Deadmau5

Joel Thomas Zimmerman (born January 5, 1981), known professionally as deadmau5 (pronounced "dead-mouse"), is a Canadian electronic music producer and DJ.

He mainly produces progressive house and Electro 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 Kaskade, Wolfgang Gartner, Rob Swire, and Chris Lake.

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.

Zimmerman was born on January 5, 1981 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 a maximum character limitation.

Tracks "Bored of Canada", "Intelstat" and "I Forget" reappear on this album as is, as well as "The Oshawa Connection" from Deadmau5 Circa 1998–2002.

Three self-released compilations, Project 56, Deadmau5 Circa 1998–2002, and A Little Oblique, were finished in 2006, with Project 56 seeing an official release two years later.

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 in 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".

Zimmerman released his debut studio album, titled Get Scraped on July 26, 2005.

The tracks "Just Before 8bit", "Nice Try, Kiddo" and "Uploading and Downloading" from Project 56 were edited and expanded upon in Get Scraped under the names "8bit", "Try Again", and "Unspecial Effects", respectively.

In 2006, Zimmerman released his second studio album, Vexillology, on November 6, 2006, through Play Records.

Singles "Faxing Berlin" on October 25, 2006, and "Not Exactly" on August 27, 2007, were released prior to the album's release.

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.

In 2007, Zimmerman founded his own record label, Mau5trap, which, along with Ultra Records and Ministry of Sound, released the 2008 album Random Album Title, which saw the collaboration of Zimmerman and Chicago producer Kaskade with "I Remember".

Random Album Title, saw a digital release on September 2, 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.

Single "I Remember" (with Kaskade) was later released on September 15, 2008, before the album's release.

In the United States, Zimmerman's collaboration with Kaskade, "Move for Me", reached number one on Billboard magazine's Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart in its September 6, 2008, issue.

Since then, Zimmerman has seen two more tracks, also collaborations ("I Remember" with Kaskade and "Ghosts 'n' Stuff" with Rob Swire), reach number one on Billboard's Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart, making him the only Canadian to have three number-one tracks on that chart.

He is also the sixth Canadian to top that chart, following Deborah Cox, Nelly Furtado, Dragonette, Justin Bieber, and The Weeknd, each with one apiece.

On September 22, 2009, Ultra Records released his album For Lack of a Better Name in the United States, and October 5 internationally.

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, /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.