There’s always that one musician who’s different from everyone else, who doesn’t play along to the ‘rules’ of society and who is not bothered at all, by what anyone else does. Our “Artist Of The Month” for March 2014 is one such expert in making his kind of sound, a serial troller and a nice guy who always keeps it real – be it his sick beats, coffee runs, or replies to #beliebers. Yes, it’s Progressive/Electro House producer Joel Zimmerman aka Deadmau5 from Toronto, Canada.
His music is interesting, and his name even more interesting. Young Joel was chatting with his friends online when suddenly his computer went off. There was a burning smell and when he started to dismantle his computer to see what happened, he found a dead mouse. This led to him being known as the dead mouse guy among his friends. He tried to use deadmouse as his chat name but it was too long, hence he used the leet ‘Deadmau5’.
Following some self-released compilations like Get Scrapped and Vexillogy, Joel started his own record label called “mau5trap” in 2007 and along with Ultra Records and Ministry of Sound released “Random Album Title”, which included one of his biggest releases till date “I Remember”, a collaboration with Kaskade that went on to be a massive success. It also included “Faxing Berlin” another highly rated track by the cat lover.
2009 saw the release of a compilation “It Sounds Like” and an album “For Lack of a Better Name”, featuring two of the greatest hits of his career, “Strobe”, and “Ghosts N Stuff” featuring Rob Swire, one half of Knife Party. It was an immensely successful album that saw his popularity grow leaps and bounds. It also paved the way for his next album “4×4=12” in 2010, which included hits like Raise Your Weapon, Sofi Needs a Ladder, Animal Rights and Some Chords.
Deadmau5 has also been in the news for his trolling, with some classic cases being him wearing Skrillex’s number on his T-Shirt to the Grammy’s and uploading a one minute track to take on Afrojack and his definition of ‘good’ music. He has also trolled Justin Bieber, Tiesto and Avicii recently. Some of his best friends from the industry are Zedd and Skrillex.
In 2012, Deadmau5 released another album “Album Title Goes Here” which included 13 tracks. The Veldt, Professional Griefers, and Telemiscommunications went on to become some of the popular tracks from this album. Deadmau5 also announced a new album set to release in 2014, featuring 2 discs and 25 tracks.
His tracks and albums often have random names, and he himself says, he names them just when they are about to be printed. He performs inside a revolving cube, and has a mouse head on for a majority of his performances, controlling the effects of the cube and his headgear himself. He also started an impromptu chat show called Coffee Run, where he uploaded a series of videos on his YouTube channel with a new guest in every episode. Guests included Zedd, Pharell and comedian Russell Peters. He also started a live interactive website in 2013 to interact with fans more closely.
With a brand new album and a world tour in 2014, Deadmau5 looks set to take his popularity to the next level.
Just 2 weeks to go for his India Tour, here is a teaser of what to expect from one of the biggest icons global electronic music scene has to offer, Deadmau5! Check out his set from ULTRA MUSIC FESTIVAL 2013, WEEKEND 2 below!
Artist Of The Month – March 2014: Deadmau5 (Live Set from Ultra Music Festival 2013, Weekend 2) by T.H.E – Music Encyclopedia on Mixcloud
Tracklist:
01. Deadmau5 – Superliminal [MAU5TRAP]
02. Deadmau5 – FML [ULTRA]
w/ Deadmau5 & Kaskade – I Remember (Acapella)
03. Basti Grub & Mike Trend – Motorschaden [RESOPAL]
w/ Deadmau5 – Untrust
04. Deadmau5 feat. Greta Svabo Bech – Raise Your Weapon [MAU5TRAP]
05. Deadmau5 – You Need A Ladder
06. Einmusik – Silk N’ Saw
07. Deadmau5 – Sometimes Things Get, Whatever
08. Deadmau5 – Cthulhu Sleeps [MAU5TRAP]
09. Deadmau5 – Some Chords [MAU5TRAP]
w/ Deadmau5 feat. Rob Swire – Ghosts N Stuff (Acapella) [ULTRA]
10. Deadmau5 feat. Gerard Way – Professional Griefers (Instrumental) [EMI]
11. Deadmau5 – Moar Ghosts N Stuff [ULTRA]
12. Deadmau5 feat. Rob Swire – Ghosts N Stuff [ULTRA]
13. Deadmau5 – Maths [MAU5TRAP]
14. Deadmau5 & Wolfgang Gartner – Channel 42 [MAU5TRAP]
15. Deadmau5 feat. Chris James – The Veldt [MAU5TRAP]
w/ Deadmau5 feat. Chris James – The Veldt (Tommy Trash Remix) [MAU5TRAP]
16. Deadmau5 – Strobe [VIRGIN]
– Shantanu Puro
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