Joel Thomas Zimmerman born January 5, , known professionally as deadmau5 pronounced "dead-mouse" , is a Canadian electronic music producer and DJ. In , he founded his own record label, Mau5trap. Zimmerman is currently one of the highest-paid electronic music producers in the world.
Zimmerman first gained recognition for his breakthrough album Random Album Title , which was certified gold in Canada and silver in the United Kingdom. These singles were featured on his sixth studio album, Album Title Goes Here. He subsequently composed the score for the action film Polar , and released the singles "Satrn", "Coasted", "Fall" the same year. In , "Pomegranate" and " Bridged by a Lightwave " were released.
In , Zimmerman released a track under his Testpilot alias, subsequently releasing "some ep". He then worked with an online music licensing company and as a programmer. He adopted the name Deadmau5, which referred to a dead mouse he found in his computer; the unique spelling was a result of a maximum character limitation.
His early musical work was largely done in his mom's Niagara Falls basement. Zimmerman released his debut studio album, titled Get Scraped on July 26, Three self-released compilations, Project 56 , Deadmau5 Circa โ , and A Little Oblique , were finished in , with Project 56 seeing an official release two years later.
In , Zimmerman released his second studio album, Vexillology , on November 6, , through Play Records. In , Zimmerman founded his own record label, Mau5trap , which, along with Ultra Records and Ministry of Sound , released the album Random Album Title , which saw the collaboration of Zimmerman and Chicago producer Kaskade with " I Remember ".
