Los Angeles-based but Canadian-born Joel Zimmerman’s stage-name Deadmau5 comes from an online screen name he began using after finding an actual dead mouse in his computer. Deadmau5 released his debut album Get Scraped in 2005.
Over the course of the next two years he released a number of singles and compilations before launching a record label called mau5trap, which has gone on to put out releases by some of the biggest name in EDM. Working in conjunction with Ministry of Sound and Ultra Records, the label went on to release the 2008 album Random Album Title, which involved a collaboration between Deadmau5 and the widely-acclaimed producer Kaskade on the track “I Remember”.
Deadmau5 and Kaskade went on to collaborate on three tracks that would achieve No. 1 on the Billboard Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart, making Deadmau5 one of only five Canadians to ever top the chart, and the only to do it three times. In 2010, Deadmau5 was chosen to serve as house DJ for the MTV Video Music Awards, and was selected as an MTV PUSH Artist of the Week. He is a playable avatar on the hit video game DJ Hero 2, and his music appears in games such as Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, Need For Speed: Most Wanted, FIFA 13, the Sims, and many more.
