No matter how you slice it, Toronto’s Joel Zimmerman has profoundly influenced today’s electronic dance music. Better known as Deadmau5, the 31-year-old producer of stadium-sized electro house and dubstep has become one of the world’s most popular dance music artists.
Deadmau5 sells out massive venues and appeals to audiences who, ultimately, don’t really care how his music is categorized. They want to fist pump, crowd surf and dance like everybody is watching, while soaking in Zimmerman’s banging tunes, ever-evolving LED mouse-head masks and eye-popping stage shows.
Just how popular is this producer, who began making far more experimental chip tunes and IDM as a teen? The biggest-selling artist on Beatport in 2008, Deadmau5 went on to win numerous awards, share stages with the likes of Tommy Lee and Rihanna, and crack Billboard’s Top 50 with his 2010 album 4 X 4 = 12. Heck, he even had Jan. 2, 2012, proclaimed Deadmau5 Day in Las Vegas
Deadmau5 is also nominated for three 2012 Grammy Awards, competing against the likes of Skrillex, Robyn, Cut/Copy, Duck Sauce and David Guetta in the categories of best dance recording, best dance/electronica album, and best remixed recording. And then there are his three 2012 Juno nods, in the categories of artist of the year, dance recording, and Juno fan choice. Not bad for a kid from Niagara Falls, Ont.
As a result of his fame and, occasionally, his attitude, Zimmerman gets hated on a lot. He can be a polarizing figure, with some involved in electronic dance music bothered by his limited sonic scope in Deadmau5 productions while others applaud him as an EDM ambassador. No matter. Zimmerman himself is an outspoken cheerleader of spreading EDM far and wide and shares this message frequently with those who matter most: Deadmau5 fans.
With a little under five million “likes” of his Facebook page, Zimmerman speaks directly to the masses and wears his heart on his sleeve while doing so. Thousands comment on every Deadmau5 post, whether Zimmerman talks about his live shows, pokes fun at repeated rumours of his own demise or shares photos of his beloved cat, Professor Meowingtons (who, incidentally, has nearly 90,000 Facebook “likes” of his own). Zimmerman is a social media master — highly personable, endlessly entertaining and not afraid to state opinions, even if they might be unpopular.
In late January, when word started to spread that TV impresario Simon Cowell (American Idol, X Factor) planned to produce a “superstar DJ” talent show, influential EDM types, including Ibiza’s Pacha club promoter Danny Whittle, were outraged. Zimmerman, while saying he hoped such a show would judge participants on merits such as originality in production and presentation, wrote a lengthy, generally supportive note on Facebook.
“This concept, if anything, is going to catapult the awareness of EDM through the roof,” he said. “Yup, our poor little coveted secret cool underground society will be thrown to the masses. Is this a bad thing? I don’t think so.”
It’s an attitude consistent with Zimmerman’s zeal in promoting EDM and his frequently espoused belief that the genre needs a constant influx of new ideas and talent to evolve. This thinking appears to be prompted by Deadmau5’s own mega-rise, in which he went from playing for an audience of 100 in Halifax (“All I had was a picnic table, a handful of my own productions, and an ugly ass mouse head that only cost me $500 to make.”) to now packing arenas with audiences and complex staging like his infamous Rubik’s Cube lighting.
“Funnily enough, the millions we put into that production didn’t come out of my ass,” Zimmerman wrote in the same note. “It came from years of touring, playing clubs, and having this vision with this whole mouse head thing. Fate just so happened to strap a rocket booster under my mousey ass and it literally took off to the moon. …
“So ask me if I’m against a kid standing in line with a brilliant idea and a worldwide audience. Nope.”