. His breakthrough, *Random Album Title*, was released in 2008 and was certified gold in Canada, and silver the United Kingdom. The album includes seminal release "Faxing Berlin", "Not Exactly", and moderate chart hit "I Remember" (with Kaskade). In 2009, his fourth studio album *For Lack of a Better Name* was released to critical acclaim, featuring Rob Swire collaboration "Ghosts 'n' Stuff", "Hi Friend", and the critically acclaimed "Strobe". His fifth studio album, *4×4=12*, released in late 2010, supported by singles "Some Chords", "Animal Rights", "Sofi Needs a Ladder", and "Raise Your Weapon".

In 2012, Zimmerman released singles "The Veldt" and "Professional Griefers" (featuring Gerard Way) to commercial success. These singles were featured on his sixth studio album, *Album Title Goes Here*. Following his departure from long-time label Ultra Records, Zimmerman released his seventh studio album, *While(1<2)*, through Astralwerks and Virgin EMI in 2014. The album's release was supported by its four singles; "Avaritia", "Seeya", "Infra Turbo Pigcart Racer", and "Phantoms Can't Hang". After a brief hiatus, Zimmerman's eighth studio album, *W:/2016Album/*, was released in late 2016, with singles "Snowcone" and "Let Go". He subsequently composed the score for the 2019 action film *Polar*, and released the singles "Satrn", "Coasted", "Fall" the same year. In 2020, "Pomegranate" and "Bridged by a Lightwave" were released ahead of his ninth album.

## Early life

Zimmerman was born in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. His mother, Nancy (née Johnson), is a visual artist, and his father, Rodney Thomas "Rod" Zimmerman, is a General Motors plant worker. He has two siblings, Jennifer (older) and Chris (younger). His ancestry includes German, Swiss, and English heritage. He received his first keyboard for Christmas when he was a teenager. His music career began in the late 1990s, with a chiptune and demoscene movements-influenced sound with the Impulse Tracker.
Zimmerman graduated from Westlane Secondary School in Niagara Falls. He then worked with an online music licensing company and as a programmer. He adopted the name Deadmau5, which referred to a dead mouse he found in his computer; the unique spelling was a result of character limitation.

## Discography

Main article: Deadmau5 discography
* *Get Scraped* (2005)
* *Vexillology* (2006)
* *Random Album Title* (2008)
* *For Lack of a Better Name* (2009)
* *4×4=12* (2010)
* *Album Title Goes Here* (2012)
* *While(1<2)* (2014)
* *W:/2016Album/* (2016)

## Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Deadmau5

## See also

Template:Portal

* List of ambient music artists

## External links

Template:Commons category

* Template:Official website
* Artist Site at Ultra Records

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Template:DJ Award for Best International DJ
Template:DJ Award for Best Electro DJ
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1. ↑ Template:Cite encyclopedia
2. ↑ Zack O'Malley Greenburg. Deadmau5 ($11.5 million) – In Photos: The World's Highest-Paid DJs. *Forbes*.
3. ↑ A Brief History of Masked DJs—From Orbital to Marshmello (November 29, 2016).
4. ↑ Hooper, Kurtis (14 January 2015). Unearthing First Ever Deadmau5 Tracks Pressed on Vinyl at Play de Record.
5. ↑ Listen to "Hiatus Fantasy" – The longest deadmau5 song ever released. *Dancing Astronaut* (October 22, 2016).
6. ↑ Template:Citation
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Liss, Sarah (November 1, 2011). How Deadmau5—a.k.a. DJ Joel Zimmerman—came to make $100,000 a show and have four million Facebook fans « Page 3 of 6. torontolife.com.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Genealogy Data. Start.ca.
9. ↑ Builder first to skate in Memorial Arena. *Niagara Falls Review*. nurun.com (January 28, 2010).
10. ↑ deadmau5 rejects his father and grandfather's a.... *Niagara Falls Review*. nurun.com (October 30, 2011).
11. ↑ Burns, Todd L. (September 30, 2008). Deadmau5: It's complicated. residentadvisor.net. “*I was in my Mom's basement tooling away on Impulse Tracker on a 386 just doing Nintendo music until some Loop Library company hired me as a producer.*”
12. ↑ Template:Cite news