Who would have imagined that a person will gain inspiration for his stage name from an actual dead mouse? But that is exactly what DJ Deadmau5 did. He even famously wears a mouse head costume at his shows. Now, this does not take anything away from his versatility and creativity. Give him a turntable or put him in a recording studio and he will blow anyone’s mind.
Joel Thomas Zimmerman known as Deadmau5 is a renowned record producer, musician, electronic DJ, and composer from Canada. He has numerous studio albums and has been nominated for more than five Grammys so far. His tracks have also been included in a number of compilation albums such as 2007’s In Search of Sunrise 6: Ibiza.
Deadmau5 Wiki
Deadman5, whose real name is Joel Thomas Zimmerman was born as the second of three children. He was born in Ontario, Canada, on January 5, 1981, to Nancy, a visual artist, and Rodney, a plant worker at General Motors. His siblings include an older sister, Jennifer, and a younger brother, Chris.
Zimmerman attended Westlane Secondary School in Niagara Falls after which he got a job working as a programmer for online music licensing company. The name “deadmau5” came from a time in his early years when he found a dead mouse in the back of his computer. The event earned him the name “the dead mouse guy” which he later stylized to “deadmau5”.
Zimmerman’s debut project was titled Get Scraped and was released in July 2005. It had some reworked and original tracks from some of his individually released compilations. This included the 2006 projects, deadmau5 Circa 1998-2002, A Little Oblique, and Project 56, the latter of which was released in 2008.
Vexillology, his second album, was released under his new label, Play Records in November 2006. Zimmerman released his third album, Random Album Title, under his own record label “mau5trap” in 2008. He partnered with Ultra Records and the Ministry of Sound to release the album digitally in the U.S. and in the Europe and UK respectively. The album included a collaboration with Chicago producer, Kaskade, on two tracks, I Remember and Move For Me. Along with a third single, Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff, from his next album, those two collaborations hit number one on the Billboard’s Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart. He became the only Canadian to achieve the feat, and only the sixth Canadian to top that chart.
His fourth album Lack of a Better Name became available in September 2009. He also recorded his tour performances for the album and made them available for purchase in the form of a USB wristband watch.
He was the in-house DJ for the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. During the ceremony, Zimmerman shared the stage with Jason Derulo and Travie McCoy. His hit single, Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff has been used as a soundtrack on Jersey Shore, the MTV reality series.
In December of 2010, he released his fifth album titled, 4×4=12 in the U.S and the UK a day apart. His single Some Chords from the album was used in an episode of the series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He also made a cameo on the show, while an instrumental version of his single Sofi Needs a Ladder, was used in The Hangover Part II.
His sixth project, Album Title Goes Here was released in August 2012. One of the singles Professional Griefers was named among FUSE TV’s “Top 40 Songs of 2012”. In 2013, he left Ultra Records and signed with Astralwerks, a label that was home to the likes of Chemical Brothers and David Guetta. Under this label, he released his seventh album while(1
In 2015, the DJ performed at numerous concerts and festivals. These included Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, in Manchester, Tennessee, and the Reading and Leeds Festivals. He also performed in eSports’ The International 5 (TI5) game tournament. He had just created a collection of sound clips for the video game Dota 2, from video game company Valve. In October, he left Astralwerks and went completely independent with his record label mau5trap, which he had launched in 2007.
On December 17, 2015, suffering from a bout of depression, Zimmerman deleted his Twitter and Facebook accounts. He reopened them four days later, tendering an apology and promising new music. From December 2016 to March 2017, he released his eighth album, W:/2016ALBUM/ digitally, and on CD and Vinyl.
Deadmau5 announced Stuff I Used to Do, a 16-track compilation of his works from 1998 – 2007 in early 2017. He officially released the project under his mau5trap label in March 2017.
Zimmerman boasts an envious portfolio of video games that feature his songs. They include Grand Theft Auto: China Town Wars, FIFA 13, Grand Theft Auto IV, Need for Speed; Most Wanted, The Sims 3, and a host of others. He has also appeared as a character in video games DJ Hero 2 and Goat Simulator.
Zimmerman has also found himself in some drawn-out legal squabbles. Most notably is his legal battle with The Walt Disney Company, claiming that his mau5trap head logo looked too similar to the iconic Mickey Mouse logo. Disney filed in 2014 against the DJ and both parties amicably resolved their dispute in June 2015.
Deadmau5 Dating, Girlfriend, Wife
Deadmau5 had a short-lived on and off relationship with TV personality and tattoo artist Kat Von D, starting in September 2012. Their romance reached the point where they got matching tattoos representing the date of the day they met and two black stars beneath their eyes. They announced their marriage date before they broke up for good in June 2013.
Subsequently, Zimmerman started dating Kelly “Grill” Fedoni. He asked her to marry him during a vacation in the Maldives, in 2016. Zimmerman finally tied the knot with Fedoni on August 12, 2017.
Deadmau5 Height, Net Worth
Deadmau5’s height is not imposing. In fact, some would argue that he stands below average height. He stands at just over 5 feet 7 inches (1.75m).
Deadmau5 has made good use of his opportunities within the industry and this has brought him critical acclaim and the net worth to go with it. He has had numerous album sales, singles movie and video game features and appearances, album tours, and DJ gigs. These have pulled him up exponentially on the list of the world’s richest DJs. According to celebrity net worth, Deadmau5’s net worth is $53 million.
