Joel Thomas Zimmerman (born January 5, 1981), better known by his stage name deadmau5 (pronounced "dead mouse"), is a Canadian progressive, electro, and house producer based in Toronto. His tracks 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.
As well as his own solo releases, deadmau5 has worked alongside other DJs and producers, such as Kaskade, MC Flipside, Rob Swire of Pendulum, Skrillex, and Steve Duda under the BSOD alias. He is known for often performing in a titular costume head, which resembles a mouse head that he originally created while learning to use a 3D program. The so-called "Mau5head" appears in many different colors and designs, and has been shown on the cover of every one of deadmau5's albums, with the exceptions of At Play and Vexillology.
Zimmerman was born in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Zimmerman's career began during the 1990s, his sound influenced greatly by the chiptune movement. In 2005, he released Project 56, a compilation of fifty-six demos. Among this EP is "Just Before 8bit", which was later expanded upon in Get Scraped. Get Scraped, released in 2006, features a variety of genres, including IDM, Ambient/Downtempo, Noise Pop and Trip Hop. Soon after, Zimmerman began his own record label, mau5trap, which, along with Ultra Records and Ministry of Sound, released the 2008 album Random Album Title. Random Album Title saw the collaboration of Deadmau5 and San-Francisco producer Kaskade with I Remember. His first mixed album, Random Album Title, was released electronically in September 2008 via Ultra Records in the United States and Ministry of Sound in the United Kingdom 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 No.1 on Billboard magazine's Hot Dance Airplay chart in its September 6, 2008 issue.
Since then, deadmau5 has seen three of his tracks, all collaborations ("Move for Me" and "I Remember" with Kaskade; "Ghosts N Stuff" with Rob Swire) reach number-one on Billboard's Hot Dance Airplay chart, making him the only Canadian on that chart to achieve that status (he is also the fourth Canadian to top that chart, following Deborah Cox, Nelly Furtado, and Dragonette, with one a piece).
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."
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.
In the fall of 2009, deadmau5's performances were recorded and made available for sale immediately following the concert on USB wristband flash drives.
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”. MTV named deadmau5as the house DJ for the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards and MTV PUSH artist of the week on August 16, 2010. He expressed gratitude towards Lady Gaga and David Guetta for bringing dance into the pop music scene and paving the way for the him to the mainstream. At the awards, deadmau5 performed with Jason Derulo and Travie McCoy. His song "Ghosts N Stuff" had been featured on the soundtrack for the MTV reality series Jersey Shore earlier.
His third studio album, titled 4x4=12, was released on December 6, 2010 in the United Kingdom and December 7, 2010 in the United States. The singles "Some Chords," "Animal Rights," and "Sofi Needs a Ladder" have been released and will feature on the album.