Born and raised in Ontario, Canada, Joel Zimmerman is a Progressive House/Minimal Trance and Techno Producer and DJ.The name Deadmau5 (pronounced dead mouse) comes from an incident where a mouse crawled into Joel Zimmerman's computer.Dead mouse was too long for a site login name so he abbreviated it to be "Deadmau5"
He first started his career as co-producer of the Niagara Falls radio show "The Party Revolution" (101.1 The Planet). After gaining exposure to all the many facets of electronic music, Joel then moved on to collaborate with many other artists and record labels in many studios throughout the globe.
'Deadmau5', Zimmermans' DJ name, comes from an incident where a mouse crawled into his computer and died. 'Dead Mouse' was too long for an IRC login name, so he abbreviated it to be the "leet speak" spelling "Deadmau5".
In 2005, deadmau5 released his first album, "Get Scraped." His latest album is "For Lack Of A Better Name," released in 2009.
Deadmau5 has collaborated with a number of artists, including Melleny Melodya, Steve Duda, and Orgy.
He has also done collaborations with top names such as Chris Lake and Glenn Morrison...
Awards/Nominations:
1) Deadmau5 was ranked #6 on the DJ Mag Top 100 DJ Poll 2009.
2) In 2009, he was nominated for Grammy Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical ("The Longest Road" (Deadmau5 Remix) by Morgan Page featuring Lissie)
3) In 2010, he won 3 awards from the international dance music awards.
4) He has been voted #1 DJ in the world by BeatPort.
From Wikipedia:Joel Thomas Zimmerman (born January 5, 1981), better known by his stage name Deadmau5 (stylized as deadmau5; pronounced "dead mouse"), is a Canadian progressive house and electro house producer based in Toronto, Ontario. His extensive discography includes tracks such as "Arguru" and "Not Exactly", which 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. On October 28, 2009, DJ Magazine announced the results of their annual Top 100 DJ Poll, placing Ultra Records artist deadmau5 at number six, a jump from number eleven the previous year.
As well as his own extensive solo back catalogue, deadmau5 is recognised for his work alongside numerous other DJs and producers, such as Kaskade, MC Flipside, Rob Swire of Pendulum, and Steve Duda under the BSOD alias.
He was nominated for a Grammy in 2009 for his remix of the track "The Longest Road" by Morgan Page featuring Lissie in the category of "Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical"
deadmau5 won a Juno Award in 2010 in the category of Dance Recording of the Year for the album For Lack of a Better Name.
He is known for often performing in a costume head depicting a comical "dead mouse".